Thousands of Dollars Saved in Staff Time Spent Managing Requests
Mar 10,2009
Difficult Times - Tight Budgets and Staff Cuts:
Cities and counties are in financial crisis from reduced property tax collections and slashed state and federal funding. Many public agencies are addressing the emergency by reducing staff numbers or hours, while struggling to meet the escalating needs of constituents. Technology that automates routine tasks is extremely effective in making staff more effective and also increasing the quality of customer service delivered to citizens.
Automation Increases Staff Productivity and Customer Satisfaction:
Customer relationship management software designed specifically for the needs of public agencies can provide the infrastructure to make every staff member more effective in meeting citizen need and reduce the overall cost of citizen request and communication management.
For example, Comcate eFeedback Manager web CRM software can be used to log citizen requests directly from the citizen via the city website or from a staff member receiving a citizen call or visit. The request can be auto-assigned based on topic according to the agency’s own ownership criteria. Auto-assignment, auto-reminder and escalation emails may be sent to the request owner and ownership may be re-assigned in the event the owner is away. Every step of case management is stored with the case as history, as well as any supporting documentation.
Citizens can receive automated emails upon request receipt, at stages of resolution, at request completion, or may be sent emails from the staff through the software. Management and staff can create reports on demand or automatically that show case resolution by department, staff member and by topic to improve accountability and highlight resource issues and topics of growing interest. Citizens and management are kept appraised and satisfaction increased.
Savings of Thousands of Dollars in Staff Time:
The use of software to automate request and communication management can also save agencies large amounts of staff time, translating into significant financial savings for the agency. Even more important to forward-thinking management may be the new better decision making insight that the software provides.
- In one survey conducted by Comcate of its users, it was found that use of a city website FAQ for citizen self-service can save $40,000-$60,000 in staff time, or translate into a reduction of 50% in staff request management costs.
- The ability to identify optimal resource allocation and shift resources as conditions change, as identified by case management reports, may save an agency tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Conclusion:
Difficult economic times require innovative solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public agencies. Comcate is the leading provider of web CRM software to public agencies and has more experience in this area than any other vendor. Comcate is uniquely positioned to provide trusted expertise and best practice recommendations as well as well-recognized technology excellence.
For more information on Comcate software, please email info@comcate.com .
