Plugin-CRM Strategy Guide

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A STRATEGIC GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

HELLO.The First Word in Reinvigorating the Relationshipbetween Citizens and their Government

An Introduction to Citizen Service Technologies and 3-1-


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Hello. The First Word in Reinvigorating the

Relationship Between Citizens and their Government

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................3 Executive Summary

KEY DEFINITIONS ..........................................................................................................4

PART I. THE CRM AND 3-1-1 PRIMER

An Introduction to Citizen Service Technologies CRM and 3-1-1 ......................5 Service Its Our Business Origins of Citizen Service Technologies Key DefinitionsWhy Use CRM and 3-1-1? Early Government Adopters

Four Approaches to Citizen Relationship Management ..........................................8 Commodity: An Answer to a Specific Pain Point Service: A Platform Solution for Responsive Government Intelligence: Insight, Decision Support and Accountability Experience: The New Public Square for Civic Engagement

PART II. PLANNING, IMPLEMENTING AND EVOLVING CRM AND 3-1-1

Getting Started ..............................................................................................................10 Creating the Vision Understanding Public-Sector Authorizing Environments Evaluating the Approach StrategyArchitecture-Oriented Approach Mandate-Oriented Approach

Mobilization Phase ..........................................................................................................13 Creating Teams Creating a Communication Plan Defining and Managing Scope Managing Scope Across Jurisdictional Lines

Implementation Phase ..................................................................................................15 Reengineering Business Processes Integrating the CRM Software Training and Retraining Staff Marketing to the Public

Maintenance Support and Evaluation Phase ..............................................................18 Providing Maintenance and Support Evaluating Customer Satisfaction Data Measuring Performance Goals Leveraging Accountability

Critical Success Factors ................................................................................................20

Lessons Learned ..............................................................................................................21

Summary ..........................................................................................................................22

PARTICIPANTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ..........................................................................23

Table of Contents

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe Center for Digital Government, participating cities and counties, Avaya and Motorola

underwriters on this project undertook an examination of the public citizen relationship

management (CRM) landscape through a two-part conversation: the concept and the making

of a plan.

The Center is grateful for the participation of senior leaders from Chicago, Ill; Chattanooga,

Tenn.; Hampton, Va.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.; Miami Dade County, Fla.; Topeka,

Kan.; New York City, N.Y.; Tampa, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; Des Moines, Iowa; Virginia Beach, Va.,

and the contributions of many others for their enthusiasm and candor in creating this strategic

planning guide for their colleagues across the country. The guide reflects the lessons learned from their experiences. Further, the Center wishes to thank Motorola and Avaya for their

contributions to this project.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This Guide is written for local government officials interested in enhancing relationships with

citizens. Whether you are a chief information officer (CIO), a city manager, a public works

director, or an elected official, this Guide provides information about CRM strategies for cities

and counties.

The Guides structure reflects the process that smart government executives have used again

and again when embarking on a new initiative. The first half is a primer on CRM providing the

history and definition of CRM. It offers an overview of four different approaches to CRM using

the experiences of cities and counties to illustrate each approach.

The second half provides broad phases jurisdictions employ for a CRM initiative, from creating a

vision statement and obtaining executive support, to establishing project teams developing a

Request for Proposals (RFP) and implementing the system. There are many steps along the way,

and although each jurisdiction tailors the process to best meet its needs, key phases are

identified in the guide so that local government officials can follow a path sucessfully paved by

jurisdictions that have already implemented CRM.

This Guide captures the collective knowledge of progressive cities and counties that are

sophisticated both technologically and organizationally. Their stories and experiences are

intended to help other local governments use CRM and 3-1-1 contact centers (formerly called

call centers when only applied to telephone calls) to better serve citizens.

A Strategic Guide with insight from

THE CENTER FOR DIGITAL GOVERNMENT


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Because citizen service systems are not a single technology, there is no single definition. Here is a summaryof the common characterizations of such systems:

CRM Citizen Relationship Management:

a.) a policy and process of dealing with customers;

b.) a technique to gain insight into the behaviors of customers, and establishing, maintaining and optimizing long-term relationships;

c.) use of data collected through interactions to reduce risk, assure accountability for service delivery, and anticipate future

demands for service;

d.) allows all the links in the chain to have the information needed to provide services;

e.)the systems and infrastructure required to capture, analyze and share all facets of the customers relationship with the enterprise;

f.) a process to measure and allocate organizational resources to those activities that have the greatest return and impact;

g.) integration at multiple legacy databases with a high-performance system for the real-time retrieval of customer data from multiple,

previously separate databases; and,

h.) an integrated information system that provides consistent levels of service across channels Web, telephone, fax, e-mail,

conventional mail, and face-to-face.

Like the private sector, public CRM installations are often supported by contact centers:

Contact Centers: CRM strategies include establishment of what is known as a contact center, which in the past was known as

the phone center where a telephony network connected people with agents via telephone. Today, the contact center uses

multiple channels of communication (phone, e-mail, Web-based systems) to capture and deliver calls and messages to the agents

who are available at single or multiple, distributed locations. The contact center is the point-of-connect for the 3-1-1 callers who

contact agents through any of those described communication channels.

Call Management Software: Contact centers use different levels of call management applications to determine how to manage

and control incoming calls. These applications include automatic call distribution, interactive voice response and universal queuing.

Automatic Call Distribution:A call center uses a voice-switching system that connects callers to an agent who handles their

calls. The automatic call distributors manage call traffic through a queuing system and routes calls to agents according to a set of rules

determined by the call center. It can also provide real-time monitoring of workloads and reports on system and agent performance.

Integrated Voice Response: This application allows callers to access the information and make the requests needed through

automated telephone recordings and prompts. Callers navigate computer databases by listening to voice prompts and making

touchtone or voice-activated responses.

Universal Queuing: This function treats all forms of citizen contact as a single stream of inquiries and requests. Universal queuing allows

for more cost-efficient systems by deferring e-mail and Web site call-back requests to agents as they become available from normal calls.

Key Definitions


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5

An Introduction to Citizen Service

TechnologiesCRM and 3-1-1



Service Its Our BusinessGovernment was present at the creation of

the service economy. In fact, government

invented it. Service delivery is governments

primary business. With 228 years of

experience in service delivery in the United

States, city and county governments have

become very good at it even though his-

torically it has been done without the benefitof data that measures the quantity and quality

of public services.

Until now.

A growing number of local jurisdictions are

transforming service delivery and their rela-

tionships with citizens by using technologies

initially developed for the private sector

CRM and 3-1-1 systems. Instead of viewing

citizen contacts with multiple government

departments as a large volume of random

transactions, CRM and 3-1-1 technologies

provide powerful tools to:

react to (and anticipate) patterns in service

requests;

optimize the allocation of resources to

respond to those requests;

bring consistency to monitoring government

performance in delivering services; and,

ensure accountability for what gets done,

when, by whom, and at what cost.

For citizens, the results can be profound

although they would have no reason to know

that three little letters, CRM, changed theirexperience. CRM technologies run behind

the service delivery channels that touch citi-

zens including face-to-face interactions and

those carried out through e-mail, the Web,

wireless devices, and telephone.

For government officials interested in

implementing a program, the process can be

both rewarding and challenging. CRM is

enabling technology helping to create effi-

ciencies, more effective service delivery and

expanded capacity. Yet CRM is also a disruptive

technology refocusing service delivery

around the citizen, while strengthening the

accountability for performance.

