CRM - March 2009 - (Page 24)

MARKET FOCUS: GOVERNMENT maintain high service quality. “The goal we have is not a lower-cost channel, but more of a self-service channel that can yield lower cost results,” he says. He explains that after being open for business the past five years, there is plenty of robust content that can be available to the populace via the IVR and Web in order to lessen the barrage of calls for live agents. “We have answers to virtually any question someone in New York may have, and it is vetted by our organization as well as the requisite city agencies,” Morrisroe says. “That’s one of our main goals—and the economic pressure helps facilitate that a bit more: to push more information into the IVR and Web than we did in the past.” For Morrisroe, this is all in pursuit of the organization’s mission. “Customer service is public service in action,” he says. “That’s a motto we carry with us.” ROCKY MOUNTAIN SELF-SERVICE Ro Silva, public information and education manager in the taxpayer service division of the Colorado Department of Revenue (CODR), could be deemed a visionary for her time. Back in 1995, her agency began accepting email from stressed-out individuals who needed to send questions about tax inquiries without clogging the phone lines. “We were answering these [using] Microsoft Outlook,” she recalls. “In 2000, we were getting and answering 14,000 emails a year, which was a lot for that time. I knew it was going to evolve into asking the same questions over and over again.” She turned to RightNow Technologies to create a Web self-service channel. Now, Colorado residents with questions come tax season can go to the depart- 2 Tips to Contact Center Implementation Bliss G ary Peckham, director of the contact center for the Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Service, knows a thing or two about quickly revamping a contact center to adjust to a quick mandate. Back in 2000, his department was charged with providing landlord and tenant issues to an additional 800,000 Calgary citizens when the city decided to cease offering the services on its own. Peckham had four months to make it happen, and he says he turned to Avaya to “bring us into the new century.” Looking back at the pain of the initial implementation, he has a couple of tips for government agencies now looking to revamp their contact centers: • Make sure you listen to your employees. “We spent a lot of time dealing with Avaya’s staff and making sure that we were understanding of them,” he recalls. “However, we didn’t spend enough time explaining to our workers why things had to happen in a certain sequence.” • Weigh all the purchasing options, even if you don’t want to “reinvent the wheel. “Government’s mindset isn’t necessarily the ” same as private business where you’re always upgrading on an ongoing basis,” he explains. “When we purchase a product we anticipate that it will last a certain period of time. Consistent upgrades are not built into the budget process. Had we leased the product, we could have had an easier time when we had to keep up with the changing times. We needed to look at other options and how that would have been beneficial to the taxpayer in the long haul.” ment’s Web site and look for answers before trying to email or call. In fact, Silva says, the system is set up so that Web-site visitors have to check out the “frequently asked questions” before being able to access the CODR email interface. Of course, that doesn’t prevent residents from calling immediately. “People can make a phone call because those numbers are listed on our home- “We don’t get allowances for being the government, so we have to keep up with what people want on the Web. ” 24 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | MARCH 2009 page, telephone book,” she insists. “You can call us no matter what.” As a result of utilizing SaaS for its Web self-service, Silva was able to boost CODR’s productivity, satisfaction, and cost-efficiency. The department has realized a return on investment of 8,732 percent, email volume has dropped by 45 percent, and the unit saved $700,000 over an 18-month period. And that doesn’t even account for the peace of mind many residents have now when they can either find an answer quickly online, or be able to get through quickly to an agent with a more-complex question. “Our wait times are pretty good for a government agency…. They are about four minutes,” she says. “Before RightNow, during peak season people waited for 20 minutes to speak with a tax representative.” While there are no plans to innovate www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - March 2009

CRM - March 2009 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Stay Tuned Stimulating Citizen Experience CRM on Twitter Retailers Face Reality Making Relationships Matter Required Reading We the People Innovation Nation CRM and the iPhone Looking to Score The Virtual Welcome Mat A Tough Transition Made Easier A Training Regimen Gets Rigorous A Battle Fought from Afar Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - March 2009

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