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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-13-077 - Corporate Customer Service Strategy - Phase 2 Update REPORT TO: Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee DATE OF MEETING: November 18, 2013 SUBMITTED BY: Michael May, Deputy CAO, Community Services (519-741-2200, ext. 7079) PREPARED BY: Jeannie Murphy, Manager, Corporate Contact Centre (519-741-2600, ext. 4542) Sandy Nickel, Manager, IT Planning & Projects (519-741-2200, ext. 7073) Dan Murray, Interim Director, IT (519-741-2200, ext. 7825) WARD(S) INVOLVED: All DATE OF REPORT: October 30, 2013 REPORT NO.: CSD-13-077 SUBJECT: UPDATE ON PHASE 2 OF THE CORPORATE CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION: That prior to completion of Phase 2 of the Corporate Customer Service Strategy, staff report back to City Council in 2014 with the following information: A CRM acquisition and implementation plan (including detailed costing) for Council’s consideration that is in-line with the roadmap outlined in CSD-13-077. A multi-year roadmap (including timelines) for the delivery of additional e-services by the municipality. That the City proceed with the purchase and implementation of the PingStreet mobile application in an effort to enhance online customer service and diversify the options residents have for requesting services and information from the municipality. BACKGROUND: Through a variety of research and public opinion surveys completed over many years, Canadians have consistently identified 5 top factors in their satisfaction with government services. According to that research, citizens are looking for governments to provide: Multi-channel (phone, email, in-person, online) access to city staff and services including self-serve options that are consistent and streamlined across the entire organization. Accurate and complete answers to their inquiries. The ability to check the status of their inquiry/service request (over the phone or online). A “no wrong door” approach to customer service across all channels. An easy way to complain or compliment. 1 - 1 Recognizing these top factors in citizen/customer satisfaction, over the past several years many municipalities across Canada have been pursuing customer service initiatives aimed at: (1) increasing customer/citizen satisfaction; (2) improving the quality and consistency of service delivery across the corporation; (3) reducing costs, and/or; (4) delivering a comprehensive and integrated, customer-first approach to customer service. Municipalities that have completed substantial work in this area include (but are not limited to): Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Windsor, Mississauga, Toronto, Oakville, Oshawa, Quebec City, Halifax, the Region of Peel and the Region of Waterloo. For customers, this renewed focus on customer service has resulted in easier access to their municipal services; greater choice in the channels they use to contact their municipality and request services; a more consistent and predictable level of service from their municipality, and; improved staff support in terms of fewer call transfers, faster response times and more complete responses. Corporate Customer Service Vision & Guiding Principles: In late 2012 staff undertook a comprehensive exercise to benchmark the City’s current customer service capabilities against 14 industry recognized criteria for good customer service (e.g. accessibility, service standards, accuracy and completeness, operations efficiency). This benchmarking exercise and subsequent analysis assisted in the development of a vision for corporate customer service at the City of Kitchener that is intended to guide the completion of Phases 2 and 3 of the Corporate Customer Service Strategy (CCSS). Corporate Customer Service Vision: A seamless customer service experience. Corporate Customer Service Guiding Principles: Channel Availability: (1)Citizens are able to easily access municipal staff and services through a variety of strong channels based on their individual preference (in-person, phone, website, email, social media, etc.) in order to request a service, follow-up on a previous service request, ask a question, or register a complaint. Channel Integration: (2) The City is able to integrate customer contacts across all available channels so that an inquiry or service request (regardless of what channel it comes through) can be followed-up on from where it was last left off. If the customer calls back to follow-up on an inquiry, to get a status update on a service request, or to provide additional information, the service request is readily available for review or updating, containing any new information provided by the responsible staff person or division. Customer Interactions: (3) Customers find it easy to interact with the City and access their municipal services. They are satisfied with their first point of contact (regardless of the channel they use) with the City as a result of a streamlined and standardized process; knowledgeable and well supported staff, and documented service levels that provide them with certainty around response times (to inquiries for information or service requests). Efficiency and Effectiveness: (4) The City takes a corporate-wide approach to customer service performance (monitoring, measuring and reporting) and utilizes data from across the organization to identify areas for potential improvement and to help ensure services are being delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible. 2 1 - 2 The following diagram (Figure 1.0), adapted from the City of Kitchener’s Corporate Technology Strategy, illustrates the seamless approach to customer service and demonstrates the significant body of work required to achieve that vision (e.g. Customer Relationships Management software, Corporate Contact Centre, e-services, mobile computing, Corporate Enterprise Applications). Figure 1.0 – A seamless customer service experience City of Kitchener Corporate Customer Service Strategy (CCSS) In 2007, Kitchener City Council approved the first phase of the City’s Corporate Customer Service Strategy (CCSS). Work on Phase 1 of that strategy was conducted from 2008 – 2011 and included improvements such as: (1) the creation of a corporate contact centre, (2) the establishment of a City Hall Welcome Centre, and (3) the redesign of the City’s corporate website (www.kitchener.ca). 