The introduction of CRM requires important

changes in the previously discrete way

government entities acted. The transforma-

tional power of CRM is profound and the

experience of those who have implementedpublic CRM comes down to this: Citizens

love it. Elected officials love it. And operating

departments love it or learn to love it.

Origins of Citizen ServiceTechnologies

In thinking about CRM, it can be useful to

extract lessons from a successful technology-

supported relationship management system

that most of us take for granted. 9-1-1. This

three-digit emergency number is universally

recognizable as the single contact point for peo-

ple seeking police, fire or medical assistance.

The migration of 9-1-1 to the United States

demonstrates the promise and challenges of

good ideas and serves as a helpful reminder in

considering CRM and non-emergency 3-1-1

centers. The following are important points to

remember:

First, good ideas take time. It took

decades for the United Kingdoms 9-9-9

emergency service, created in 1937 after a

delay in reporting a London fire resulted in

five deaths, to cross the Atlantic.

Second, good ideas can take root insmaller communities first. The forerunner

to 9-1-1 services in cities across North America

was introduced in 1959 as a British-style 9-9-9

service in Winnipeg, Manitoba, followed by the

first 9-1-1 services in the United States in

Haleyville, Ga., a decade later.

Third, good ideas simplify the

citizen experience. In the early Winnipeg

application, then a city of 16 municipalities

(each with its own fire and police service),

The introduction of CRM

requires important changes

in the previously discrete

way government entities

act. The transformational

power of CRM is profound

and the experience of

those who have imple-

mented public CRM

comes down to this:

Citizens love it. Elected offi-

cials love it. And operating

departments love it or

learn to love it.


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constituents were freed from the confusion

of 32 separate seven-digit numbers

with the introduction of a single three-digit

number.

Fourth, good ideas can succeed even

if tangled up in interoperability issues.

The Bell system (AT&T) and independent

phone companies (USITA) set off in different

directions before negotiating a compromise

on the three-digit emergency number.

Fifth, good ideas anticipate tomor-

rows needs, but imbed the best think-

ing of today. The numbers 9-1-1 were cho-

sen in large measure because they could be

dialed in the dark on a rotary phone.

In a comparatively short 10 years, CRM

and 3-1-1 technologies have established

themselves as mission-critical systems.

Why use CRM and 3-1-1?Relationships are at the heart of communi-

ties. And CRM is an investment that reflects a

long-term commitment to making the citizen

the common decision point in everything

government does.

Governments initiating CRM have decided

to turn government outward to face the citi-

zen. These cities and counties understand

that while an individual contacting govern-

ment may be a customer of a service, she

is also a citizen, a constituent and a member

of a community. And, CRM establishes a

relationship with the individual in each of

these roles.

The CRM philosophy is rooted in a s ingular

focus on the customer experience, which is

often described in government as citizen-cen-

tricism. The impetus behind this shift, write

authors Colin Shaw and John Ivens, lie in the

dramatic increase in the commoditization of

products [and services]driven by the

advent of the Internet (and) the demands of

an increasingly affluent society that craves

more and more as it develops stimuli and self

actualizes.1

It is the quality of experience that differenti-ates what government has done from what it

needs to do now. Shaw and Ivens say that

success in this endeavor will be found in the

words people use:

I feel like she understood what I wanted.

They treated me like an individual.

He cared about me.

They did everything they could to help.

The outcome sought extends beyond

price, features, quality, and service to include

an emotional component that adds up to the

customer experience.

CRM brings a coordinated approach to

handling events from initiation to follow

through on behalf of all the operating

agencies that stand behind it. That is a sharp

contrast to the switchboard model under

which calls are simply referred to operating

agencies. With a service orientation, the

CRM system captures the details of the

event, initiates a service request to the

responsible agency as needed through

CRM systems also power a growingnumber of 3-1-1 citizen contactcenters. With a convenient and easy-to-remember three-digit number to make a

single call to city hall for non-emergency services, public CRM brings discipline,routine and consistency to the way serviceagents handle calls, and they have theinformation to fulfill requests andrespond in a manner that is smarter,

faster and cheaper.

WHERE IT IS WORKING:Local Governments Refaced byCRM(a non-exhaustive list)

Akron, OH Austin, TX Baltimore, MD Birmingham, AL Chattanooga, TN Chicago, IL Colorado Springs, CO Dallas, TX Detroit, MI

Houston, TX Indianapolis, IN Miami-Dade, FL New York, NY Rochester, NY Twin Falls, MT Tucson, AZ Winston Salem, NC

COMMODITY SERVICE INSIGHT EXPERIENCE

Figure 1: The Continuum of Public CRM

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1Colin Shaw and John Ivens, Building Great Customer

Experiences, Palgrave MacMillan, 2002


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common workflow management, monitors

progress in fulfilling requests, and measures

performance related to solving the problem.

Hampton, Va., officials say that CRM helped

the city reface government and effectively

bridge formerly siloed organizations.

The philosophy and results are seen in the

language cities use to describe their citizen-

central approach:

One call to City Hall.

One call does it all.

Your city at work for you.Further, CRM enables jurisdictions to focus

on events and their location, with a view to

understanding patterns in service delivery to

ensure efficiencies across formerly discrete

government organizations and providing a

consistent experience for the citizen. The

patterns identified through CRM can be

predictive and provide important data for

planning and budgeting purposes.

Early Government AdoptersThe city of Baltimore, Md., became the first

city to implement a 3-1-1 contact center in

1996, followed by Chicago the next year. The

two early adopters were able to gain insight

into high-volume service requests, such as

garbage collection, road maintenance, traffic

sign/signal maintenance, drainage/erosion

problems, and abandoned vehicles.

Both cities used CRM/3-1-1 to figure out

what counts, count it and hold people

accountable for the results. Experience has

taught them that performance measures

change over time and that what doesnt get

counted gets discounted.The bottom line: savings and new revenues

attributed to CRM in Baltimore total $13.2

million annually (in a general fund budget of

$1 billion).

Site visits to Baltimore, Chicago and other

localities with experience using these

technologies have become touchstones for

other jurisdictions as they conduct due dili-

gence in understanding CRM conceptually

and see how it works on the ground.

Government executives want to understand

what the technology can do from an

operational perspective, while their technologists

are eager to understand the long-term record

on availability, reliability and security. These

early experiences were instrumental in

shaping the direction taken by dozens of

cities and counties that have pursued public

CRM/ 3-1-1 in states from across the country

with multiple installations: Alaska, California,

Florida, Illinois, Nevada, Ohio, North

Carolina, Maryland, New York,Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, Texas,

and Virginia.

Four Approaches to ClientRelationship Management

CRM can be configured to meet highly

tactical objectives and serve more strategic

interests, too. The possibilities stretch from

commoditization of routine transactions at

one end, to improved service delivery and

data-driven decisions in the middle, or to

providing a technological assistance to a new

generation of civic engagement at the far end.

The set of technologies grouped under

CRM are often sold as a point solution when

the more compelling case for buying them is

developing new approaches to doing the

publics business. CRM is not a monolithic

one-size-fits-all solution. It is sufficiently flexi-

ble to adapt to myriad local variations, and can

be configured to reflect a communitys unique

needs and aspirations; histories, values and

priorities; and, its governments capabilities

and capacity in service delivery.

The beginning CRM option is that of thecommodity solution, which provides an

answer to a specific pain point; followed by

the service solution that provides a platform

solution for responsive government; then an

insight solution through business intelligence

as a means to decision support and accountability.

