PUBLIC SECTOR CRM

In the modern-day environment, government, local authorities and other public-sector organisations now find themselves with increased pressures on them with regard to the services they offer their citizens, and the wider business community. With an ever-increasing number of organisations looking to free-up valuable management time, capital expenditure and people resources in order to concentrate and focus on their own core activities, outsourcing of non-core or specialist activities is definitely on the increase. Citizens, as much as the modern-day consumer, simply expect far better service than before, with information that is readily available, more consistent and delivered in a high-quality co-ordinated manner.

Third-party service providers who have developed best-practice approaches to previously encountered situations can often, through those past experiences, cope far more effectively with customer relationship management (CRM) issues, and offer proactive solutions to relieve the pressure points many public-sector organisations face.

Many of the benefits of outsourcing are not instantly visible, but they include cost-savings such as salaries, capital expenditure on infrastructure and IT systems (current estimate for the training and equipment to support a call-centre advisor is in the region of £4,000 per seat) and general industry expertise. Effectively, these 'problems' become those of the outsourcer - freeing up the valuable time and assets of the client.

More and more public-sector organisations are turning to a commercial outsourced solution, and with the added deadline of 2005 for full web-based government services, having an outsourcer who can bring a web-enabled single view of a client's customer, track conversations, contacts and the outcomes from those contacts makes for a powerful alliance.

Thanks to developing technology, within today's contact centres customers and consumers can reach outsourced organisations via a number of different channels ranging from telephone helplines and e-mail to website contact and traditional mail-based correspondence. It is the role of the contact centre to help their clients cope with the often complex requirements that such options present.

Far fewer outsourced organisations can offer the truly integrated services of a multi-channel contact centre, response handling/fulfilment (of products and literature) and database-management activity all under one roof: 2Touch is one of those companies that can.

For more information on 2Touch, its full range of services and client case studies, why not visit our website (www.2touch.co.uk) or call 0191 525 7222. Gareth Smith Marketing Director of outsourced contact centre and marketing fulfilment company, 2Touch