SHARJAH: A day after government service centres in the UAE were ranked for their performance, officials across the centres took stock of their positions and began working in right earnest to see how best they could better their grades.
At Sharjah’s Wasit Police Station, which was ranked the fourth best, Lt. Col. Abdullah Salem Al Naqbi, acting station director, officials told Gulf News the challenge now was to maintain and improve the rating to seven stars.
Wasit Police Station staff worked as one family and complemented each other in their tasks, he said. He also pointed out that on each counter there is a queue system linked with the Ministry of Interior which can monitor the time taken for each transaction and the level of customer satisfaction.
On Saturday, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai released the list of top 5 best and worst government service centre in the country.
The announcement was made following an evaluation process that covered more than 600 service centres across the country.
Lt. Col. Al Naqbi said the centre received 10,084 customers since the beginning of the this year and handled 3,858 transactions.
10,084
Number of customers served at Sharjah’s Wasit Police Station since the beginning of 2019.As many as 80 employees work round the clock in four shifts to provide a range of 14 services to customers.
They include receiving criminal reports, criminal statute certificates, lost and found items reports, issuance of death certificates and certificates to whomsoever it may concern.
3,858
Total number of transactions handled at Al Wasit Police Station in Sharjah.
Comprehensive traffic services, as well as various community services, including night patrols are also covered. The centre caters to 40 specialisation areas in all.
Major General Saif Al Ziri Al Shamsi, commander-in-chief of Sharjah Police, also told Gulf News during a visit to the Wasit Police Station on Sunday: “The challenge starts now - how can we upgrade our services and move to the highest rank? How can we make customers feel happier and more satisfied? ”
Delighted staff, customers
The station staff were delighted on hearing the news about the station’s high ranking.
Ahmad Abdullah Al Bloushi, an employee at the Criminal Section, said training courses had helped him deal with different kinds of people with different kinds of disposition.
Hassan Juma’a, Wasit Police employee at the traffic section, said, “I am so happy with the good news. It motivates us to put in our best.”
First Lieutenant Mohammad Hassan Al Ali, director of customer happiness unit at the station, said, “Our main goal is to serve customers.In the future we will be employing artificial intelligence and modern technology to achieve greater customer satisfaction.”
New and creative ideas are always welcomed from both customers and staff, he said, adding that many of them are applied at the centre.
WhatsApp service
He said two months ago, the centre lunched a WhatsApp service (0562283729) making it easier for people to make inquiries or voice their complaints. The centre also has a home service where police officers visit the elderly and the sick to complete transactions .
Customers at the station were all praise for the staff.
Abdul Ghani from Egypt said: “This is not the first time I am visiting this station. The staff is very good.”
Awos Malik from Iraq, who had lodged a lost item report, said, “It took only two minutes for them to process my report. ”
Action Plan
Meanwhile, officials at the worst performing centres swung into action to draw up urgent plans to improve their functioning.
On the instructions of His Highness, Emirates Post executive director Abdullah Mohammad Al Ashram embarked on a one-month assignment at the Emirates Post Al Khan branch, which received the lowest rating.
Meeting with 110 employees
When Gulf News visited the office on Sunday, he was in a closed door meeting with 110 employees.
Mohammad Al Ali, a distinguished staff of Emirates Post, was appointed the new director of the branch.
Al Ali said the management has put an integrated plan in place to address the challenges in work flow.
In a press statement, Emirates Post said, “Following His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s comprehensive evaluation of all UAE’s government centres, we humbly acknowledge that transformation within our business is needed.
"To address this, we have deployed a dedicated team on-the-ground at our Sharjah Al Khan branch to improve services as a matter of urgency, as well as reviewing branches across the network.
Weak points
Obeid Al Qutami, commercial executive director at Emirates Post, told Gulf News: “We are waiting for the report from the Cabinet to know the weak points so that we can work on them and avoid them.”
The changes will be implemented in all post offices in UAE in order to provide better services to customers, he added.
New Director
Elsewhere at the Tawteen Centre in Fujairah, which was also ranked among the worst, Khalid Al Kaabi was appointed the new director.
Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, minister of human resources and Emiratisation, in a tweet said that the ministry has already started to implement the directives of Shaikh Mohammad to develop the services provided by the Fujairah centre.
Dubai’s best, worst centres to be announced January 18
DUBAI Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, on Sunday issued directives to announce the three best and worst local government entities in terms of customer happiness on January 18, 2020, according to the results of the Happiness Index of Dubai Government.
Under the directives of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, he also directed authorities to announce the results of the Happiness Index of Dubai Government every year in January.
“We will announce the results of the Happiness Index every year to promote transparency, and monitor and improve the quality of services provided.
"All government entities should work to constantly raise the quality of their customer service. I expect a lot from the teams working to deliver services. Their work will contribute significantly to enhancing Dubai’s competitiveness. Our objective is to set a high quality benchmark for government services. The results of the Happiness Index will be announced in January every year,” Sheikh Hamdan said.
“The Happiness Index of the Dubai Government is a comprehensive measure of the service quality of government entities in Dubai. I will personally follow up on efforts to improve quality, ease of access and speed of services,” he added.