The bookend of the continuum reaches

beyond public service to the most important

relationships in Americas civic life the

citizen experience with their government by

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CRM MATURITY BY INDUSTRY

High Financial ServicesPharmaceuticalsRetail

Medium AutomotiveHealthcareManufacturing

Low Government

Source: Barton Goldberg ISM Inc, 2004


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creating a new public square for civic engage-

ment. Each place on the continuum is

explored and illustrated with examples of

where it has been made to work.

No one point on the continuum is superior

to the others each adds value of its own

accord. And, to illustrate each place on the

continuum, where the more advanced

include the previous functionality, it is use-

ful to examine snapshots of exemplaryorganizations.

Commodity: An Answer to aSpecific Pain Point

A commodity response involves answering a

specific pain point in government service

delivery of operations. For instance, the city of

Indianapolis, Ind., has built its CRM around a

database of 600 call types related to specific

pain points.

The Wisconsin Department of Retirement

Services, which serves members and retirees

from state and local government and other

public institutions, was falling behind in serving

its members, call volume was increasing, and

the agency simply could not answer the

phone promptly or at all. CRM addressed

those pain points.

In a single biennium (comparing 1999-2000

with 2001-2002), the percentage of calls

answered rose dramatically from only 23 per-

cent to a full 93 percent even as the time

taken to connect with a live operator fell from

2.5 to 1.5 minutes. But the phone calls were

just the beginning. The department slashed the time needed to fulfill requests from two

weeks to a single day. The CRM strategy

enabled them to manage e-mail effectively,

with response times falling from two to five

days to 24 hours.

Service: A Platform Solution forResponsive Government

In late 2004, the Miami-Dade 3-1-1

Answer Center became the nations first CRM

implementation to handle calls for both a

county and city government Miami -Dade

County, and the city of Miami, Fla. Project

leaders hope to extend the services' reach to

cover three-dozen municipalities over time

all using a shared platform for responsive gov-

ernment.

Like many local government CRM

systems, Miami-Dade 3-1-1 is configured to

manage resident requests for business andbuilding permits, and act on their reports of

potholes, stray cats and abandoned cars. As

with other such services, the answer center is

more than just answers. Citizen service repre-

sentatives (CSRs) complete work orders and

dispatch non-emergency staff to respond to

citizen requests.

In Hampton, Va., a 3-1-1 contact center

was one of the key strategies identified by the

citys Citizen Delight Task Force. Its name

embodied its mission delighting citizens

during their next interaction with government.

Whether over the phone, on the Web or

face-to-face during Saturday hours at City

Hall at the Mall, the channels all supported a

one-to-one relationship between a citizen

and his or her city.

Hampton has made it real through

reorganization and reallocations, which

increased capacity within existing resources.

City officials hold themselves accountable for

their performance through metrics of

citizen delight data, which is used to report

on results across departmental lines and pro-

vide oversight.Employees who found the best and worst

case scenarios for completing a project helped

develop the metric. For example, it may take

four days to fix potholes. The

database shows that it takes five days to fix

potholes to allow for any issues that

may come up. The metrics in the database

help keep the employees accountable in their

respective departments because the

work order goes to the department with

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Four Approaches to

Citizen Relationship Management


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the expected date of completion. The

employees and department head are

motivated to complete the project on that

specific date or sooner.

Metrics also have a huge impact on the cus-

tomer, psychologically. It improves the cus-

tomer experience when theyre told its going

to happen on a specific date and its going to

take a specific amount of time.

This knowledge management databaseis the same database on the citys Web site, so

customers can call in or go to the Web

database and search on the knowledge

management database.

Intelligence: Insight, DecisionSupport and Accountability

In processing transactions that help manage

relationships, CRM systems create huge vol-

umes of information, which can be refined

into business intelligence data that indicates

what the jurisdiction did, how it did it, and

how much it cost.

Knowing the cost and timeliness of deliver-

ing a unit of service is the mothers milk of

decision support in planning and budgeting. It

also goes to the heart of accountability for

decisions, for actions, for quality.

Chattanooga, Tenn., ramped up a CRM-

driven 3-1-1 system and, like Baltimore and

Chicago before it, got better, faster and

smarter for doing it. The program and the

system that supports it under the banner of

One Call to City Hall went live in February

2003. The contact center has averaged10,000 calls a month, with some 15 percent

of calls coming in after normal business hours.

Significantly, fully half the calls generated a

service request, which can be tracked

through CRM on metrics needed for planning

and tracking. Chattanooga is using CRM to fig-

ure out what counts, count it and hold people

accountable for results.

Hampton, Va., has also shown great results.

The city receives about 700 calls per day and

contact center surveys show that callers are

satisfied to extremely satisfied. With a

population of about 145,000, we are very

pleased with our call volume. says John

Eagel, director of Information Technology in

Hampton. In addition, the number of calls is

steadily increasing, along with the after-hours

calls, which are two indicators that any CRM

3-1-1 program is successful.

Experience: The New PublicSquare for Civic Engagement

Data is a huge part of CRM and it has a pos-

itive correlation with the softer side of rela-

tionships, including when (and how) city offi-

cials get in the same room as citizens to dis-

cuss matters of common concern.

Tucson, Ariz., has been experimenting with

CRM as the coordination hub for managing

the citizen experience with its government.

Tucson made a deliberate decision to open up

every channel it had to encourage civic

engagement on issues important to the citys

future. Tucsons new public square included

e-mail, discussion threads and questions to

the contact center. The CRM system was

used to identify topics for a show, called 12

Answers, the city produced on its civic cable

TV channel. Feedback from the show was

routed back through the other channels in an

interactive process.

The civic engagement was not confined to

mediate communication. The multi-channel,

multi-threaded discussions helped put neigh-

bors with neighbors, culminating in a citycouncil meeting that was held in the conven-

tion center to accommodate the thousand or

so citizen participants. The feedback from that

meeting: citizens believed that they had been

heard in person and online.

9



With a population of

about 145,000, we are

very pleased with our call

volume. In addition, the

number of calls is steadily

increasing, along with the

after-hours calls, which are

two indicators that any

CRM 3-1-1 program is

successful.

John Eagle, director of Information

Technology, Hampton, Va.


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All of the CRM projects just described

relied on a vision and methodology

that took a phased approached to

implementation. Projects like these help

leaders understand what drives jurisdictions

to incorporate CRM strategies and helps

them evaluate whether its the right time to

introduce the technology. In addition, seeing

how other jurisdictions have incorporated

CRM through the different continuums

ranging from the commodity to the experi-

ence options provides a unique perspec-

tive on the choices available.The phases of implementation and areas

of focus include: Getting Started, where

agencies conduct needs analysis, and if they

choose to move forward, craft a vision that

focuses on customer value. The second

phase, Mobilization, is where agencies cre-

ate teams and a communication plan, and

define and manage the scope. The third

phase is the implementation phase where

the contact center is created and the

CRM software is integrated into the

processes. And the final phase sets the stage

for maintenance, support and performance

measurement.

GETTING STARTEDThe first phase, Getting Started, is the

needs analysis/feasibility study phase. Each

jurisdiction needs to go through its own

evaluation of whether the timing is right to

introduce CRM. Through needs analysis,

agencies define the strategy for customer

value, including both the value delivered to

customers and benefits expected in return. If

agencies decide to move forward, the nextstep is to establish an approach incorporating

appropriate metrics to guide the journey all

the while focusing on the customer. One of

the metrics should include measuring the

emotional side of relationships with respect

to the CRM. Align the organization with the

visions and objectives of the CRM strategy.

People must be motivated to do the right

jobs to serve customers. For example, local

governments should clearly and succinctly

communicate the purpose in ways that

reflect the priorities of both internal stake-

holders (operations, policy and political) and

external constituents (citizens, business

owners and community activists), remem-

bering that people internalize vision before

need.

