Four steps to succeeding with CRM in government

1. Start at the top. Most states in the vanguard have been pressured by governors who demanded?often after making campaign promises?that the government model its service delivery on that of private industry. Rishi Sood, a principal analyst at Gartner, calls lack of executive sponsorship one of the top reasons for state CRM failures.

2. Pilot systems with early adopters. Agency heads who are enthusiastic about improving service will be most eager to sign on to a CRM project. Do small projects with them to demonstrate the benefits to others. That’s a textbook way to build support, experts say. Job one for state CIOs is to “ID your stakeholders, then tell individual agencies what their benefit will be,” says Sood.

3. Get workers on board. The most difficult job when implementing CRM is getting bureaucrats to rethink their attitude toward customer service. “The 24/7 aspect [of the Internet] runs counter to the 8-to-5 mentality of government workers,” says Darrell West, director of Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

4. Get citizen feedback. If the public doesn’t see improvement, you’ve wasted your time and money. Find out what people who use each agency’s services want, and make sure your project delivers it.