Yowzit – Public Service Rating Platform
Yowzit is an internet and mobile platform which, in its commercial arm, allows consumers and service providers to interact. Through Yowzit, consumers can rate and review service providers in a variety of fields, such as restaurants, shops and transport.
Yowzit is now piloting this private sector model for use in the public sector, enabling citizens to feed back on their experiences of public services. The model provides a real time, responsive way for government to access citizen feedback, monitor performance, and identify gaps in service; in turn, citizens gain information about government establishments and are informed about developments.
Scope of work
Media relations, messaging strategy, public positioning, content development, and securing contextual media coverage across platforms
- Provided strategic PR and communications support for South Africa’s public service rating platform.
- Developed key messaging frameworks that repositioned Yowzit as a digital tool for active citizenship, rather than a complaints board.
- Successfully secured media coverage that framed the platform within broader national conversations on public participation and government transparency.
Challenge
It is difficult for citizens to find information about government services, read about the service experiences of others, draw attention to particularly weak or particularly high quality service, or provoke a response from civil servants working within a government agency. Likewise, government agencies struggle to benchmark the quality of the services they deliver, especially across widely dispersed geographic areas.
These central dysfunctions of transparency and accountability in the private sector are what Yowzit helps to correct, applying principles that have improved commercial services to the delivery of government services.
Results
- Campaign earned national and local press coverage across print, radio, and online platforms.
- Increased platform awareness among civicminded youth and policy stakeholders.
- Contributed to user growth while improving public perception of Yowzit’s purpose as a tool for civic engagement.