Communicate to build critical mass and

to continuously stay ahead of informal

communications (rumor), particularly during

quiet or tough times.

Creating the VisionDuring this phase, agencies define and

negotiate a shared understanding of the

problems to be solved and the opportunities

to be realized. Its important to cast objec-

tives around greater capacity, and quality of

service delivery and themes which resonate

well with elected officials and residents alike.

Purpose may extend to cost savings, opera-

tional efficiencies through automation, deci-

sion support, public accountability, and eco-

nomic development or competitiveness.

Also, agencies should avoid the common

error of offering CRM as a technology solu-

tion to an ill-defined problem or opportunity

or to talk about the technological means

before the business and policy ends.

Agencies are working cooperatively, yet

independently, to realize the vision of digital

government. No agency can successfully

deliver digital government services alone.

Mutual, interdependent development of a

shared citizen interaction hub is necessary

for citizens to experience online services

through one government.

In addition, agencies must earn the execu-

tive sponsorship of the city manager, mayor,

county executive, or similar top-level sup-porters to be the champion. This champion

needs to evangelize the idea, galvanize the

participants around the purpose, and spend

personal and political capital as needed to

keep sometimes competing interests aligned

especially as compromises need to be

made to realize the shared vision.

Hampton, Va., CRM implementation was

an excellent example of a project being

successfully championed. Assistant City

Manager Mary Bunting visited all of the

departments to get them enthusiastic about

the project by staying on message that it was

going to happen. The employee was really



Planning, Implementing and EvolvingCRM and 3-1-1

NEXUS

CAPACITY

VALUE

PROPOSITIONSUPPORT

Figure 2: The Nexus of Success

10


11/24

trying to get buy-in from the departments so

that they would accept it, says Eagle, who

strongly believes you have to have someone

at the top to champion your project.

Understanding Public-SectorAuthorizing Environments

Harvards John F. Kennedy School of

Government identified the three primary

and interrelated aspects of a public-sector

authorizing environment: value, support and

capacity (see figure two, p.10). On its face,

public CRM is strong in all three areas: The value proposition for the citizen is

clear in terms of more ready access to more

responsive service delivery.

Political support for public CRM tends to

be strong and often intuitive because of the

compelling case for it based on the impact

on citizen service, internal efficiencies and

accountability.

Capacity is at the heart of public CRM,

which extends the value of existing produc-

tion systems and adds a layer of coordination

and statistical tracking of service delivery.

The nexus of the triad in Figure 2 (page

10) is where the value proposition holds, the

support is in place and the capacity is avail-

able. This is the place where success is most

assured. Case studies from Harvard confirm

that failure occurs when an activity or initia-

tive operates outside of this area.

Evaluating theApproach Strategy

It follows then that the proximity to the

nexus influences the build-out of any CRM

system. In jurisdictions where there is strongalignment, it is possible to pursue a strategic

architecture-oriented approach, while oth-

ers (particularly those with strong support,

but insufficient capacity) have frequently

taken a mandate-oriented approach.

Alignment takes time. Planning and imple-

menting CRM and 3-1-1 services varies

significantly for cities and counties across the

country. Chicago, Ill., Orange County, Calif.,

and Miami-Dade, Fla., took two, three and

11



February 2002

February 2003

September -

December2002

July 2002

Gradual switchover and phase-in process, agency-by-agency,

into integrated One Call center

Formal launch of Chattanooga 3-1-1

Media (news, public service and paid advertising) awarenessof new service begins

Build knowledge base of questions and responses, based on

best practices for each type of service request

Configure Motorola CSR system around Chattanooga rules,departmental processes and best practices

Recruit customer service representatives, a new breed ofpublic servants, to staff the 3-1-1 contact center

City names its first-ever director of the office of performancereview, with a first priority mandate get Chattanooga 3-1-1 upand running

Mayor approaching first year in office

Due diligence (site visits and other research) by the IS depart-ment in consultation with mayors staff hone process and plan

Issue RFP for One Call center, including hardware,software and consulting services

Recruit for newly created position of performance audit manager

May 2002 Mayor uses State of the City Address to unveil Chattanooga3-1-1 as a priority

August 2002 Contract competitive awarded to Motorola for build-out ofChattanooga3-1-1

January 2003 Customer service representatives on board and being trained

October 2003 City launches ChattanoogaResults, with monthly reports ontracking data for most major departments and quarterlyreports for other publicly funded agencies

CHATTANOOGA, TENN., 3-1-1 TIMELINE


12/24

five years respectively to reorient themselves

around CRM. For their part, Dallas, Texas and

Chattanooga, Tenn., took only six months to

implement, although each benefited from

groundwork such as strategic planning, busi-

ness process documentation and in some

cases, a procurement process that can easily

consume an additional year or more.

Although time to launch is a reflection of

organization readiness, it also reflects the

underlying approach, which included two

broad areas: an architecture-oriented approachand a mandate-oriented approach. The first

focuses on building capacity initially, while the

latter reflects the political realities of executive

sponsors wanting change immediately. Both

approaches achieve equilibrium sooner or

later, but take different routes to the nexus.

Kansas City, Mo., is exemplary

of the architecture-oriented approach and

Chattanooga launched under a mandate-

oriented approach. Each is discussed in turn.

Architecture-Oriented ApproachKansas City enjoyed significant growth in

recent years. The population now approach-

es a half-million people, the economy has

expanded, and civic spaces now include a

new sports arena and entertainment district.

The growth has added scope and complexity

to the city managers Action Center, created

in 1974 as a one-stop shop for accessing gov-

ernment services. Over time, new

organizational silos developed around new

service offerings, resulting in a city hall with 15

entry points.

The mayors Service First Initiative setout to refresh service delivery channels while

improving the ability of the mayor,

council and department directors to know

how much basic services cost for purposes of

planning, budgeting and accounting.

CRM and 3-1-1 is central to Service First

in improving service delivery, consolidating

entry points, monitoring performance, sup-

porting cross-jurisdictional collaboration (with

Jackson County among others), and enabling

economic development by expediting permit-

ting and planning.

Under the joint executive sponsorship of

the mayor and the head of the Action Center,

Kansas City took a deliberate, architectural

approach to building a robust infrastructure

that will serve as a new platform for service

delivery and managing internal operations.

The city is taking care of modernizing its back

office first as preparation for 3-1-1, and taking

the time to get an Enterprise ResourcePlanning (ERP) suite in place before tackling

CRM. ERP systems consist of software pro-

grams that tie together all of an enterprises

various functions such as finance, manufacturing,

sales, and human resources. The software

also provides for the analysis of the data to

plan and forecast. The architecture-oriented

approach is possible in a locality with a strong

city manager form of government where

improvements can take place over time.

The architectural choices grew out of the

citys strategy to use technology as a way to

codify work processes and establish best

practices around each of them as a first step

toward CRM (which will replace an existing

request tracking system that is unable to scale

to meet the citys current needs).

Kansas Citys CRM will ride on top of ERP

interfacing customer service to human

resources to track the number of hours of

staff time taken in responding to service

requests; to procurement to track the cost of

supplies in delivering a unit of service; to GIS

to identify geographic patterns in service

delivery; and to performance managementand financial modules of ERP to help

with budgeting and planning for future

service delivery. The city has already seen

growth in revenue collection with the

back-office reforms.

