Political ROI
An election year is upon us once again. And if one thing is clear, it’s that the lines are blurring between hardened political philosophies and even between government and business.
Take the issue of national regulation. As we have noted before, conservatives no longer think the federal government is the root of all evil, at least when it comes to privacy legislation.
Whatever the question, they would much rather take their chances on a federal bill than any that might be concocted by the states.
Then there’s the matter of how officials are using customer relationship management tools.
One such politician is Mark O’Malley, the Democratic mayor of Baltimore. He refers to his constituents as “customers.”
That’s not a totally empty phrase, for Baltimore residents are now able to call a 311 number and get one-stop shopping for all city services. And data is being stored on any number of these transactions.
“Government is not a business, but government can be run in a businesslike manner,” O’Malley said recently during the Gartner CRM Summit in Baltimore.
Can an old-time municipality made up of many duchies and silos make its service departments more accountable? It sure can, according to O’Malley.
Key to the effort is the 311 number program, which is based on what John Kost, Gartner’s managing vice president, calls “citizen service triage.” The objective is to automate as much as possible and have relatively low-level people handle high-volume calls that do not require great complexity.
Citizens now call a single number no matter what the problem. The volume falls in inverse proportion to the complexity. Generalists can answer most questions using scripts. The more complicated calls are referred to specialists.
But that’s only one part of the initiative. In addition, Baltimore now uses “an army of information the way businesses do every day,” according to O’Malley. Case in point: The use of data to determine allocation of resources.
“In the old patronage system of government, if we got 200 new police officers from a grant, we’d bring in the councilmen and say, ‘Congratulations, each of you has 200 officers divided by six,’ he said.
Now the city conducts analysis to deploy the officers where they’re really needed.
Then there’s the function of measuring what Kost calls “political ROI.” O’Malley’s staff is relentless in setting goals, analyzing success and following up.
What’s the success rate?
The call center has handled 1.2 million calls since it opened. But that isn’t all. In 1986, there were 9,500 employees (not counting police, teachers and firefighters). Now there are 3,500.
Baltimore isn’t perfect. We almost got ourselves stomped on the subway during a recent visit there (something that has never happened to us in New York). But it’s doing better, at least in some areas.
O’Malley might find a job in direct marketing if he ever bombs out of politics.
