The key point is that this is not the only survey, or the only strand of common sense which indicates that the only way to make e-Government used is to generate awareness for it, explain its value to the citizen, urge them to use it, and tempt them into doing so for enough times for the experience to be habit-forming. To do this a local authority or central government department requires good old fashioned (ie decent) marketing budgets and campaigns plus effective business communications skills - not something often visibly defined & resourced in e-Government plans. As 2005 looms near on the horizon, e-Government-uptake needs careful consideration - and strong plans for mixed-media message delivery to the population are cruicial.
For a local authority to get to the first stage (10-15% of target audience) of strong usage for its e-Government services, it'll need Royal Mail's postal system for direct marketing & hand delivered items to the citizen, twinned with email, poster, local radio and some press advertising Without that sport of support, e-Government is likely to be a second 'dot-com' - take heed of the mantra 'we built it but they never came to use it.'
Almost three quarters of the respondents to Transversal's survey said that they hadn’t noticed the impact of the investment made in e-Government and 50 per cent of them were unhappy with the current level of customer service.
The survey investigated how the public contacts local authorities and government departments; one of the objectives of e-Government is to make public services more accessible to citizens by investing in more effective web and call-centre based services. Communication by phone was still the favourite medium for 58 per cent of respondents, compared with only 32 per cent opting to use e-mail or the web. This suggests that local authorities and government departments have yet to establish an effective way to deal with enquiries electronically.
This is certainly supported by the fact that when asked about ways to improve public sector websites, the most popular answer from respondents (32 per cent) was: the ‘ability to answer questions from the public’. Furthermore, 88 per cent said they would be more likely to use these websites if their questions were answered immediately and correctly.
Gerard Buckley, CEO of Transversal, said: “Our survey suggests that more needs to be done to raise the current perception of e-Government. The public clearly hasn’t noticed any improvement in public sector websites. While significant public funds have been ploughed in to content management and CRM systems, there are few public sector websites that allow us to ask a question and receive an intelligent answer in return. Not only is it highly frustrating; it increases our dependence on public sector call centres, many of which have been criticised for poor and slow service. If the government is really serious about e-Government, they must go back and do some basic things to ensure the public can easily access information and have the ability to ask and receive answers to their questions efficiently online.”
Transversal also believes the public sector is misguided in its tendency to implement limited static FAQ (frequently asked questions) lists which are not interactive and don’t give Government an insight into public needs or concerns. According to Transversal, simple, but dynamic web self-service solutions hold the answer.
Summary of survey results (sample 200 people):
- 73% of respondents have not noticed the impact of the £billions invested in e-government
- 58% of respondents still used the phone to contact a local authority or government department. Only 32% used e-mail or the web
- Council Tax, Refuse Collection, Planning and Building were the issues people were most in contact about
- Half of the respondents were not happy with the level of service
- 39% of respondents thought technology that automatically answered questions on websites would improve their experience of using public sector websites
- 88% of respondents would be more likely to use a public sector website for accessing information if their questions were answered immediately and correctly
- 32% of respondents thought public sector websites could be improved if they had the ability to answer questions from the public. 26% cited more contact details as an improvement.