The CRM service also will ride on top of

expanded communications infrastructures

that leverage an existing large private branch

exchange, voice services that is being expand-

12



The architectural choices

grew out of the citys

strategy to use technology

as a way to codify work

processes and establish

best practices around each

of them as a first step

toward CRM.


13/24

ed by adding automated call distribution for

handling increasing call volumes, and wireless

technologies to support handheld devices

that keep field workers in the field and out

of the office.

Mandate-Oriented ApproachChattanooga is a case study in the power of

commanders intent. The citys director of

finance and performance, David Eichenthal,

remembers the moment the mandate for fast

tracking Chattanooga 3-1-1, the citys 3-1-1system, was set in stone on his first day on the

job. The mayor told talk radio the day before

Eichenthals first day that it would take six

months to implement Chattanooga 3-1-1. So

when a local reporter asked Eichenthal how

long it would take, he said, Well, I guess

about six months. Eichenthal said that hed

been in government long enough to know

that when the mayor says six months, its

six months.

Eichenthal and Mark Keil, the citys CIO and

chief steward of Chattanooga 3-1-1, have no

argument with an architectural approach to

implementing CRM. In fact, they are confident

they will end up there but in reverse order

to the experience in Kansas City.

By way of background, Chattanoogas

population of 155,000 people makes it

Tennessees fourth largest city. It has a strong

government, with a popularly-elected mayor

and a nine-member city council.

The story of 3-1-1 in Chattanooga begins in

2000, with the election of Mayor Bob Corker,

who had campaigned door-to-door exten-

sively. After knocking on about 9,000 doors,he became convinced of two primary prob-

lems in the relationship between citizens and

their government.

The first was citizen access to government.

Residents had told him over and over again

that Chattanooga city government was

difficult to reach and deal with even though, as

city governments go, it was really not that big.

Even in a mid-sized city, people did not

know where to go to resolve problems,

never mind one place to contact to resolve all

problems. At issue was what Eichenthal calls

blue-pages roulette, where residents were

faced with literally dozens of different phone

numbers for dozens of different city services

in the blue pages.

The other problem that Mayor Corker

confronted when he came into office related

to accountability. Corker cut his teeth in busi-

ness and delighted in the notion of looking

continuously at the bottom line of a profit-and-loss statement and knowing how well his

business was performing. As mayor, he

received monthly spending reports, but there

was little data about the citys performance in

terms of the quality and quantity of city serv-

ices. Eichenthal remembers, There was real-

ly no useful information that could become

the focus of a dialog about departmental per-

formance.

Early on, the mayor was interested

in, and embraced the ideas behind

Baltimores 3-1-1 programs and its award-

winning CitiStat system of performance

measurement, which was the catalyst for

Chattanooga 3-1-1 and Chattanooga Results,

which were shaped by four key decisions

made early in the planning process:

Chattanooga 3-1-1 would not be in the

business of taking police or fire non-emergency

calls, consistent with the original intent for

3-1-1 services of focusing on civic services,

including the full range of public works,

parks and recreation, and other neighbor-

hood issues.

Chattanooga 3-1-1 would be live, voice- to-voice contact between citizens and their

government no interactive voice response,

no menu of telephone prompts, and no

automated responses, for citizens trying to

connect with their city.

A third party would build Chattanooga-

3-1-1. The city of Chattanooga made an early

decision to stay with its core strengths of pol-

icy making and direct service delivery. While

13



Mayor Corker cut his teeth

in business and delighted

in the notion of looking

continuously at the bottom

line of a profit-and-loss

statement and knowing

how well his business was

performing.


14/24

the citys information services department

would play an important role in the planning

process, the city would leverage the core

competence of an outside contractor to

design, build and implement the 3-1-1 services.

The distinguishing characteristic of

Chattanooga3-1-1 would be that the city was

the first to integrate 3-1-1 and performance

management. The decision shaped every-

thing from defining program objectives and

codifying best practices to integrating per-

formance metrics and choosing the hostingenvironment. Chattanooga3-1-1 is housed in

the Office of Performance Review, not the

mayors office or the IS department.

MOBILIZATION PHASEIn the second phase, Mobilization, agencies

need to plan the work and work the plan. In

this phase, jurisdictions develop a compre-

hensive, malleable and widely available plan

for implementation. By definition, the imple-

mentation involves every operational unit of

the government and, in some cases, neighbor-

ing jurisdictions. This is the phase where agen-

cies create teams and a communication plan,

define and manage scope, and evaluate and

possibly revise business processes.

Creating TeamsThis is the time to create the team, which

should include, at a minimum:

Project champion

Executive team/functional managers

(build bench strength)

Project manager

Consultant Technologist

Recruit executive-level policy makers,

including but not limited to department

directors from all involved public entities,

work through the purpose, scope and

implementation strategies at the outset, and

address issues that emerge during the build-

out and deployment.

For example, if your CRM project includes

the mayors citizens assistance office, the

municipal courts, solid waste, public works,

and parks and recreation, be sure to include

an executive-level department director from

each of those departments.

For Indianapolis, Ind., the CRM project

included the administrators of the divisions

and departments directly involved, including

the administrators of the Department of

Public Works, Animal Care and Control and

the Division of Compliance.

Getting senior management on board iscritical to the projects success. For

Chattanooga, it would have been difficult to

have accomplished the CRM project without

strong mayoral support and leadership. The

project was in the mayors State of the City

speech. A separate new unit within the

mayors office was set up to make it happen.

During town hall meetings, the mayor kicked

off the sessions, emphasizing to employees

and citizens that he was behind the project. In

addition, Chattanooga administrators wanted

to know how they could do better. They saw

the CRM strategy as a chance to obtain better

information to better manage their departments.

Build the team carefully. A dedicated

project manager, with the trust and financial

backing of the champion and executive team,

leads a broader team of operational and

business staff from participating agencies to

reconcile existing processes with new ways of

working to realize a new model of integrated

service delivery through CRM. Bench

strength is a function of those operational and

business staff who are formally assigned

to working on this project, in contrast to those whose participation relies on

volunteer effort.

A commitment to CRM involves formerly

discrete departments giving up autonomy

over people, budget and control for direct

service delivery. An intuitive resistance to such

changes can only be overcome with a

combination of a compelling vision for

improvements, department directors who

14



Getting senior manage-

ment on board is critical to

the projects success. For

Chattanooga, it would

have been difficult to have

accomplished the CRM

project without strong

mayoral support and

leadership.


15/24

have a genuine interest in improvements, and

pan-agency leadership that makes such

improvement a sustained priority.

Have a guide by the side, which should

be a consultant. The magnitude of operational

change brought about through CRM is not

always apparent at the beginning of the jour-

ney. While the public-sector team and bench

are properly focused on realizing a particular

mission, they may have difficulty de-linking

those public missions from the paper-bound,

labor-intensive processes that have been used to reach those objectives. A third party, by

virtue of having gone down this road before

with other clients, can provide expert

guidance in automating (and reengineering as

necessary) the processes through which the

public mission is realized.

Ensure technologists are involved from the

beginning, since technology is core to the suc-

cess of the CRM system. For Pat Holdsworth,

who ran the CRM project for Indianapolis,

Ind., technologists were key contributors to

his CRM team. The technologists came from

the GIS and Web services divisions in the

Information Services Administration.

Creating a Communication Plan When creating the communication plan,

the communication needs to occur at the

beginning, during and after the CRM

implementation. The rumor mill is the most

efficient communication system in an

organization, so frequent communication

about change activities is a must to keep the

organization accurately informed. According

to Achilles Armenakis, the Pursell Ethicsprofessor at Auburn University College of

Business, all forms of communication need to

answer the question: Whats in it for me? in

order to ensure employees hear the messages.

