What's so important about a modern CRM anyway?

Your constituents’ expectations have never been higher. Customer service in the private sector, as delivered by the likes of Apple, Lyft, and DoorDash, has mandated a new way to “do government.”

Modern CRM technology enables all your staff to execute their day-to-day work more efficiently. In turn, they can confer higher-quality customer service to constituents and infuse trust into relationships between people and government.

Our hopes for government technology aren’t limited to the innovations championed in the private sector, but they do serve as a launching pad to know what expectations we must meet – and ultimately exceed.

Centralize Your Processes

Make Better Decisions

Automate and Digitize

Accelerate Staff On-boarding

Connect with Constituents

Build Stronger Relationships

Centralizing your processes into one platform improves your staff’s work experience.

Flipping between multiple platforms to do work is frustrating, not to mention time-consuming. Show staff you respect their time with a modern CRM that brings all activity onto one platform.

And because integrations with other systems are a big part of transforming your organization, a modern CRM will house all data, including data from third-party applications.

The CRM can also centralize all individuals’ interaction with an agency on one record, including:

Their contact information, from phone number to email to social handles.

Build a robust profile of each constituent by capturing all the ways they’ve contacted you.

All the service requests they’ve submitted.

Developing this all-encompassing view can facilitate conversation between customer service agents and constituents, giving them the power to ask questions like, “Is this concern related to the graffiti removal request you submitted last Monday?” to provide best-in-class service.

Social media posts they’ve tagged your agency in.

They're #AllThere, along with the photos included.

Calls your agents have logged with them.

Gauge how frequently your team has interacted with them and reference call notes to see what’s on their mind.

Leverage real-time reporting and predictive AI for better decision making.

A CRM should champion better customer service, and your data can illuminate what’s going well and where you’re falling short. But working with siloed technology may compromise data quality, while pulling reports from outdated legacy platforms may require advanced skills like SQL knowledge.

From matters of public safety (“Do we need more crews to remove ice after a storm?") to reputability ("Do we need to adjust Service Level Agreements communicated to constituents?"), you’re empowered to make the right decisions as informed by your data.

Easily create and update reports and dashboards with drag-and-drop.

Reports can also be run and sent via email on a defined schedule so the most up-to-date, actionable data can be brought into the hands of public sector leadership with ease.

Leverage AI to catch issues before they even happen.

For example, historical patterns can tell us when a community may be subject to heavy snow. You can be prepared by scheduling snow removal crews before the first flake even hits the ground.

Automate and digitize legacy, paper-based processes.

Operating in older systems can create needless manual work. Tap into the power of digitized, automated workflows with a modern CRM.

Moving into the cloud with a modern CRM helps you:

Eliminate paper-based processes.

This is especially useful in assigning and dispatching work for field crews. Go green!

Find information easier.

Commonly-referenced answers to FAQs can be digitized, uploaded, and made searchable in a “Knowledge Base” on the CRM’s backend. When responding to constituents’ questions, there’s no need to flip through binders or stacks of paper anymore. Rather, this time saved can be funneled into offering higher quality customer service.

Offer constituent self-service.

That Knowledge Base we just mentioned? It can be made public for constituent self-resolution.

Avoid duplicative work.

Duplicate check mechanisms will pinpoint and merge duplicative contacts and service requests to maintain your data quality.

Accelerate staff on-boarding with better tools.

A modern, cloud-based CRM can be safely accessed anywhere, anytime, and makes getting to work a breeze.

Your growing team can be trained more quickly.

New hires just need to learn just one platform when being on-boarded.

Modern CRMs are also telework-friendly.

Team members simply need their computer with Internet connectivity to get to work. That’s a major plus during a global pandemic, FYI…

Modern cloud-based CRMs are more scalable than on-premise software.

New team members are simply assigned a license and log-in credentials, and they’re on their way!

Make it easy for constituents to play their part.

It should be hassle-free for constituents to contact local government, especially because this initial touchpoint sets the tone for the relationship downstream. Yet it can discourage civic participation when there are limited channels through which folks can reach out.

With a modern CRM, there’s a way for constituents of all backgrounds to get in touch with you.

Meet your constituents where they are.

Constituents can submit requests through a phone call, web form, live agent chat, AI chatbot, email, social media, and a web-based portal.

Attract new audiences.

A 311 mobile app can appeal to younger constituents who are accustomed to requesting services on a smartphone. It instills a sense of civic responsibility in youth when you make government services accessible this way.

Observe the safety ripple effect.

The on-the-go convenience of a mobile app or mobile-responsive portal can have a ripple effect. Reporting a street light outage is as simple as opening an app or tab, which can prevent an accident at that intersection in the near future.

Build stronger relationships rooted in transparency and responsiveness.

Constituents want to feel heard by their government. But they can feel left in the dark when information about their community is not publicized, not personalized to their interests, or hard to understand.

With a modern CRM, you’re equipped to build a 360-degree view of constituents to keep them in the loop on what matters most.

Transparency and accountability matter.

Share status updates in real-time regarding service requests through email, SMS, and push notification.

Accessible communication allows everyone to participate.

A digital, public-facing Knowledge Base enables constituent self-service. An easy-to-understand and accessible library of information allows everyone to know how their community operates and find answers to FAQs fast.

Sync your CRM to marketing automation tools.

Insights about constituents from your CRM can funnel into marketing automation tools to direct targeted email blasts and advertisements their way.