I am back with another article on public sector crm, It is not a fascination to write frequently about this topic but to remind ourselves there is so much we can do this effective Citizen Relationship Management , “ Yes We Can”.
Since 1997 the public sector has focused on delivering high quality, appropriate and timely services to the citizen. However, we are still in the early stages of a long journey, as the following milestones demonstrate:
• 1999: Traditional one-to-one communication with citizens supported by departmental applications. Citizen-focused data was limited and in silos, making cross-departmental or joined-up services impossible to deliver without implementing costly, dedicated staff.
• 2005: Having embarked on the process of joined-up service delivery, the public sector had the tools at its disposal and is beginning to offer multi-channel access to a consistent standard of response, with appropriate service delivery at the point of contact. This is being supported by contact centres offering multiple services, contact tracking and management; e-forms and scripting linking back to integrated back office systems.
• 2009: The government’s own target for the delivery of e-enabled services. We should see integrated cross-departmental cooperation, with multiple services available from a single contact, with the integration and delivery of partner services where appropriate. This will be supported by integrated legacy and citizen data; the use of data mining and other analytical tools to support improvements to services; and Web and community portals with workflow processes improving the ease with which citizens navigate new services and achieve the required service.
• Future: Looking further ahead, the ultimate goal is to achieve a holistic view of the citizen. Employees will be empowered and enjoy an inter-agency (including non-public sector) approach to casework. Communication will be through a variety of channels, and field staff will have online around the clock access to information and resources. By this stage customer knowledge will be core to the community and service planning processes. Underpinning this holistic citizen view will be fully automated systems with interdepartmental access to citizen data, as well as online access by citizens to community data. Mobile telephony, interactive television and smart cards will enable this. Throughout these developments, the principles and technologies of CRM will leverage new technologies and changes in organization structure and process to provide a platform for delivering improved services and supporting the constant evolution of new services to meet the diverse needs of a changing population.
Public Sectors Becoming customer-focused
With electronic service delivery high on the agenda, local government in the developed countries like UK , UK .etc is rapidly cultivating a customer-focused ethos. Supported by customer relationship management (CRM) systems, one-stop shops and citizen contact centres (providing information and access to services) are prime examples of the modernizing initiatives now gaining momentum. However, simply implementing a call centre and CRM system is not the solution to the delivery of integrated, joined-up services to the citizen and will not enable the public sector to meet the modernizing government agenda. Simply automating existing processes results only in small, short-term efficiency gains. A significant step-change in the approach to service delivery is needed. By taking a strategic view of the way in which citizens are dealt with at the point of contact - using knowledge and systems to deliver as much service as possible at the point of contact, and learning about customer needs and service effectiveness (rather than just providing a single contact for registering service demands) - the public sector can use CRM as a driving force for improvements
The role of customer relationship management
There is about a Five to Ten year lag in public sector adoption of CRM, with many public sector managers now applying the term to any customer-focused initiatives and interactions. One benefit of this time lag is that lessons have been learnt from many of the mistakes made in leading-edge private sector implementations. These can now be avoided in the public sector. Of course, the public sector definition of a customer differs greatly from the private sector definition. In the public sector, however, the situation is very different. The emphasis is on improving service across the board, rather than on segmenting and targeting customers according to profitability. CRM enables the public sector to enable improved customer access, to provide better service at the point of access, and to track the progress of customer problems/concerns more efficiently. Key public sector CRM benefits include:
• Managing the initial customer interaction be it via telephone, in person or e-mail: a CRM approach enables a consistent delivery of information to the citizen.
• Prompting action to address customer need: using workflow processes, any citizen enquiry/problem prompts appropriate action by one or several departments.
• Tracking customer interaction throughout its full lifecycle to provide total visibility. Each enquiry generates a contact history, enabling both authority and the customer to keep a track of the situation without the need for the customer to repeat the enquiry and name and address details.
• Providing information for further analysis, to enable services constantly to be assessed and re-focused in line with evolving needs. For example, if a citizen calls requesting a house repair, an integrated CRM approach delivers key information from the outset. The citizen is told the current status of house repairs, length of the waiting time and when to expect an initial inspection. Indeed, with an integrated system that incorporates back-office information from the housing department, an initial inspection appointment can be made immediately. A reference number is then allocated to this request and, should further calls be required, the status of the repair process is immediately visible.
Today, CRM is focused on delivering customer service at the point of access. As few as 10 per cent of local authorities are achieving this goal. However, several have merely automated existing processes. While delivering short-term efficiency gains, such implementations do not provide a platform for further exploitation of CRM technologies, namely analysing the information to support further changes/enhancements to service delivery, both internally and through partners. The key to achieving this is a fundamental shift in organizational thinking that actually supports real citizen-centric services, rather than placing a unified customer service front end on fragmented back-end delivery. Looking forward, once CRM has enabled the delivery of coherent, consistent services, service planners will be able really to exploit the information captured by CRM applications, to gain a deep understanding of the services required and how the needs of the citizen are changing and evolving. This will help improve efficiencies through geographic focusing of services or changing of customer group definitions. With the emphasis on increased private/public sector cooperation, such information will be invaluable in assessing where each can deliver the most appropriate and effective services.
Many countries have their online citizen portal, was formally launched. However, while it provides a central point of access into government services, there are several key elements of the solution yet to be developed, most notably identification and authentication to enable personalized service delivery, as well as local or service specific portals. These too must also be supported by e-forms in a consistent manner across government. Such challenges are not insignificant. However, by using CRM to transform the service delivery through face to face and telephone channels, local authorities and government agencies can create an environment that can then be replicated online as the technology infrastructure comes into place. Before services can be delivered coherently online, it is important to understand what citizens require; how they want to interact with the public sector; how inter-authority services can work together. CRM implementations that move beyond simple process automation to embrace new ways of service delivery provide a fundamental step in delivering e-enabled services to the citizen. Once interdepartmental cooperation and integration have been achieved and there is a robust, secure technology for identification and authentication, CRM can drive processes through the customer interaction lifecycle to provide a holistic customer view. In the next article I will walkthrough through the challenges in incubating CRM @ Public Sector.
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