Continued interaction between CRM oper-

ations and departments is crucial to respond

to and anticipate changing patterns of service

requests. In addition, triage service requests

to optimize available resources and keep

service delivery channels aligned with changes

in business rules, policy or enabling legislation.

For Chattanooga, a combination of having

strong mayoral leadership, good administra-

tors willing to adapt to change, and communi-

cation made the project a success. If folks had

questions at any level, they answered those

questions honestly. They admitted there

were going to be changes and they admitted

there were going to be problems, but were

going to work through them because the end

result was going to be better.

Defining and Managing ScopeThe plan provides discipline in gathering

requirements from previously discrete busi-

ness units, unearthing and defining dependen-

cies early, dividing the whole into digestible

phases, and marshalling and coordinating

resources to complete milestones on schedule.

Talk with those who will be served through

the new system. Good management of

citizen relationships assumes that citizens are

actively engaged in the design of the systems

that government will use as the new front line

of service delivery.

Early and broad consultations with the

public (broadly defined to include businesses

and community groups) can be instrumental in

honing the vision, gaining support and appro-

priately scoping the project. Successful jurisdic-

tions have listened to those they serve through

Town Hall meetings and other public conversa-

tions in preparing for CRM implementations.

Managing Scope Across

Jurisdictional Lines Agencies may need to reach across

jurisdictional boundaries to use a CRM

initiative to create a single point of govern-

ment for citizens and businesses in a given

geographical area while solving problems for

more than one unit of government.

Success in such a multi-jurisdictional

collaboration requires peer networks among

the champions, project managers, teams, and

15

For Chattanooga, a combi-

nation of having strong

mayoral leadership, good

administrators willing to

adapt to change, and com-

munication made the proj-

ect a success.




16/24

benches in the context of a joint planning and

implementation process. Success also demands

attention to sovereignty issues for the part-

nering jurisdictions to ensure they do not lose

control of the relationship with their residents

and the data used in serving them.

IMPLEMENTATION PHASEThe third phase is where the CRM software

is integrated into business processes. At this

point, jurisdictions have completed their own

needs analysis, created teams and plans, andreengineered business processes and work-

flows based on best practices. With over a

decade of practice in the private sector, CRM

implementations today focus on data quality,

not the technology. Jurisdictions should imple-

ment the project in the way that works best

for them, train the staff for optimum results,

and promote the programs so citizens use it.

Reengineering Business ProcessesOne of the most important steps to CRM

success is changing the business processes, if

needed. At implementation, CRM is a launch-

and-learn environment. Having reengineered

and automated processes prior to the go-

live, the first 30 to 90 days of operations

will open up new issues that will require fine-

tuning and re-automation.

Reengineering business processes means

abandoning long-established procedures

and looking with fresh eyes at the work

required to create a companys product or

service and deliver value to the customer.

Some jurisdictions define step-by-step

procedures to complete each service theyprovide. According to Michael Hammer and

James Champy in Reengineering the Corporation:

A Manifesto for Business Revolution,

HarperBusiness, 2001, it means asking this

question: If I were re-creating this company

today, given what I know and with current

technology, what would it look like?

Reengineering business processes also

means revising multiple processes including

workload allocation across previously

autonomous agencies or silos. Its change

management. Managing change across agen-

cies needs to be done early in the CRM pro-

gram to enable operational, behavioral and

cultural transformation. Technology needs to

take a backseat to the business value it is

delivering. Finally, the team must develop

best practices for fulfilling the myriad service

request types. To that end, understand

departmental processes, policy and prac-

tices; reduce them to their functional equiv-alents; and document, codify and automate

them in order to transcend separate depart-

mental operations with a common service

delivery platform.

Vendor applications provide best practices

to business processes; however, best prac-

tices should be used as a benchmark, not a

roadmap. By following the vendors best

practices, jurisdictions may save money

upfront because they avoid custom changes

to the application, and may save money down

the road by alleviating custom changes

required for upgrades.

The experience of successful implementa-

tions suggests that:

Introducing a new model of service deliv-

ery is better than retrofitting the old model.

A phased approach is more sustainable

than a big-bang implementation.

An enterprise CRM strategy that covers

the full range of service requests has higher

public value than CRM solutions that are

limited to a single department.

The Contact Center When putting together the CRM pro-

gram, executives should first look to cre-

ate one of the most important compo-

nents the contact center. The contact

center is the central hub that can be phys-

ically located in one place or distributed

across multiple locations. It is the place

where 3-1-1 callers connect with the

agents and communicate information

16



CRM implementations today

focus on data quality, not

the technology. Jurisdictions

should implement the

project in the way that

works best for them, train

the staff for optimum

results and promote the

programs so citizens use it.


17/24

through one of several channels of com-

munication, including telephone, e-mail or

Web-based services.

The front end of the contact center is the

communication component (phone, e-mail,

Web) where citizens and agents come

together and information is captured into

the system. In the middle is the contact cen-

ter software that manages all of those inter-

actions through call management software

that applies automatic call distribution, inte-

grated voice response or universal queuing.Routing and queuing decisions are made

based on the communication channel

(voice, e-mail, Web) and the best skilled

agent available to handle the contact.

When the information arrives on the

agents desktop, the computer screen

shows information, such as the persons

identity. Along the way, reporting is available

to track just how long the caller waited and

other statistics that are important to manag-

ing an effective contact center.

As executives decide how to build the

contact center, the first decision must

address whether there will be a single con-

tact center or multiple, distributed call cen-

ters. Decision-makers must be able to

determine where agents are being placed

and how location meets the needs of callers

and the agencies affected by the calls.

Efficiency is important and executives cannot

afford to overspend on too many call cen-

ters that may or may not be useful.

Next, decision-makers need to consider

the people factor, which is a very important

element to costs since 70 percent of thecosts are in the people (agents) and 20 per-

cent-plus is communication costs. Experts

suggest that an efficient contact center is fun-

damentally about how well people are used.

Does the center use a self-service model

applying the aforementioned call manage-

ment software? When calls are transferred,

are they transferred correctly before a

human comes on the line and has to do the

transfer? Is that the right person who can

help? Answers to all of these questions save

money.

The CRM software that sits on the agents

desktop should be an integrated database

that can manage all of these requests. Its

where the agent types in information about

the customer, why he or she called in, etc.

Does the person need a call back? Its the

application on the backend that is going to

help solve problems. People are brought in

for a particular type of service and then thecontact center provides a solution through

the aid of the software and tells the cus-

tomer the answer.

The contact center, call management soft-

ware, and the agents using the CRM soft-

ware are the elements that deliver the

3-1-1 solution, and therefore, should all be

taken into consideration before leaders

drill down into the specifics of the CRM

implementation.

Integrating the CRM SoftwareThe CRM vendor will most likely lead the

integration step, but the integration should

only begin once the groundwork has been

completed. For example, the city of

Hampton divided the software into three

engines, which mirror the groundwork

that was completed first, before integrating

the software. The software divisions included:

Workflow Engine request processing;

Knowledge Management frequently

asked questions (over 3,000 questions and

answers reside in the database,); and

Customer Database Information oncitizens.

Indianapolis focused on three major areas

when it configured the CRM software:

People:You must have the right people

in place for change management. Egos have

to be thrown out the window or youre

doomed for failure. The administrators on

the CRM team evaluated their departments,

found the problems and fixed them. No one

pointed fingers. They all took an honest hard

look at the problems and figured out what

needed to be changed.

