Declaration Of Customer Independence: Web Self-Service In The Public Sector

BY BUD MICHAEL

Notorious for its poor customer relations and service, government agencies nationwide have left the public with a lasting impression of slow lines, deprived resources, long waits, and disagreeable representatives. With Web-based customer service via e-mail, chat, and self-service now commonplace in industries such as financial services, healthcare, travel, and retail, consumers have grown accustomed to the benefits of automated customer service. While slower to adopt these eCRM solutions than the private sector, leading-edge state and federal government agencies are beginning to see that eCRM deployments are the only effective means for providing better service to their constituents at a time when government agencies are looking to eliminate costs wherever possible.

Why The Public Sector Lags Behind In CRM
A number of customer support issues specific to the public sector have contributed to that industry lagging behind others in the adoption of online service.

Most importantly, the government has a captive audience free of competition. Its constituents, short of moving out of the state or the country, do not have the option of going elsewhere to renew their driver's license or apply for a marriage license. Competitive forces have not driven government agencies to adopt online CRM with the same magnitude that companies were driven in the other verticals. As a result, satisfaction with the customer service provided by government agencies has been measured at a mediocre 2.5 on a scale of one to five.

The second issue is that many citizen inquiries in the government sector are highly personalized, or relate to highly sensitive information, such as social security numbers. This increases the level of confidentiality necessary to effectively respond to constituent requests. Government agencies have needed to wait for online technology to reach this higher level of secure service before deploying a universal online solution. Today, online customer service affords that level of security.

So why are most government agencies still fielding customer service requests via the phone even though the majority of the public prefers a Web-based self-service solution? Although some managers at government agencies may deem the implementation of an eCRM solution more time consuming than cost efficient, those on the leading edge are now recognizing the current use of manually operated call centers does not meet the public's needs and costs a significant amount more to manage per transaction.

According to research conducted by the Gartner Group in October 2002, by automating mundane tasks service personnel are more able to focus on and effectively manage in-person customer relations, therefore maximizing employee productivity. In addition, industry accepted estimates show that the cost of an offline service transaction can be anywhere from $15 to $25 per transaction. Online transactions at the high end average two dollars, and Web-based self-service costs pennies per transaction.

Success In The State Of California
Government agencies can take their lead from an innovative state that explored the option of adopting an online customer service alternative. The State of California is seeing first hand the benefits of Web-based customer service through its www.my.ca.gov portal. By moving its customer service to the Web, the State of California is providing its citizens with useful information, such as holiday schedules, traffic reports, and other news previously only available through the call center.

The portal allows the public to access the information on their own, maximizing the government call center representative's productivity and consequently saving the organization money. Citizens can now easily customize the site, search for information and retrieve it, and find answers to their questions quickly and easily. The Internet portal allows citizens of the Golden State to access information via the Web anytime they choose. Further, as more citizens began to use the portal, the State of California has expanded its offerings and increased online customer support to include proactive alerts on topics such as traffic jams and utility outages. The online CRM solutions it initially deployed integrated easily with the new technologies.

Several other cutting-edge government agencies have begun to adopt Web-based eCRM solutions. Gartner is expecting this trend will continue and government agencies will increasingly provide the kind of "one-stop shopping" on the Web that is already evident in other industries.

Making The Move To Online, Self-Service CRM
So, how can other government agencies successfully make the crossover to an automated eCRM solution? First, each agency must evaluate the quality and cost of its current customer service offering to determine how well it is meeting client demand and how cost effective it is to the agency. Government agencies that are handling a high volume of inquiries from its citizens will likely see that the investment in an eCRM solution will be quickly recovered and that the return on this investment will be significant.

Second, government agencies need to determine what eCRM solutions will best meet their needs. In some cases, the deployment of an entire suite of applications for customer service is required. In most others, more tactical deployments of e-mail management solutions, knowledgebase solutions for self-service, or contact center solutions to automate the handling of inbound customer inquiries will be sufficient. In either case, government agencies should look for modular solutions from vendors that can be quickly deployed and which will offer a rapid return on investment -- ensuring that later stages of the project will continue to receive the funding and support needed to build a complete solution to serve constituents.

The customer is the most important element to any business success, whether in the private or public sector. The government sector must take the lead from other industries and increase its online service options to keep pace with consumer demand, as well as reduce costs to meet the realities of today's economy.

Bud Michael is executive vice president of products and marketing at KANA. KANA was instrumental in establishing the www.my.ca.gov portal.