Forget the airlines and casinos. By 2006, the largest purchasers of CRM technology will be governments offering health and welfare services.
That prediction, made in March by Gartner Inc.’s John Kost, is based on the fact that stuffy government bureaucracies are increasingly using call centers to offer greater convenience to their constituents.
In 1999, for example, Chicago consolidated 150 city government phone numbers into one 311 number, according to a special report by American City and County, a sister publication of Direct. The 311 call center has a staff of 55 service representatives and handles 3.5 million non-emergency calls per year.
What’s the benefit?
Network
