All good points but you also have to take into account that in the private sector I have choice. This is not usually the case in the public sector.
You've no choice about where you get your iPhone, as it happens
In answer your 'have you stopped beating your wife yet' question, there is no straight answer. I'm not one for the divisive 'us and them' / 'public vs private' game. There is little to be gained (beyond partisan finger pointing) by creating such false divisions.
On the substantive issue of customer service, I find a huge disparity in the quality of customer services. I've seen some examples of super customer customer service in both the public and private sectors. In the public sector, Revenue Commissioners stand out from my experience (and indeed have been mentioned favorably here on AAM for swift processing of MED1 refunds). They have a strong customer service ethic, and they manage the customer experience in their large Dublin offices efficiently. In the private sector, my experience with my own bank (NIB) has improved substantially since they assigned a personal banking manager. Having this named individual available at the end of an email address has ensured that issues get resolved promptly.
I'm sure that neither of these organisations are perfect, and other posters may well have negative experiences with these organisations, but that's the nature of the beast. On the negative side, I have come to despair of my own local authority, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown. They have repeatedly shown incompetence, ignorance, obnoxiousness and many other nasty traits. On the private sector side, I've had my battles with M&S, NTR/Eazy Pass, American Express/BOI, Microsoft, Mercer et al, as detailed on my [broken link removed].
I find that many organisations pay lip service to customer services. In the public sector, the Dept of an Taoiseach operate the initiative, but this doesn't have a huge impact on the ground. They might run a conference every year or two, or publish some , but it isn't getting the kind of ongoing, regular attention and commitment. I understand that it is hard to focus on customer service with all the other pressures of increasing demand, increasing complexity, recruitment embargoes etc, but it really does deserve better.
Similarly in the private sector, it is often an afterthought. Product and service offerings are handed over to the customer service team, but the CS team are rarely involved in designing the products or services. Many major customer service snafus could be avoided if the goys from Morketing went slumming in the CS dept before the product or service was released, instead of beating them up afterwards.