Process: Fix both the physical (instead

of turning left, turn right) and business

processes (workflows). Change the process-

es so that technology can improve on it.

Technology: Configure the CRM sys-

tem to work with the changed processes.

Important note: Jurisdictions have the

choice to change business processes before

integrating the software or they can cus-

tomize the software to follow their

business processes. Customizing software

comes with a price. Changing business

processes may mean that the workflow was

inefficient in the first place.

Training and Retraining Staff After integrating the software, the goals

are to train the staff to provide citizen acces-

sibility. Change efforts by definition require

individuals to do their jobs differently.

Jurisdictions need to provide training on not

only how to perform the tasks the change

activity addresses, but also on what the new

acceptable behavioral patterns should be.

17



Whats important to note:

Jurisdictions have the choice

to change business processes

before integrating the soft-

ware or they can customize

the software to follow their

business processes.


18/24

For example, is teamwork now a key com-

ponent of success? Is customer account

management a new skill required of the

employee? Learning customer service skills

should be a top priority. In fact, some CSRs

even learn key phrases in different

languages. Make sure the employee is provided

the opportunityto learn any new behavioral skills.

Another aspect of training includes training

the customer service employees to learn the

business processes along with the software.

Help the representatives understand how

the jurisdiction works. Let them go out into

the field to experience, first hand, how dif-

ferent areas operate. This helps to create

the team and to provide better service to

citizens. In addition, train the field employ-ees on how customer service works, so that

both CSRs and field employees are helping

each other instead of pointing fingers.

Marketing to the PublicThe 3-1-1 non-emergency phone num-

ber provides an excellent focal point for a

marketing campaign. Its an easy number for

citizens to remember and it makes sense,

since it follows in the footsteps of the 9-1-1

emergency phone number. Marketing helps

brand the program in the minds of its citi-

zens and helps to promote the program,

which in turn increases the value of the pro-

gram to the city. The citizens need to know

about the CRM 3-1-1 program, so that they

realize the value the city has brought them.

Some agencies launched their programs

with billboards and radio advertisements.

Others used non-emergency vehicles as the

communication vehicle.For example, Hampton, Va., promoted its

program in a variety of literature, on its Web

site (www.hampton.gov) in the Contact

Us section, on vehicles, and on billboards.

The city also distributed a press release and

wrote an article. To keep the marketing low-

key, the city did not do any media blitzes.

Chattanooga advertised the 3-1-1

programs, positioned the program in the

minds of the public as a city government

service. One of their most effective means

of advertising is displaying the 3-1-1 logo on

all city vehicles. The CSRs and the director

of performance receive letters of commen-

dation for the 3-1-1 staff who have gone out

to clear up a storm water problem, fill a pot-

hole, and solve other problems.

Indianapolis has had a contact center in

place for 12 years, but the software was

antiquated with no support available.

When the city implemented a new CRM

system to support the contact center, the

marketing campaign included a press

release on the newly installed CRM

system and a grassroots promotionaleffort where city representatives attended

neighborhood associations and demon-

strated the CRM in action via its

Web-based interface.

MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT ANDEVALUATION PHASE

In this final phase, jurisdictions focus on

maintaining the systems and evaluating

whether benefits are being realized.

Maintenance falls under three categories:

providing the support in-house through the

IT team; paying for support from the CRM

vendor, or outsourcing the support to a

third-party vendor. Evaluation encompasses

customer satisfaction and performance

review two key indicators that help deter-

mine whether the CRM initiative is successful

or not. One measurement is on the cus-

tomer side, the other measurement is on the

application side. Customer satisfaction is akey factor in driving return on investment for

CRM. Meeting performance goals is another

metric. In addition, one final measurement

comes into play accountability. How is the gov-

ernment, itself, operating? With reports provid-

ing factual data, CRM systems provide valuable

jurisdictional performance results, as well.

Hampton, Va., uses customer satisfac-

tion tools, including random phone

surveys when citizens call in and a formal

survey that measures satisfaction, which is

administered by an outside vendor. The

formal survey is conducted once a year in

the fall season. In addition, based on the

survey results, employees may receive

additional days off, such as the day after

Thanksgiving as a bonus. The higher the

rating, the more days off employees will

receive during the holiday season.

Its a real incentive to get those holidays

off, says Eagle. The 2004 Hampton Survey

results just came out and are posted on the

Web in the Whats Hot section. The citys

score was in the 90s, which is a really good

score and an increase from before.

Providing Maintenanceand Support

Maintenance and support is straightfor-

ward with CRM. Whether jurisdictions sup-

port the CRM in-house, via the vendor or

outsource to a third-party vendor, the

reasons vary from cost to skills, and from

convenience to availability.

18



The 2004 Hampton

Survey results just came

out and are posted on the

Web in the 'Whats Hot'

section. The citys score

was in the 90s, which is a

really good score and an

increase from before.


19/24

Its really an individual jurisdictional choice

that needs to be evaluated upfront before

choosing and integrating the software. If the

decision is made at the end, the cost may be

astronomically high because the skill set is

high in demand or low in supply.

For Indianapolis, Ind., the manager of the

CRM project chose to outsource the mainte-

nance because the city was already outsourc-

ing most of its IT needs. In fact, not having to

use the CRM vendor for maintenance was a

factor in selecting the final CRM vendor. Sincethe city was already paying for IT support, it

saw no reason to pay for additional support.

Evaluating CustomerSatisfaction Data

One of the best ways to see if CRM sys-

tems are working is to evaluate it from the

customers view. Did the problem get fixed

to their satisfaction? Do the citizens have

access to government? Customer satisfac-

tion surveys provide information to analyze

customer satisfaction with contact center

interaction and city services. Some of the

measurements include:

Whether questions were answered to

the customers satisfaction;

Whether their problems were resolved;

How quickly their problems were

resolved; and,

Quality of CSRs interaction.

How managers obtain customer satisfac-

tion data is entirely unique for each case. For

Chattanooga, survey data was obtained by a

simple call back. The department calls peo-

ple back who have called 3-1-1. Thosequarterly customer surveys indicate a very

high level of satisfaction with how 3-1-1 staff

handles problems and the levels of courtesy.

Measuring Performance GoalsAnother indicator of a successful CRM is

to analyze if the contact center is meeting

prior agreed-upon performance goals.

These goals need to be decided ahead of

time and then evaluated after implementing

the system. Measuring performance increas-

es performance. Some of the measure-

ments include:

Response times for emergencies

Answer times

Hold time lengths

Average talk times per call

Abandon rates

Length of time to pick up calls

Call handling

Number of calls taken over a period Number of calls CSRs answer

Types of service calls/requests

Total number of calls received

In measuring performance goals,

Chattanooga found that performance

review was a critical part of the project.

In October 2003, the city launched

Chattanooga Results, which provides

monthly reports on most of the major

departments and quarterly reports on other

departments and some city-funded entities.

For example, the regional transit agency

goes through Chattanooga Results as well

and meets with the mayor and senior staff to

go over the results. The result of the exper-

iment in performance management has

shown increased satisfaction with city services.

Ensuring AccountabilityFinally, CRM provides the opportunity to

see whats getting done and what isnt.

Another way to look at it is CRM allows

managers to make decisions based on facts

as opposed to intuition. For example, over-

time expenditures can be trimmed byreporting back to the administrators how

much overtime is being accrued.

Indianapolis integrated a Master Address

Database into the CRM, which acts as an

address validation system. All agencies see

the same address and whether it exists or

not. Why is this important? Its invaluable

because the city can show its citizens a GIS

map that graphically displays whether services

are being completed or not. For example,

the CRM system can print out a map that

shows where garbage trucks missed picking

up garbage cans or where large amounts of

stray animals exist. It tracks complaints and it

really has changed the way administrators

deal with neighborhoods.

