The evidence base

I’ve mentioned Gerry McGovern before, followed his writing for ten years, and along with the thinking that pops up on MyCustomer.com he frequently calls us to Gemba. His latest epistle does no less and uses examples including Amazon and Walmart.

I highly recommend a read for those who want to see how successful web managers do it! It applies univerally, as well.

Social s(t)igma

Social S(t)igma

New posting on MyCustomer.com on Social Sigma. I’ve commented because whilst I agree with it, I think that focusing on a single channel is not such a good idea.

It may be the design or process on that channel at fault…

The many angles of multichannel service

A recent piece on MyCustomer.com on the multichannel customer experience by Rod Street takes its approach from the retail sector but can be interpreted through a government lens.

Where ‘click and collect’ is being used in retail, i.e. you order something online but travel to the store at your convenience to collect it, the vision in government might be the option of making an appointment online, along with partially completing the paperwork,  and visiting an office at a booked, convenient time to sign off the actual paper work and complete the transaction. If the proposed date of the visit isn’t possible, a call is made to the citizen from the contact centre or a text sent and the visit rearranged. This involves analysing customer (citizen) journeys and examining the best solutions.

Importantly, the article points out the need for metrics and aligning the vision, metrics and channel activity. If your channels are closed when journeys or metrics identify the need, its a complete waste!

How do we start? First, we need metrics of channel activity, then we develop and employ a vision to analyse journeys in the best BPR fashion (but now from the citizen angle), we then examine the mutual value obtainable by restructuring the services around the multichannel mix, never forgetting that, unlike the retail sector, government has to be inclusive.

Scotland seeks satisfaction

Having posted recently upon the number of seemingly separate citizen satisfaction projects, I find another from the Improvment Service in Scotland! They have just published a report entitled “Improving the understanding of customer satisfaction & experience in Scottish local government.”

Although I don’t always agree with the conclusions drawn in the report, it does analyse the terms used, in contrast to the English Cabinet Office reports. This means that it considers what ‘satisfaction’, ‘experience’ and ‘opinion’ refer to, along with explaining why its chooses to use the term ‘customer’, as opposed to ‘citizen’. Importantly this is as much a work in progress, with an examination of current practice being presented along with some advisory measures to improve service.

The same week also sees another document appearing on MyCustomer.com, “Service service, service: the new public sector mantra“, which includes some excellent quotations from the Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire, Julie Spence, which some local and central government chiefs could learn from!  Although working in local government might provide a reality check on some of the concepts in the document.

To add to a busy week’s reading there was an announcement by Mary Tetlow Associates that they are joining the bandwagon and promoting ‘customer insight’ at £350 a day workshops…I think the free Scottish document should be a first port of call – its excellent value and it was written by Tetlow Associates!