3 1 - 3 On February 4, 2013, City Council directed staff to proceed with Phase 2 of the CCSS which was to focus on the following three major components: Major Components of Phase 2 Customer Relationship Analyzing the business requirements for, and potential Management (CRM) 1 acquisition of, new Customer Relationship Management 1 software software for the corporation. Strengthening the Corporate Contact Centre through the Corporate Contact 2potential expansion of operations to provide 24/7 customer Centre (CCC) service to residents. Developing an e-services strategy for the municipality to 3 E-Services enhance services available through the internet for web- based and mobile customers. Each of these three major components of work contribute to achieving the vision of a seamless customer service experience for residents and customers by improving channel availability, channel integration, customer interactions and eventually, the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal services provided. REPORT: The remainder of this report outlines the work completed, results achieved, and conclusions reached on the three major components included in Phase 2 of the CCSS. Major Component #1 of Phase 2 Customer Relationship Analyzing the business requirements for, and potential Management (CRM) acquisition of, new Customer Relationship Management software software for the corporation. In analyzing the potential acquisition of new CRM software for the municipality, staff has completed the following activities: 1. Customer Management Needs Assessment: In order to identify the CRM business needs of the municipality, all Directors and a few key cross functional managers were surveyed to assess the individual needs of each business unit for a CRM system. Based on this exercise, 17 of 27 Divisions were identified as having a moderate to high need to efficiently and effectively manage their interactions with external customers. Those Divisions include: 1 Customer Relationship Management software is a workflow management, tracking and reporting tool that supports staff in accurately and consistently managing customer inquiries and requests for service. CRM software also allows an organization to integrate customer inquiries across a variety of channels (e.g. in-person, phone, email, online, etc.) and to report to citizens, customers and City Council on a comprehensive corporate-wide basis. 4 1 - 4 Building Bylaw Enforcement Enterprise Community Programs & Services Fire Department Planning Legislative Services Revenue Engineering Facilities Management Operations Transportation Planning Corporate Contact Centre Kitchener Utilities Office of Mayor & Council CSD DCAO/Admin FCS DCAO/Admin CRM Requirements Gathering: 2. The next stage was to conduct in-depth CRM requirements gathering sessions with each of the Divisions identified above. The result of these sessions was a fuller understanding of the Division’s business/service needs and how CRM could improve current business processes and customer interactions. Over 1,300 requirements were initially identified through these sessions. Through consolidation of commons requirements that number was narrowed down to 376 unique CRM requirements within the municipality. For example: the ability to integrate with existing enterprise software such as Cityworks, CLASS, Amanda, etc. CRM Requirements Prioritization: 3. Once the 376 unique CRM requirements were identified from across the 17 Divisions, staff undertook an exercise to prioritize those requirements against the following criteria: i. Relative Benefit: efficiencies, process simplification etc. ii. Relative Penalty: regulatory requirements, operational effectiveness, etc. iii. Relative Cost: complexity, customization, integration, etc. iv. Relative Risk: maturity of technology, availability of resources etc. The results of this exercise were then used as an input into the development of a staged implementation plan for a CRM system – commonly known as the “CRM Roadmap.” 4. Assessment of CRM Software Acquisition Options: A detailed review was conducted of 8 different CRM applications, each of which were evaluated against the following set of criteria. All of these criteria are aligned with the corporate customer service vision and guiding principles discussed above: I. Enhanced Public Sector CRM Capability: This criteria assed the functionality that the software provided. It evaluated the ease of implementing certain requirements based on “out-of-the-box” components versus customization which becomes expensive and difficult to upgrade. II. Enhanced Public Sector CCC Delivery: This criteria evaluated the vendor’s expertise within the public sector as well with Corporate Contact Centers. It also assessed the similarity of the City of Kitchener’s CCC to other municipalities. III. Enhance Public Sector e-Services Capability: This criteria compared the