A WAKE-UP CALL FOR OPERATORS - BEWARE! GOVERNMENTS ARE GETTING INTO CRM

September 2002

The reverberations and repercussions of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington continue to echo around the world. Among various topics, the security and privacy issues highlighted by the events have been the most widely publicised and debated, while others have been left pretty much on the sidelines. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the circumstances, the subject of customer relationship management vis a vis national governments has hardly been the central focus, but that could now be about to change.

A SIGN OF THE TIMES
A couple of days ago, Accenture, the management and IT consultancy house previously known as Andersen Consulting, released details of a study on the CRM attitudes and practices of governments in 11 different countries. In essence, the report indicates that although governments and their various national agencies are becoming more aware of the uses and value of CRM, they still have a long way to go if they are to use it with any degree of success. No particular shock there then, but the study does surprise in that it reveals that emergencies like September 11 can actually assist in highlighting the benefits of CRM for governments, in that it can help them to deliver services to and communicate with the public during times of crisis.

Elsewhere, another research and consulting organisation, the Gartner Group, has brought forward evidence to show that US governmental bodies at least are implementing CRM with some considerable degree of success. Underscoring its importance are the consequences of the economic downturn and the need to bolster internal security in the aftermath of September 11. Those events have helped spotlight the benefits of CRM through which governments can be provided with cost-effective ways to deliver services and provide information, as well as an efficient means of communicating with the general public during times of crisis and national emergency.

It has taken some time, but now technologies and services such as call centres, web portals, data warehouses and data mining are enabling governments to implement applications that are designed (among others) to provide self-service and 24x7 options to the public, improve customer service, streamline government processes and improve inter-agency data sharing.

Not before time, you might well say, and, although tardy, the latest moves are undeniably a step in the right direction. Furthermore, as any governments’ use of CRM technologies expands and matures, it will enable the development and deployment of portals for so-called’ one-stop’ or ‘single-access’ delivery of services and information, that will, in turn, allow people to access services and get information in a seamless fashion that ignores and circumvents departmental or jurisdictional boundaries. And ‘amen’ to that.

A MATTER OF CULTURE
The Gartner study lists a series of issues that the organisation believes need to be addressed to ensure the successful use by governments of CRM. Among the topics addressed are citizen-centric services that will require governments to create and adopt a multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional service delivery approach.

The Gartner report also has it that to implement successful CRM, governments will need to develop training programmes for employees, invest in automation and create a shared CRM culture throughout all governmental organisations. If there’s going to be a stumbling block anywhere, it will be here. Inter-departmental wranglings in the corridors of power have been the stuff of myth, legend and not a few best-selling books over the past couple of hundred years.

The fact is that changing cultures in government agencies has generally been about as time-consuming, rewarding and successful as sitting in a rowing boat in mid-Atlantic and using a tea-strainer to move all the water to starboard over to the port side. In other words, it ain’t that easy.

Gartner also says that any governmental CRM strategy must provide improved service through all available channels (such as via office, telephone, mail and the Web) and that governments will also have to make privacy and security key components of their plans to develop, implement and release CRM components.

So, there’s a lot more to CRM than meets the eye. It’s not just a discipline and an art for competitive commercial enterprises but also something that should be applied across human interactions with and between governmental agencies. Certainly in many governments in many parts of the world the notion of customer relationship management being applied in respect of its ordinary citizenry will be a profoundly alien concept.

For example, it’s going to be a long time before CRM logic and behaviour pertains in the world’s remaining dictatorships and I can’t see CRM being top of the pops in North Korea any time soon, but that’s no reason why it can’t be applied (and lessons learned) elsewhere. Therefore, it’s full marks to the US for trying and time other governments took cognisance of the profound changes that global communication and CRM will eventually have on the way we all live.

OPERATORS: ACT NOW OR ELSE.....
And there’s a big lesson here for the operators too. If governments have woken up and finally understood the importance and potential of CRM, it’s incumbent on the operators (if you’ll forgive not too bad a pun) to realise that CRM is about a lot more than just systems. It’s about attitude, training, commitment to a changed and flexible culture and the determination to take cognisance of the fact that unaddressed organisational and cultural issues can scupper even the most elaborately planned, well-meaning and sophisticated of technological solutions before they have a chance to get off the ground.

Operators should consider this: if governments are beginning to realise and capitalise on the benefits of CRM, it’s time for the likes of Vodafone and BT to look to their laurels. After all, it’s just possible that within the next few years subscribers could be getting better service from the UK National Health Service than from network telecoms operators. And for those operators, that would be a PR and operational disaster of unimaginable proportions. The lesson is, act now or suffer the consequences later – and probably sooner than you think.
Guy Daniels

Director of Content, Decisive Media Group