How do Citizen Shops Address Users’.

Abstract

In order to address new demands from citizens and companies, public agencies have been developing new forms of delivering public services within a multi-channel logic. In this context, Citizen Shops have been designed to improve speed of response, procedures simplification and, most of all, service quality. This paper considers that service quality is strongly connected to quality perceived by the users, and consequently focuses on citizen’s expectations and perceptions within a marketing perspective. Emotions and the zone of tolerance are also analysed. Given the nature of the research problem, investigation followed a case-study methodology. The authors present an adaptation of the Critical Incident Technique and analyse an extensive qualitative and quantitative data collection. In terms of conclusions, this study sheds light on the type of relationship that occurs between the citizen and the public agency in an environment featured by an innovative organizational culture in the context of Public Administration, strongly influenced by the societal circumstances.