The pain points of enterprises have changed into a list of reforms. The "Experience Officer" of the business environment in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province provides services to enterprises directly to the "end"

China News Service, Zhuzhou, November 12 (Liu Man) After the operator environment "experience officer" reported a large pothole on the road that had long been a problem for enterprises in the park, the Zhuzhou Business Environment Optimization Center of Hunan Province quickly coordinated with relevant departments and completed the repair in about a week, which facilitated dozens of companies in the park.

For enterprises, potholed roads are connected to logistics efficiency, commuting costs and business confidence; for government departments, whether problems are discovered quickly, tasks are transferred smoothly, and rectifications are implemented are direct tests of the quality of the business environment.

From establishing a team of business environment "experience officers" to establishing a closed-loop mechanism for identifying problems, assigning rectification, tracking and supervision, and feedback and evaluation, Zhuzhou City has embedded social supervision into the entire process of serving enterprises, transforming enterprises' "urgent, difficult, and anxious expectations" into a "reform list" for institutional innovation.

Supervision goes down to the front line, and experience reaches the point of congestion

In the past, problem detection mainly relied on regular visits by departments or waiting for companies to come to report. Letting the optimized business environment have a "perception end" that is closer to the front line and more sensitive is the original intention of Zhuzhou's innovative business environment "experience officer".

On October 29, the Zhuzhou City Business Environment Experience Officer’s “Walking Around and Seeing” activity visited the fire rescue department. Photo by Liu Man

To this end, Zhuzhou recruits extensively from all walks of life who care about the business environment, selecting representatives from private enterprises, media, lawyers, Internet influencers and other groups to form a team of "experience officers"; at the same time, relying on relevant departments, it elects deputies to the National People's Congress, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and members of democratic parties to enrich the team. Up to now, the total number of business environment “experience officers” at the city and county levels in Zhuzhou has reached 347.

The key to building a team is to perform duties. The Zhuzhou Business Environment Optimization Center launched the "Four Walks and Four Looks" activity, which means walking into departments to look at approvals, walking into political and legal (systems) to look at governance, walking into parks to look at services, and walking into enterprises to look at evaluations. "Experience Officers" walked into the Citizen Center as ordinary clerks to experience the efficiency of approval throughout the process to see if there is an "invisible threshold"; walked into the political and legal system, listened to cases, participated in mediation, and judged whether the governance guarantee was fair and just; went deep into the park to visit service windows secretly, listened to the cross-evaluation of enterprises, and saw whether the policies were fulfilled directly to Kuaixiang, etc.

Since its launch, the "Four Walks and Four Looks" activity has covered 10 counties, cities, and provincial-level parks in Zhuzhou City, radiating 8 key industries such as rail transit, low-altitude economy, and clothing and textiles.

"Is it really useful?" Jiang Haifei, a lawyer at Hunan Tianqiao Law Firm, said frankly that he had some doubts when he first signed up to be an "experience officer", but after participating in several visits, he found that "it can really solve the problem." The credit repair problems of bankrupt companies he participated in feedback are quite representative: after the company completes debt repayment, the credit records in financial credit reporting, administrative penalties, tax payment, judicial restrictions and other areas are out of sync, repair channels are not smooth, and it is difficult to reorganize the company.

After feedback from the "Experience Officer", the Zhuzhou Business Environment Optimization Center led 7 departments including the Municipal Intermediate People's Court and the Taxation Bureau to issue special guidance, classify and clarify the repair paths, establish a green channel for credit correction, and open up the "blocking points" of credit repair for reorganized enterprises.

"13730" closed loop to handle demands to the end

Now that the problems have been collected, who will handle them and how? Zhuzhou has set rules - the "13730" closed-loop management mechanism for handling corporate complaints: 1 working day for handling, 3 working days for feedback on preliminary opinions, 7 working days for general issues, 30 working days for complex matters, return visits for review after settlement, and cancellation of accounts one by one.