growth opportunity of converting traditional service channels to e-service. It assessed transaction from basic information only, to full online service capabilities. One of the CRM applications staff evaluated (Kana) as a part of this review is currently being utilized by the Region of Waterloo. In June 2012, City Council approved a licensing agreement and Memorandum Of Understanding with the Region for the co-location of both contact centres within the Kitchener Operations Facility. Those agreements also provided an 5 1 - 5 opportunity for the City to leverage the licensing agreement for the CRM software already purchased by the Region. If the City is going to pursue this agreement with the Region, a final decision would have to be made by the end of 2014 and the City would have to fund a variety of related costs including the integration of Kana with other Enterprise systems and the ongoing staff support of the software as per the CRM roadmap discussed below. Through staff’s assessment of the 8 different CRM applications, it has been determined that Kana would effectively meet and support the City’s business and customer service needs. Staff also believe there is an opportunity to acquire Kana through the agreement with the Region at a lower cost than if the City acquired it on its own. Given this opportunity to partner with the Region on the shared use of CRM licenses, in 2014 staff will work to finalize a detailed plan for the potential acquisition and implementation (including detailed costing) that is in-line with the CRM roadmap discussed below and report back to City Council for a final decision on the potential acquisition. Development of CRM Roadmap (implementation plan): 5. Staff took all of the information gathered through the exercises described above and developed a roadmap for how a new CRM application should be rolled out within the Corporation. That roadmap for implementation consists of four individual stages, each of which focus on specific outcomes and will have different impacts on people, processes and technology. The following summary outlines the major focus of each implementation stage: Stage 1: Foundations: • Rollout CRM within the Corporate Contact Centre (CCC), Bylaw, Operations, Mayor & Council Office. • Increase ability of CCC to provide better quality responses to “general information” inquiries. • Implement core functions of CRM software. • Enable call/service request tracking using new CRM to provide metrics to City Council and senior management. • Improve online services and ensure interaction consistency between channels. Stage 2: Enhancement: • Broaden usage of new CRM to more customer facing operations. • Continued increase for CCC support of more “general information” inquiries. • Improve internal process and eliminate manual steps/forms through integration of new CRM with City Enterprise systems (e.g. Amanda, Cityworks). • Create, track and report on service level agreements and performance metrics. • Updates to Council on metrics related to service requests and customer service efficiencies specific to a Ward, project, or division of the City. Stage 3: Optimization: • Improve internal and service processes via technology. • Improve reporting capabilities of new CRM to help better understand citizen needs and potentially adjust services accordingly. • Deploy additional functionality within CRM (e.g. sales, marketing). 6 1 - 6 Stage 4: Continuous Improvement: • Improve operations and services by reviewing service level agreements. • Assess overall CRM operations. • Streamline workflows and scripting etc. Each phase could potentially require 8-12 months to fully develop and deploy, depending on the level of resources dedicated to implementation. Before commencing each subsequent stage, a review should be conducted to ensure the priorities and objectives identified above are still valid. Next Steps in CRM Analysis: With all of this work now complete, staff will work to finalize the resourcing requirements (budget and staffing) to acquire and implement the preferred CRM solution before bringing that information back to City Council in 2014 for a final decision on the potential acquisition. Major Component #2 of Phase 2 Strengthening the Corporate Contact Centre through the Corporate Contact potential expansion of operations to provide 24/7 customer Centre (CCC) service to residents. The Corporate Contact Centre provides front line customer service for citizens and visitors to the City of Kitchener by answering a wide variety of phone inquiries, directing callers to different areas of the corporation, and creating service requests for several divisions including Kitchener Utilities, Operations, Bylaw Enforcement and the Legislative Services general inquiry line. The CCC’s current hours of operation are 7am – 7pm Monday to Friday, 8am – 4pm Saturday and closed on Sundays. It is clear that given the nature of the municipal services supported through the CCC, and the growing expectations from residents to be able to reach a live voice 24/7, operating the CCC on a 24/7 basis is crucial to increasing customer satisfaction and achieving the vision of a seamless customer service experience. To that end, starting in January 2014, the CCC will expand its hours into a 24/7 customer service contact centre and it will also take on responsibility for dispatching duties for the Operations Division (including Parks, Roads, Sewers, Forestry, Horticulture, Sanitation, Traffic, Sidewalks and Watercourse). The CCC will also take over responsibility for managing the afterhours service for the City of Waterloo (currently managed by Kitchener Utilities dispatch). In