Better Services PHL is an initiative to improve how residents experience services by making a government residents can see, touch, and feel. The Better Services PHL team has been developing a set of “service standards,” benchmarks that give City departments and residents a shared language for providing and improving City services.  

City departments can partner with the dedicated Better Services PHL service improvement team, located within the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), and made up of designers, researchers and project managers. Together they will identify service improvement opportunities and design solutions to improve resident service experiences.    

How were the service standards made? 

The service standards were created with input from City staff and residents and reflect what departments aim to deliver and what residents want to experience when interacting with the City.  

After researching best practices for service delivery across local, state and federal government, we shared our findings with City staff and residents. We spoke with residents about their experiences using City services and with City staff who deliver those services every day. We wanted to understand why working with the City was frustrating for residents, and what was missing for City workers to help them deliver services more effectively.  

We learned that residents value: 

• clear communication 
• reliable processes that don’t change without notice 
• helpful and friendly staff 
• services that make it easy to accomplish what they set out to do (and offer obvious resolution pathways when they don’t). 

What are service standards and who are they for?  

For each standard, we developed a description, defined its key features, and provided recommended benchmarks for how departments can meet the standard in practice. 

1. Be accessible to everyone. Everyone should be able to access City services regardless of their ability or circumstance. 
2. Be easy to follow. Someone with no prior knowledge should be able to use City services on their own or with minimal support. Information and instructions should be easy to find and use.   
3. Be consistent. City services should work consistently across channels and people. Information and instructions should be accurate and up to date everywhere they’re found. 
4. Promote informed choices. City services should uphold people’s right to choose what’s best for them throughout their service journey.  
5. Protect people’s privacy. City services should protect people’s personal data and privacy throughout the service experience. 
6. Provide human support. City services should make it easy to speak with helpful, knowledgeable service staff throughout the service experience. 
7. Address people’s needs. City services should be designed and delivered with an understanding of residents’ holistic needs and goals. 
8. Be continuously improved. City services should be assessed and improved so they meet people’s changing needs. 

The Service Standards will support Citywide service improvement by highlighting where residents often struggle and outlining best practices departments can build toward in their service planning and delivery. 

How do service standards help City departments improve their services? 

In 6–12-month service improvement projects, Better Services teams will support departments in using the service standards to: 

• Identify high impact improvement opportunities within a chosen service, 
• Investigate and validate service delivery challenges through engagements with staff and residents, 
• Design and test solutions that are right sized to departments’ needs and processes,
• Pilot and launch service solutions at scale, and  
• Assess the impact of these changes

What’s next?

To kick off this work, the Better Services PHL team will pilot the Service Standards beginning with projects launching in Summer-Fall 2026. The team will also continue to publish research and findings from their resident engagement efforts in a series of blogs and in the quarterly newsletter.  

The data from these pilot projects will inform a citywide implementation plan, in addition to educational resources and tools to support City departments in self-assessment and improvement.