The survey “Mystery Shopper Visits”  An Assessment Platform for Improvement of Public Service, Focusing On Citizens” was conducted by IDRA between September and December 2016, supported financially by the Agency for Support of Civil Society and in colaboration with the Minister of Innovation and Public Administration. For this study was applied as assessment instrument "Mystery shopper Visits", a tool commonly used in assessing the service delivery by private operators. However, this instrument was used for the first time in Albania to evaluate the service provided in public institutions.

Mystery shopper" is a trained observer to public service procedures, who interacts with the personnel of public service and prepares an immediate report on the basis of his experience.The purpose of the mystery shopper visit is testing whether the service provided by public institutions fulfills the declared standards, observation on interpersonal skills of employees, evaluation of their performance and identifies strengths and weaknesses indicating where improvements are needed.

The evaluation is focused on five main dimensions:

1. The waiting time                   
2. Interaction with the employee 
3. Quality of Services
4. Professionalism
5. Premises

The general index is a combination of the scores for each dimension, where a total of 100%, of which: “Waiting Time” is 10%, “interaction with the employee” 35%, “quality of service’ 15%  “Professionalism” 15% and “ Premises” 25%

This project was addressed to 6 Public Institutions that have the branches in 12 cities and have had the highest number of transactions during 2015. They are listed below:

- General Directorate of Civil Registry

- General  Directorate of Taxation

- General Directorate of Road Transport Services

- Office of Registration of Immovable Property

- National Business Center

- Social Securities Institute

MAIN FINDINGS

Each branch of the above institutions was visited 4 (four) times in different time intervals from different mystery shoppers.

The overall situation of institutions in Albania has an index of 77 points out of 100 in total. In general all dimensions except the waiting time, have a rating ranging from 72-79 points. The less appreciated dimension with (72 points) was the “professionalism of staff”. The dimension with the highest performance is “Time” which is calculated as a combination of the time waiting in the queue and the time of interaction with the employee. This dimension performed at "Good" level (81 points).

If the situation is analyzed at the visit level, more than half (69%) of the visits are assessed as average or above average.This result is satisfactory, however, it should be taken into account the fact that about 31% stands below the average and there is need for improvement.

Institution which is evaluated with the highest score by (83 points), wiht a performing level "Close Standard" is the National Business Center (NBC). The employees of this institution offer a good service, with politeness and a satisfied time according to the citizien. General Directorate of Taxation (GDT), also stands at "Close to standard", but with two points less ( 81 points) that NBC. Meanwhile, the institution with the lowest score (67 points) is the Office of Immovable Property Registration Office (IPRO). This is the only institution that has performed at "Poor" level.

If the survey results are analyzed by branch level, 3 branches that performed the best were:NBC Tirana (96.1 points), GDCR Korce (94.2 points) and GDT Durres (92.7 points). While branches with poor performance are: IPRO Gjirokastra (48 points) IPRO Shkoder (49.5 points) and IPRO Vlora (55.1 points).

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