The term
Batho Pele means
‘People First’. In this context, Batho Pele means putting other people first before considering your own needs/yourself.
How? By identifying small but important things that can immediately improve the quality of service you provide to your customer.
Batho Pele Principles:-
1. Consultation
We can only assume to know what our customers want. The only way we can find out for certain is by asking them. This can be done through surveys, questionnaires, meetings, suggestion boxes, izimbizo and by talking to our customers. It’s important to report back to customers so they know what to expect, and to our staff so they know what is expected from us.
2. Service Standards
Citizens should be told about the level and quality of the services they receive.
If possible they should be given an opportunity to choose the service they want.
The standards we set are the tools we can use to measure our performance, and therefore need to be realistic depending on available resources. We should also be able to measure these standards so that everyone can see if they are being met.
3. Access
There is much more involved when referring to access. It means making it easy for our customers to benefit from the services we provide. Easy access can be made possible by: -having wheelchair ramps, disabled parking bays, taking our services out to the community. Staff attitude may determine how approachable your component/directorate/department is.
4. Courtesy
We must be polite and friendly to our customers. Customers should be treated with respect and consideration. We must always be willing to assist. Telephone etiquette is vital. All our correspondence must be respectful.
5. Information
Citizens should be given full accurate information about the public services they are entitled to receive. Information is about reaching all our customers to make sure they are well informed about the services our department provides. This may be done in a number of ways-for example through newspapers, radio, posters and leaflets. It’s important to remember that different customers have different needs and they do not all speak the same language.
6. Openness and Transparency
We should be open about our day to day activities, how much our departments receive, how that money is spent. This information should be available to the public. Annual reports, strategic plans, service commitment charters, etc must be made available to the public.
We should tell our customers where to complain and how to do it.
7. Redress
Redress is making it easy for people to tell us if they are unhappy with our service. We should train staff to deal with complaints in a friendly, helpful manner.
An apology, full explanation and effective, speedy remedy should be offered when the promised standards of service have not been delivered.
When complaints are made, we must give our customers a sympathetic ear.
Have positive Reponses to complaints.
8. Value for Money
We need to make the best use of available resources. Avoid wastage of time, money, and other resources. It also means eliminating waste, fraud and corruption and finding new ways of improving services at little or no cost.
9. Encouraging Innovation and Rewarding Excellence
Innovation: using new ways of doing things
Encourage partnerships with different sectors in order to improve service delivery.
Rewarding Excellence is also about rewarding the staff who “go the extra mile” in making it all happen.
10. Customer Impact
If we put all the Batho Pele Principles into practice, we then increase the chances of improvement in our service delivery. This in turn will have a positive impact on our customers. It is about how the nine principles link together to show how we have improved our overall service delivery. Here we look at the benefits we have given to our customers both internally and externally.
11. Leadership and Strategic Direction
Our leaders must create an atmosphere which allows for creativity.
Management must ensure that goals are set and that planning is done.
