The role of digitalisation in the process of improving the quality of urban public services

There is a large body of research showcasing the enormous potential of digitalization in adressing several challanges public sector faces, such as bureacracy, transparency, efficiency, a better interaction with citizens, providing successfull examples and best practices. However, empirical research focusing on the user experience is not so well represented in the literature, despite the fact that one the key goals of e-services is to fit the needs and expectations of the citizens. In this paper we focus on digitalisation from the perspective of the beneficiaries, who from a total quality management approach should be the first to inform digitalization initiatives, but who in most cases are just passive receivers of the digitalization outcomes. We place our attention on urban mobility services offered by Sector 4 Bucharest Municipality because both before and during the pandemic they proved to be highly digital. Our findings reveal both the usersʼ, as well as the public services providersʼ perspective, suggesting that although the perceived levels of digitalization and satisfaction with e-services are quite high, there is plenty of room for improving the quality of e-services by involving both citizens and employees in the design process and by boosting their level of digital skills.