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.