addition, starting in March 2014 the CCC will begin to phase in support for Kitchener Utilities emergency after hours requests (gas and water), 7 days a week, from 9pm to 7am. Also, the CCC will phase in support for Facilities Management and Operations for 24/7 monitoring of MAStermind, which is the city’s alarm monitoring system, for all city facilities and pumping stations. These adjustments to the services provided by the CCC and the expansion of its hours to 24/7 will be achieved through the reallocation of existing resources from Kitchener Utilities Dispatch to the CCC. The resources that are currently provided to Kitchener Utilities dispatch from Phase 7 1 - 7 1 customers (Bylaw, Operations, and Clerks) for afterhours service will be recovered internally and adjusted to reflect new budget allocations for the CCC. No additional resources are required to make this customer service improvement. Major Component #3 of Phase 2 Developing an e-services strategy for the municipality to E-Services enhance services available through the internet for web- based and mobile customers. Both the Corporate Customer Service Strategy, Phase 2 and the City’s Corporate Technology Strategic Plan have identified the enhancement of e-services as a priority for the municipality. In February 2013, City Council approved the following scope of work for the e-services component of the Corporate Customer Service Strategy – Phase 2: Undertake a comprehensive and systematic review of customer facing city services to evaluate the potential and desirability to offer those services online. Survey citizens to understand what city services they are most likely to utilize online o and what e-services they would not use. Develop list of city services identified as top priorities to provide to citizens online. Prepare an implementation strategy (including any budget impacts) to begin to move services online that are identified as top priorities and endorsed by City Council. The City’s e-Services strategy is being developed to ensure city services are more widely available to the growing population of people who use electronic (digital) services in their day-to- day lives. Research into e-services clearly shows a trend towards a more mature user base that expect to have information at their fingertips whether it is via personal computer, tablet or hand held devices. The city’s e-services strategy will need to recognize and respond to this reality. While work is continuing on the development of the e-services strategy, to date the following activities have been completed: Requirements Gathering 1. – requirements are being sought through staff and public engagement as follows: Consultation with city staff via CRM requirements gathering as well as interviews with various departments. Review of existing call volume reports. Customer Engagement through social media/online surveys. Consultation with the Region on their e-Services initiative. Consultation with members of Communitech. Research of e-Services findings by various studies and other cities. *Additional public engagement will be conducted as we build the services to gather feedback and input from the public. 8 1 - 8 Criteria for Assessing Potential to Offer Services Online 2. – the services currently being assessed using the following criteria: Top items identified through public engagement. Top items identified through the consultation of city staff and subsequent services prioritization. Technical complexity of the implementation. Technical readiness of tools available to / or recommended by the city. Impact of providing service online to current processes and support requirements. Cost to the city. Results of Initial Public & Staff Consultation 3. – while staff are continuing to gather public and staff input about e-services priorities, the following is a summary of the top items identified for consideration as a part of the consultations to date: The following is a summary to date of the findings identified through customer engagement: Information tailored to the citizen (citizens do not want to search for information that is irrelevant to them). Information on road closures (the ability for the citizen to obtain current information on road closures). Ability to report issues such as pot holes, graffiti and dangerous animals in a way that is based on their location. Access to events (a calendar view of city wide events). Online Payments (traffic tickets, leisure ads, utilities). 2 Waste pickup schedule based on the location of the user. Field booking (the ability to book a sports field on line). The following is a summary to date of the findings identified through staff consultations and research: Bylaw complaints (parking issues, property standards issues, boulevards aren’t mowed). Online payments (utilities, account self-service, leisure ads). Utilities information and service requests (request a service call, online appointments, order water heaters, move requests, quotes). Facility & field bookings (ability for customers to book City facilities based on a calendar that shows availability of the facility). Analysis of PingStreet Mobile App 4. – Through work on the e-services strategy staff has identified an early opportunity to make an improvement to the City’s online services through the acquisition and implementation of a mobile application known as PingStreet. PingStreet is a “location-based” mobile application (developed for use on BlackBerry, iPhone and Android devices) that provides real-time access to municipal information and services. PingStreet is currently being used by the City of Waterloo and is also being implemented by the City of Cambridge and the Region of Waterloo. Given its implementation in other parts of the region, functionality will allow users of PingStreet to 2 Yard waste is included in this report as it is a direct result of the feedback from the citizens. 