On July 2, 2025, the Zhuzhou City Business Environment Experience Officer’s “Four Walks and Four Looks” activity came to Zhuzhou Water Group. Photo by Liu Man

In response to the common problems reflected in the concentration, the Zhuzhou Business Environment Optimization Center promptly convened relevant departments to jointly discuss, come up with specific measures, issue normative system documents, and establish a long-term mechanism to systematically solve the problems.

The Zhuzhou Catering Association reported through the "Experience Officer" channel that some catering companies have encountered malicious complaints from "professional anti-counterfeiting". Soon after, the Zhuzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau and the Municipal Business Environment Optimization Center collaborated with eight municipal units to issue the "Interim Provisions on Legally Regulating the Handling of Consumer Complaints and Reports to Further Optimize the Business Environment," which distinguished "professional claims" from normal rights protection and provided "reassurance" to law-abiding companies.

Up to now, Zhuzhou has collected a total of 720 complaints from five categories including law enforcement inspections and element guarantees through the feedback of "experience officers", and settled 688 cases, with a settlement rate of 95%. The "13730" closed-loop management mechanism for enterprise appeals has allowed the problems reported by the enterprise to be resolved and answered. For example, Zhuzhou Diamond Cutting Tool Company's trucks were detoured due to gate changes. After feedback from the "experience officer", the relevant departments conducted an on-site inspection and applied on the spot to change the double yellow lines into double dotted lines; the weak communication signal in the Zhuzhou Kent Cemented Carbide Company's factory affected international business, and the solution was solved after coordinating the installation of three sets of temporary communication equipment.

In addition to handling appeals, the government service department's awareness of proactive service has continued to increase, it has widely absorbed the opinions and suggestions of experience officers, and vigorously promoted "getting one thing done efficiently". The handling links, application materials, and processing time limits for high-frequency matters for enterprises in Zhuzhou City have been reduced by more than 15%. Enterprise service costs have continued to decrease, and the praise rate of government services has continued to rise.

Service "Bends Back" and Industry "Stands Back"

The value of "experience officers" is not only to "find faults", but also to transform front-line voices into management actions.

Zhong Jianxiang, chairman of Hunan Yuanying Clothing Co., Ltd., discovered during the visit that there was a "out of stock" problem during the transition period for the marketization of school uniforms, and the company's inventory pressure was considerable. After feedback on the problem, the Zhuzhou Municipal Education Bureau quickly held a special meeting and issued supplementary regulations to clarify the operating regulations during the transition period. He said that there are more than a dozen companies making school uniforms in Zhuzhou, serving a large number of schools, and the clear operating regulations during the transition period have not only solved the urgent needs of enterprises, but also left room for the long-term development of the industry.

There are many similar changes. After the problem of "one size fits all" in environmental protection supervision was reported, Zhuzhou promoted the establishment of a differentiated supervision mechanism in the field of environmental protection to make law enforcement more precise and reduce the burden on enterprises. Employees lost contact and refused to pay personal portions, which made enterprises unable to withhold and repay, making it difficult to recover. Zhuzhou's multiple departments jointly issued guidance to clarify the paths for collection, advance recovery, judicial litigation, etc., supporting a template for advance repayment agreements, and clarifying the boundaries of rights and responsibilities.

"The quality of the business environment is most directly felt by enterprises, which is often reflected in the resolution of specific small things." Chen Yandong, a member of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the Hunan University Committee for Democratic National Construction, who has long been concerned about business environment issues, said that the role of the business environment "experience officer" system is to transform scattered market feelings into trackable and evaluable governance signals. The key is to make "external supervision" truly embedded in the government service process, so that problems reported by enterprises can not only be "accepted", but also "accepted and handled successfully."

The relevant person in charge of the Zhuzhou Business Environment Optimization Center said that the next step will be to continue to deepen the "Four Walks and Four Looks" activities in conjunction with activities such as the "Zhuzhou Business Warm Enterprise" Park, chain tours, and government-enterprise exchanges and business warm hearts, extending to more industries, small, medium and micro enterprises and grassroots front lines, enriching immersive experience forms, strengthening the transformation of results, allowing enterprises to enhance their sense of gain and satisfaction in solving specific problems.