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You say consumer, I say citizen
This here digital public services project sounds interesting: "Welcome to this project, through which Consumer Focus aims to explore how to ensure that the consumer interest is placed at the heart of the design and delivery of digital public services..."
And I can understand why you might use the term "consumer" (everybody does, right?) - but I also think it is fundamentally misleading.
The history of public services has often been the history of handouts to the "deserving poor". Users of public services were passive recipients, but no more. In that context, becoming a consumer looks like a step up. At least consumers get a choice. Shall I have this public service, or that one?
In some contexts, this ability to choose might become a source of power - if you can choose to walk away, perhaps you have some impact on the service provider. But in most services, in most places, there isn't much choice either between providers, or to walk away. The power of the consumer in a marketplace rarely translates into power as a consumer of public services.
I'd like to suggest that the real potential of the web in this space is that it offers the possibility for deeper, broader relationships between people and their services than simply "use, or don't use". It does offer the possibility (see Patient Opinion - disclosure: I'm one of the team) for people to change, or extend, or challenge their services.
The term "consumer" doesn't point to that more radical, active, engaged possible future. I'd prefer "citizen".
What do you think?
And I can understand why you might use the term "consumer" (everybody does, right?) - but I also think it is fundamentally misleading.
The history of public services has often been the history of handouts to the "deserving poor". Users of public services were passive recipients, but no more. In that context, becoming a consumer looks like a step up. At least consumers get a choice. Shall I have this public service, or that one?
In some contexts, this ability to choose might become a source of power - if you can choose to walk away, perhaps you have some impact on the service provider. But in most services, in most places, there isn't much choice either between providers, or to walk away. The power of the consumer in a marketplace rarely translates into power as a consumer of public services.
I'd like to suggest that the real potential of the web in this space is that it offers the possibility for deeper, broader relationships between people and their services than simply "use, or don't use". It does offer the possibility (see Patient Opinion - disclosure: I'm one of the team) for people to change, or extend, or challenge their services.
The term "consumer" doesn't point to that more radical, active, engaged possible future. I'd prefer "citizen".
What do you think?
Tags: citizen, consumer, power, web
Views: 1
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul Clarke on -
It's probably fair to say there is no single word available that captures what we need here: 'user' mechanises relationships, and somewhat overrides the important concept of 'potential recipient of a service' - the harder-to-reach in particular. 'Consumer', as you say, has associations of market and choice. 'Citizen', too, has baggage around inclusion, formal status, and a sense of active participation in society.
We're really striving for a sense of "relevant individual interest" in whatever language we use; provided this is borne in mind it shouldn't matter too much if we choose citizen, consumer or user as a working term. Just as long as we don't descend into a mire of 'stakeholders' and 'participants'! -
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Permalink Reply by Liz Coll on -
Despite the somewhat contentious issues with the word consumer in relation to public services, what I would say is that it does offer a really helpful framework for analysing service provision, through long standing consumer principles such as: information, access, redress, representation, fairness, choice and safety. These are principles that people who use services and those who supply them can readily engage with.
I would ultimately agree with Paul though - that what we’re really trying to get at here is the perspective of the individual and so words such as ‘people’ are probably the best solution! -
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Permalink Reply by Stefan Czerniawski on
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I agree with Paul that there is no single right answer, and that the hunt for one is as likely to be successful as a hunt for unicorns. For what it's worth, the word in my world is customer - and I wrote a long blog post a couple of years ago on why for me that's the least worst option. I do see the attraction of 'citizen', but the simple and serious problem with that is that many people aren't.
But in the end I don't think it's worth worrying about too much: none of these words is entirely right, many of them are not entirely wrong, and different people feel comfortable with different choices. -
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Permalink Reply by Stefan Czerniawski on
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And having said that I didn't think it was worth worrying about all these words, I have promptly succumbed to the temptation to do exactly that, with another post on my blog. But as that was prompted by a tweet from @patientopinion, the whole thing becomes splendid social media circularity.
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Permalink Reply by James Munro on -
Really appreciating these thoughtful comments - and enjoying Stefan's "social media circularity" too (nothing wrong with that!). I'm particularly struck by Liz Coll's "long standing consumer principles", which seems highly desirable - and they clearly come from a healthy tradition of consumer activism.
And yet...and yet I do still worry that "consumer" leaves us still where we are, instead of taking us into a new world yet to born, something we feel the connectivity of the web might help to usher in. In that world it will be much clearer that people's relationships with their services are two-way, collaborative affairs. Perhaps we don't yet have a word because we don't yet have that world. Maybe we'll know the word when we see it. -
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