Baltimore, Md., became the first city to

implement a 3-1-1 contact center in

1996, followed by Chicago the next year.

The two early adopters were able to gain

insight into high-volume service requests,such as garbage collection, road mainte-

nance, traffic sign/signal maintenance,

drainage/erosion problems, and aban-

doned vehicles.

Both cities used CRM 3-1-1 to figure out

what counts, count it, and hold people

accountable for the results. Experience has

taught them that performance measures

change over time and that What doesnt get

counted gets discounted. The bottom line

count demonstrates savings and new

revenues attributed to CRM in Baltimore

totaling $13.2 million annually (in a general

fund budget of $1 billion).

Finally, data yields accountability because

performance is suddenly being monitored.

For example, the CRM and 3-1-1 system

makes it easy to trace the progress of serv-

ice requests, which shows how the respon-

sible departmental supervisors are satisfying

the service requests. In addition, the system

provides real-time reports showing trends,

bottlenecks, and response times for specific

types of requests. For example, managers

can receive reports by service type, depart-ment or geographical area. The reports help

departmental management pinpoint out-

standing performance and target efficiency

needs. Before implementing CRM systems,

jurisdictions lacked data about how well

departments were performing.

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Successful 3-1-1 imple-

mentations have been

deliberate in their market-

ing and messaging, with a

comprehensive campaign

that placards everything

from public works vehicles

to letterhead with the

One Call message for

non-emergency services.

What makes the CRM initiative a success?

What makes it fail? The following critical suc-

cess factors should provide insight into how to

successfully implement CRM strategies.

Leadership: The continued active involve-

ment of the executive sponsor keeps the pol-

icy team and operations team focused, while

building in an escalation path for resolving dis-

putes and addressing surprise issues.

Original Research: There is no substitute

for seeing an operating installation that is deliv-

ering value day-by-day, hour-by-hour, in apublic entity of similar size and scale as the

prospect jurisdiction. The team needs to doc-

ument their existing operations as the as-is

model and the site visit as the to-be model,

being careful to understand the details

between the two.

Change Management: CRM forces the

reengineering of multiple processes not

the least of which is workload allocation

across previously autonomous agencies.

Bringing order and coordination to the com-

plexity of cross agency change needs to be

embedded early in the structure of the CRM

initiative for the greatest likelihood of opera-

tional, behavioral and cultural transformation.

Organizational Buy-In: Integrated service

delivery through CRM requires that multiple

agencies commit to long-term operational

change, the first test of which is to keep a full

suite of agencies engaged in the planning and

development process (particularly those that

are independent of the champion).

Departmental buy-in and continued commit-

ment is critical, as is continued interaction

between the contact center and departments.Business Process Integration with IT:

CRM as a shared service delivery platform

that brings together previously discrete agen-

cies and their respective dissimilar business

processes, all of which need modernization

before automation.

Measurement and Metrics: The executive

team needs to identify what need gets meas-

ured based on policy and operational objec-

tives; the operational team needs to benchmark

those measures as done the old way; and the

system needs to track the metrics that matter.

Cross Training: Successful implementations

are attentive to immersing the new category

of customer service representatives into pub-

lic service by ensuring they are trained on

how the city or county works, including

ride-alongs with field employees. In buildingeffective teams, it is equally important to have

field employees exposed to the culture of

customer service so each has a working

knowledge of the way each other works.

Privacy, Security and Information Sharing:

In the risk-averse culture of the public sector,

successful jurisdictions have been vigilant in

developing privacy and security safeguards in

the new shared CRM environment such that

no more personally identifiable information is

collected or shared across agency lines than is

needed to provide the service effectively.

Follow the Call: CRM systems that support

One Call to City Hall create the expectation

of improved and expedited service delivery,

including more precise estimates of response

times and more effective follow through.

Service requests may be open for a relatively

short time, as is the case with missed garbage

pickup or pothole repair, or may require mul-

tiple, layered responses over time such as

recovering from natural disasters.

Marketing:As internal processes are trans-

formed through CRM, it is important to bring

the public along with governments new wayof doing business. Successful 3-1-1 imple-

mentations have been deliberate in their mar-

keting and messaging, with a comprehensive

campaign that placards everything from public

works vehicles to letterhead with the One

Call message for non-emergency services.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS


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Successful implementations

are attentive to immersing

the new category of

customer service repre-

sentatives into public

service by ensuring they

are trained on how the

city or county works,

including ride-alongs with

field employees.



According to Gartner Research, imple-

menting a successful CRM initiative is a

challenge, but one that can be overcome with

strategic planning and innovative thinking. This

list of lessons learned from others who have

forged forward should help in circumventing

issues that are below the radar screen.

Joint Governance of CRM as a Shared

Application: No single agency can own what

is effectively a shared application not IT,

finance, nor general services. CRM amd 3-1-1

contact centers change the citizen andbusiness experiences with government

because its agents are able to initiate work

orders that commit the resources of

formerly autonomous departments. Those

departments have a vested interest in the

governance of the new client relationship

layer and have a reasonable expectation to be

part of determining the policies and proce-

dures under which contact center operates.

Build it like a System: CRM and 3-1-1

contact centers have quickly become an

essential part of government service delivery.

Importantly, the common workflow

processes have replaced agency-specific

scheduling and tracking mechanisms,

becoming as essential to government opera-

tions as any mission-critical system with

attendant needs for business continuity and

disaster recovery.

Working through the Dynamic of

Collaborative Responses to Single Events:

CRM and its attendant processes need to be

designed to accommodate widely different

service requests. The nature, complexity and

time required to respond to a one-timerequest to fix a pothole or tow an abandoned

car contrasts sharply with the multi-part,

multi-agency response during extended

recovery periods following natural disasters.

Truth in Status Tracking: Automating

incomplete processes can skew the statis-

tics on which programs such as CitiStat rely

upon. Large volumes of open tickets or

service requests can be charted as a nega-

tive performance measure even when

longer recovery times are appropriate for

complex, multi-phase responses. Conversely,

open tickets can be time out according to pre-

set parameters, with these closed tickets

being incorrectly coded as complete. In

designing reports from CRM systems, meas-

ure what matters but remain careful to under-

stand the input before using them as the basis

of data-driven decisions.

Creating a CSR Career Path in Civil

Service: Modern customer service originated

in the private sector and is unlikely to graft

successfully into the civil service absent delib-

erate steps to create a career path for CSRs

that make public service attractive to people

who are well suited to act as an agent for

citizens in their dealing with government

and who must know how government works

and understand the subtleties of customer care.

Take Positions, Not People in Staffing

Front Line: Contact centers may be best

staffed by candidates outside government

where, by definition, seasoned CSRs are

more likely to be found. Contact centers are

not well served by the perception of threat to

departments competing neither for their best

talent, nor as a potential dumping ground for

marginal employees. Both outcomes are

avoided by appropriating vacant positions (or

FTEs) to the contact center, not people.

If It is On the Web, It is in the Contact

Center: CSRs have any number of systems at

their disposal, including the information and

services intended for direct citizen access on

the Internet. For callers who may not haveimmediate access to the Internet, CSRs can

act as their agents by using online services on

their behalf to respond to their needs. (Over

time, the adoption of Voice Extensible

Markup Language will make online services

available over the phone without live opera-

tor intervention.)

The 90-Day Redo: No matter how long or

LESSONS LEARNED


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