Government Technology - February 2008 - (Page 47)

Watts: The need came because we put services online. And because we made government services available 24/7, that grew a need for support that was 24/7. We’re telling people, “Now you can do this anytime you want.” A government office doesn’t have to be open, and yet, if they get online and get stuck and have a question, they need a way to have it answered. We noticed we were getting e-mail questions all hours of the day. We also noticed transactions were occurring all hours of the day, so it was a logical step. Older generations would consider that a luxury — to not only be able to do something online, but to be able to get support online, especially in a government arena. Younger generations are annoyed if they can’t do something online and are told to go into an office to do it. So more and more, with the younger generation, it’s not a luxury. It’s not even a nicety. It will become a necessity. Q: How is stafﬁng managed? Cowart: Our 311 operators staff both the 311 telephone calls and the VBgov.com Live Assistance. The center is staffed at different levels throughout the day relative to call volume and live assistance statistics. Staffing consists of 14 full-time positions and three part-time. 311 handles, on average, 17,000 telephone calls a month and 2,000 Live Assistance sessions a month. Watts: We [Utah Interactive] do the staffing from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. That’s because the bulk of the questions come in during those hours. After that, we turn it over to another state location, so it’s state employees at an alternate office who answer the questions during the off-peak hours. We have four people who sit here and take chats, and answer e-mails and phone calls. They do all three things, and sometimes simultaneously. The live chat is actually beneficial for us because it’s freer than a phone call. You have a little bit more time to form a response. And it’s quicker in a lot of cases than an e-mail because you have the immediate, back-andforth response. Our customer support people really like the chat environment. Q: What kind of training does the staff get? Where do they get all the answers? Watts: They knew all the answers because they were doing the phone calls and e-mails already. The issue with chat is you have to be on top of your game with grammar. You do with e-mail too. But with chat, because you’re doing it so quickly, we have to hire people who excel in grammar. Q: What kinds of questions do people want answers to in the middle of the night? Cowart: The calls cover the entire range of questions about government services, from how to pay traffic tickets to tax questions, to information about recreation classes, to court-related questions. Time of day doesn’t seem to have any special correlation to the question type. Watts: Because we support all of Utah.gov, I couldn’t even explain the myriad questions we get — everything from what different agencies do, to specific support on an application. I asked customer support to find out what they’re getting after-hours versus during the day, and there are a few things that drive after-hours questions. The first, they said, is deadlines: People come down to the end of the month. For example, they’re late on their vehicle renewal and have to get it done that night. They’re really concerned about late fees. Or they’re trying to pay their taxes at midnight and they want to know if they get it in at 11:30 p.m., does it still count? They also get many questions about our leisure applications, like hunting and fishing licenses. People, after they’ve left work, have time to think about that sort of thing. They also get a lot of homework-related questions. There may be parents helping their kids with state history reports. It’s a lot to know, and normally our live chat staff knows where to find that information on the Web. So in the case of homework help, they can point students to locations on Utah.gov that will help them get the specific answers they need. And all the applications, like purchasing a fishing license or registering a vehicle — they know all those answers. We have more than 800 different online services, and they really are adept at having the knowledge needed to answer questions about those applications. Q: What’s the volume of questions relative to time of day? Watts: I looked at online service on a typical day, Dec. 6, 2007, and we did 876 transactions during normal office hours and 291 outside Cost Breakdown Utah Interactive costs approximately $15,000 per year, said Sara Watts, director of operations and marketing, noting that this doesn’t include stafﬁng resources. And in Virginia Beach, Va., the initial purchase cost for Live Online Assistance program was $5,064 — $1,500 for training and a $3,564 annual cost, said Gwen Cowart, the city’s director of communications and information technology. “Our annual cost is $3,564, which is for three licenses at $99 a month,” she said. “So as you can see, it is a very inexpensive service.” office hours. You can extrapolate this to all our services, so approximately 30 percent of transactions are done outside of normal office hours. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. Is it easier to go to the DMV at 3 p.m., or is it easier to take care of that at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. when you’re done with your work? You can see why there’s a need for these online services and support to help people using them after-hours. We implemented online chat in 2003 as 24/7. The fact is, those questions are going to come in whether someone is there or not. And if you have staff available after-hours, which we did, we might as well utilize them so we didn’t have all those issues to deal with the next morning, and put people off until 11 a.m. or noon. The big thing, too, is the state of Utah has given us the ability to do it 24/7. In 2006, we did more than 61,000 support calls, 80,000 e-mails and 21,000 chats. So chat is still lower than the other avenues, but is increasing every year. Population makes a huge difference for e-government because it’s a lot harder for big states to consolidate services and get applications like these built. It’s easier in Utah, frankly, to get the government to buy in and consolidate the idea around one online service. In California, for example, it’s so huge that, logistically, it’s a lot harder. 47 http://VBgov.com http://Utah.gov http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - February 2008

Government Technology - February 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Screen Products Four Questions for... CSI Effect Bad Medicine Making Health Care Personal Cashing In GIS for Less Nabbing Speedsters First Person: Records Management Chatter Box Oregon Data Centers Go Green Products Two Cents Spectrum Up Close Personal Computing signal:noise Government Solutions - Spring 2008 Power Play Double Duty Cleaning House Twice Prepared Smart Move The Path to Success Foundation for Service

Government Technology - February 2008

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