offer the highest quality service possible, within the constraints of law and
accountability—and, indeed, many agencies are doing so. One of the most
sophisticated efforts to improve service quality begins with a recognition
of the differences between customers and citizens (Schmidt with Strickland
1998). Citizens are described as bearers of rights and duties within the context
of a wider community. Customers are different in that they do not share
common purposes but rather seek to optimize their own individual benefits.
The distinction then is made between citizens and clients, the latter either
internal or external: “The following example may serve to illustrate these
definitions. A citizen may not collect employment insurance and yet has an interest in how the system functions; the actual recipient of an employment
insurance payment would be an external client. A regional employment
insurance office that depends on a central agency to distribute the employment
insurance payments to their office would be an internal client” (3). It
is important to recognize that public servants rarely deal with a single client
or citizen. The front-line employee may be assisting someone sitting across
the table, but he or she is simultaneously serving the public by ensuring
that the process meets legal requirements. The complexity of government’s
interactions with citizens and the public marks all efforts to improve service
quality in government