Citizen Relationship Management

It is my pleasure to announce that “Citizen Relationship Management - A Study of CRM in Government” is now available. Just follow the link to Peter Lang Publishing Group.

Here is a brief description of the book:

This study explores Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in government. Based on an interdisciplinary literature review and multiple-case study design, a model of Citizen Relationship Management (CiRM) is developed and discussed. The case studies explore the perceptions of CRM/CiRM by administrators, elected officials and consultants as well as its implementation and impact on the municipal level and in a multijurisdictional environment in the United States. Although the explorative part of the study focuses broadly on a theoretical conceptualization of CiRM, the immediate empirical referent of research are the 311 initiatives in the City of Baltimore, the City of Chicago, the City of New York and Miami-Dade County. Thus, the results help administrators and researchers to convey the idea and challenges of 311 well. The study shows that CRM is to a certain extent only partly able to make novel contributions to currently active reform movements in government. In addition, the study’s findings support the idea that CiRM provides the means to a different kind of public participation.

Contents:
From Customer Relationship Management towards citizen oriented government - CRM - New Public Management - TQM - eGovernment - Citizen public administration relationship - Citizen as customer - Administrative contacting as public participation - Case Studies: CiRM and 311 in Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, Miami-Dade County (Implementation, Understanding, Impact) - Comparing CRM with TQM and eGovernment - A model of Citizen Relationship Management - CiRM and public participation.

The UK government has moved on from “electronic government” to “transformational government” (Cabinet Office, November 2005). “Customer-centric” public services and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are seen as key elements of the new agenda. However, CRM originated in the private sector as a technology to support customer acquisition, retention and extension (cross-selling). The appropriateness of this technology to organisations striving to meet complex goals such as improving the quality of life for vulnerable people is open to question. Results of recent UK electronic government CRM programmes show that the focus for many local authorities has so far been systems integration, CRM-enabling call centres and the provision of routine transactions online. More advanced authorities are planning to use CRM to help them understand their citizens better. But more can be done. To this end, an alternative model of CRM progress is proposed which moves beyond transactions and customer insight and encourages citizens to co-produce the public services they consume.

An outline of this paper can be found here. The presentation is availabe on the Program on Networked Government Website.