The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia National Center for Performance Measurement (ADAA) is employing an innovative method during this year’s Hajj season to be better able to assess government performance and reach global levels of excellence and innovation.
ADAA is assessing the quality of services and the level of satisfaction of pilgrims, both domestic and international, provided by 18 government entities through mystery shoppers, in order to be able to improve the services provided by public entities, and, as a result, raise pilgrims’ satisfaction.
The mystery shopper is a pilgrim who performs the Hajj rituals and documents all the experience.
The shopper rates the quality of services received and monitors the performance of government entities.
Evaluated are the ease with which procedures are carried out, service centers, how user-friendly is the electronic system, employee interactions, speed of execution, and quality of outputs.
The goal is to identify opportunities for improvement and refine public services. The results are analyzed and reported to decision makers to take steps to improve public services.
ADAA uses the mystery shopping method to assess services from the contracting and permit stage, to land travel and road quality, air transport services, airports, and trains, holy sites and performance of Hajj rituals, all supporting services that are meant to ensure the pilgrims’ comfort, such as public transportation to and from the holy sites, health services, accommodation, hotel, tourism and logistics services, and points of departure, be it over land or by air.