9 1 - 9 access City information and services and also to access some regional services such as garbage pick-up. Should the City choose to proceed with the acquisition and rollout of PingStreet, it could eventually host a suite of information tiles (applications) which citizens could access using their mobile devices. While further work is required to identify the specific information and services the City could provide through PingStreet, the basic functionality of the mobile application would allow citizens to enter their address and information will be targeted to them based on their address. In addition, PingStreet users would be able to submit a service request to the City based on their specific GPS location. For example, if a citizen wanted to report a bylaw issue, pot hole or graffiti, they could take a picture and submit it directly to the City and the app would automatically include the GPS coordinates of this issue. Other functionality could be built into PingStreet in the future to broaden the information and services available through the application. This ability to scale the functionality of PingStreet makes it a foundational element for adding additional e-services to the application in the future. A visual of the application is shown below to assist in understanding what the functionality of PingStreet could include in the beginning phases of implementation. Next Steps The next step in the development of the city’s e-services strategy is to formalize a roadmap for e-services that will identify: The services and information to be delivered via PingStreet and the internet. Purchase and implement PingStreet. The long-term planning for future e-services we will deliver and an estimated timeline. The processes and resources required to support e-services. Staff will continue work on this strategy and present it to City Council in the first quarter of 2014 for its consideration and potential adoption. 10 1 - 10 ‘w·-šÒŒ7tz“m{·©;;·Œšš‰Œz‰;j Report an issue Provides City contact (and picture) such as a information (phone, pot hole or graffiti, based address, email, etc.) on your location Provides a calendar view of pick up schedules Provides a calendar of events in the City Provides information on road closures close to you: Provides news and information released by the city 11 1 - 11 ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN: The Corporate Customer Service Strategy – Phase 2 supports the efficient and effective operations of the municipality as identified in the City of Kitchener’s strategic plan. Specific strategic directions supported by the major components of Phase 2 of the strategy include: Enhance Customer Service: improve the services provided by the city to its customer by using technology to harmonize processes across departments and expand online services. E-Engagement and e-Service are here to stay: Continue to strengthen the city’s online presence by increasing opportunities for stakeholders to provide input into municipal decisions and to access the city services online. Good customer service is everyone’s job: continue to build and strengthen a culture of customer service within the corporation that responds to the changing needs and expectations of stakeholders. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: In order to purchase, configure and roll out the PingStreet mobile application, the following costs will be incurred: PingStreet with 12 configured tiles (data sources) $35,100 eSolutions credit for staff work on eMCA* ($15,100) Total Capital Cost $20,000+HST Annual licensing costs $5,000+HST *City staff has been working with eSolutions throughout 2013 on the design and development of a web-based application for electronic enablement of Municipal Consent Applications (eMCA). Due to the success of the product and the considerable efforts of our staff, eSolutions has provided us with a $15,100 credit towards the purchase of PingStreet. The purchase of PingStreet and the ongoing annual licensing cost can be funded from existing technology budgets (Corporate Website and Infrastructure Maintenance). COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Through a variety of public opinion surveys completed across Canada over many years, Canadians have consistently identified 5 top factors in their satisfaction with government services. According to that research, citizens are looking for governments to provide: Multi-channel (phone, email, in-person, online) access to city staff and services including self-serve options that are consistent and streamlined across the entire organization. Accurate and complete answers to their inquiries. The ability to check the status of their inquiry/service request (over the phone or online). A “no wrong door” approach to customer service across all channels. An easy way to complain or compliment. In developing the City’s e-services strategy staff has begun to engage the public and the local high-tech community to gather their input and priorities for future online services. A summary of the initial findings from those consultations is included in this report (see above). The full results of the public input gathered as part of the e-services strategy will be presented to City Council in the first quarter of 2014, when the consultations are complete and staff present the roadmap for future e-services implementation. ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Michael May, DCAO 12 1 - 12