The challenges in introducing CRM

• Organizational change. Fundamental organizational issues need to be addressed to achieve the cultural change to enable successful citizen-centric service delivery. Customer service requirements must be assessed and understood before internal processes and working practices can be amended to enable the service delivery. Cross-organizational cooperation requires a high profile sponsor and often some external challenge, to drive service delivery away from traditional stovepipes towards a citizen-centric model.

• Cost. As ever, funding is also a major issue but there are clear return on investment (ROI) measurements that can be used to cost-justify the investment. Additionally, with the overwhelming focus of the government on improved delivery of public services, projects without a modernizing government/service delivery focus cannot gain funding. ROI measures of improved performance and cost savings or displacement can be achieved. Market research can be used to monitor the number of lost calls that are now reduced, as well as customer perception of service quality. It is important to remember, however, that while consolidating separate customer service points into a one-stop shop can deliver economies of scale, the attendant rise in the quality of the service tends to prompt a significant increase in its use, which may then require additional staff to be employed.

• Technology. There are excellent CRM applications in the market that are mature and proven. However, to deliver citizen-focused services they need to support access to integrated back office systems supporting a range of service areas. The CRM application will handle scripting,^[3] contact management and tracking, but it needs knowledge management principles to enable staff to pull knowledge from diverse applications to meet customer needs. So, in addition to the complex process of integrating legacy applications, introducing call centres and supporting Web access, CRM solutions also need to address knowledge management and workflow. To compound the issue, such solutions need to support not just telephone requests and letters but increasingly, electronic forms (e-forms), all with the same levels of service and according to predefined response times.

The government is working hard to introduce best practice - such as in call centres - to provide guidance and advice. There are also a number of standards initiatives under way to aid this process, such as the Electronic Government Framework and Web Guidelines which establish mandatory standards for the usability of government services, including Web navigation and transactions.