Promising Areas for Assessing the Quality of Public Services Implemented in Electronic Form

Abstract

The process of digital transformation of the national economy includes the development of the service sector in the direction of ensuring quality growth for the population and business representatives. The authors identify the possibilities of digitalization of economic spheres from the perspective of technological development, consider cyber threats and human rights violations in the absence of regulation by public authorities, systematize the prospects for the use of electronic channels for the implementation of public services. The authors emphasize the possibility and relevance of changing the process and content of assessing the quality of public services, substantiate the importance of expanding quality indicators through the deepening differentiation of social groups and the active innovation policy of government agencies in the field of the introduction of electronic services. The article presents a theoretical review of scientific papers and the regulatory framework characterizing aspects of the methodology for assessing the quality of public services, including with an emphasis on the electronic format. The aim of the work was to determine the directions of development of the assessment of the quality of electronic public services and to offer recommendations on expanding the functionality of the PUBLIC SERVICES platform in the aspect of the evaluation mechanisms used. The author’s position is proposed regarding the expansion of the use of quality indicators characterizing the «level of digitalization» of services: with regard to the duration of operations, it is proposed to analyze the loading time of platforms, the usability of the mobile version of platforms, satisfaction with functionality; according to the position «channel characteristics» - the clarity of the interface, the 24/7 availability of the platform «here and now»; to assess the information interaction, it is proposed to use the quality indicators of direct and feedback, the possibility of obtaining «target» information (certificates with a QR code), the comfort of using the mobile version of the application, etc. To detail the proposals, the authors used one of the most popular platforms — PUBLIC SERVICES as an object of research. The paper focuses on the methods actually used to assess the quality of electronic public services of this platform: oral surveys, filling out questionnaires, building ratings, analyzing averages. The conclusion is made about the methodological importance of expanding the evaluation scale and including new indicators. At the suggestion of the authors, it is recommended to include a mechanism based on an integral assessment in the methodology for assessing the quality of public services implemented in electronic form (the article considers the possibility of using the «cube of service quality assessment» methodology), which allows determining not only the level of satisfaction for each position, but also to perform a comparative assessment of expectations and perception of service criteria, as well as to determine the importance of the criterion being evaluated. According to the authors, the use of the «extended assessment» will not only detail the opinion of consumers in the context of social groups /services / quality indicators, but also simplify the process of correcting the provision of services and, thereby, contribute to the sustainability of the service sector and the national economy as a whole.