Western City -
Jun 1,2004
City Forum: Using Software That Puts the Customer First
by Tom Lewcock and Bill Zaner
Building public trust in local government is a key priority of the League and its member cities. Customer trust and satisfaction is cultivated or lost with each interaction city staff has with residents and businesses. Unfortunately, it's all too common for a mayor, council member, city manager or department head to learn that a complaint or inquiry has fallen through the cracks. City officials want better insight into customer satisfaction and key areas of citizen interest. These desires, coupled with a mandate to increase efficiency, are prompting many California cities to invest in customer relationship management (CRM) tools.
The CRM techniques used in private industry are well developed. Private sector CRM efforts focus on sales, marketing and customer service, supporting the corporate goals of increasing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Like private businesses, local governments have attempted to make themselves more accessible to the customers they serve. The Internet has allowed nearly all cities to operate their own websites that, with varying degrees of detail, provide information about city services on a 24/7 basis.Unfortunately, most city websites are not interactive. When a citizen contacts a city with a complaint, service request or inquiry (whether by phone, postal mail, e-mail or in person), very few cities have an efficient and effective method of routing that inquiry directly to the appropriate employee for response and future tracking. Often each department has its own procedures for handling inquiries and complaints. Pink message slips, Post-its, entries in Outlook or Excel, or internal e-mail are often used to direct and assign responsibility for follow-up. These methods are not only inefficient but can lead to slow or no response.
A desire to more effectively and efficiently serve their customers has prompted many cities to adopt CRM products for local government use. CRM technology enables cities to receive, process and organize citizens' messages ' whether sent by the Internet, e-mail, postal mail, telephone or in person. When done via the Internet, CRM allows residents to easily select the appropriate category for their complaint/inquiry and track their case through city hall. The best CRM technology allows both the city and the citizen to see where the request lies within the bureaucracy. It also enables city officials to process and organize the information on internal databases and then analyze trends in the data to improve customer service.
A web-based tool allows customers to log on to a city's website anytime and, after categorizing their request, submit it online. With a single click of the mouse, the inquiry is assigned a tracking identification number and routed to the appropriate city employee for response.
The best CRM technology allows both the city and the citizen to see where the request lies within the bureaucracy.
Within seconds of the submission, the customer receives an automated response from the city that includes the name and contact information of the employee as-signed to handle their inquiry, the time period in which the customer can expect to hear from that employee, and a customized educational message from the city relevant to the type of inquiry submitted.
When CRM is used to manage postal mail, telephone or walk-in complaints and inquiries, most of the same benefits apply. If a customer has Internet access, they can track their case; if they don't, they can call and quickly find out the status of their concern.
The Benefits to Customers of a CRM System
Customers often reap the following benefits when contacting a city that has a CRM program in place:
• City hall is accessible 24/7;
• Routing and tracking of an inquiry to the right person at the city improves the quality and timeliness of the city's response;
• Customized, instant feedback to a request informs the customer of the next steps, the timeline for follow-up, whom to contact for more information and relevant information on the topic of the inquiry;
• Tracking numbers assigned to each inquiry allow the customer to log in and see all of the activity related to the inquiry;
• CRM response reminders are automatically sent to city staff if customers' requests are not responded to within designated time limits, ensuring prompt response; and
• Cities can use the Internet portion of CMR to poll constituents on various topics.
With some products, the city can ‘push’ outbound communications to customers based on their prior contacts. This way, customers receive information that is relevant to their concerns. Cities can target information to interest groups, geographical areas and the like.
What to Look For in a CRM Product
Most commonly, a city will purchase a hosted, web-based CRM product that keeps the investment very attractive. Some larger cities have developed their own CRM application or purchased software to run on their own systems. The following features should be considered:
• Ease of use. The product should be easy for customers and staff to use.
• Affordability. For base-level request tracking and management, the typical investment is between $5,000 and $8,000 per year. More sophisticated products with features like GIS mapping range from $10,000 to $20,000 a year.
• Comprehensive and seamless. A CRM system should not be Internet-only. Rather, it should provide comprehensive tracking of requests processed through all methods.
• Reports. Reports should be available by department, by service category and a variety of other ways to determine if concerns are being responded to in a time-sensitive way, how many inquiries are being received and how quickly responses are generated.
• Integration. Officials should determine the ability of a product (if purchased) to integrate with e-mail and other back-office applications.
An Investment Rather Than a Cost
When cities look beyond CRM as an Internet-only tool and use it as the basis to manage all of their complaints and inquiries, obvious efficiencies result. Paper-based systems are reduced or eliminated, ‘telephone tag’ occurs far less frequently, and slow and difficult-to-manage processes are improved. By having on-the-fly reports available with a single click, many cities are able to set performance metrics and track their progress in meeting such objectives.
Building Trust in Government
Improving customer service and increasing efficiency by investing in a cost-efficient CRM product can change the way citizens view local government. CRM products that are easy to use, when embraced by staff and publicized to the community, can significantly improve customer service, enhance public trust in government and reduce the cost of responding to service requests.
