12: Channel Management Framework

Build a channel management approach centered on the needs and behavior of its citizen and business customers.

Other Information:

Government services are delivered through a wide range of channels. One of the core aims of a Transformational Government program is to ensure that these are managed in the most cost-effective way at a whole-of-government level, and meet the needs of citizen and business customers. Channel management is often a weak spot in government service delivery, with widespread duplication, inefficiency and lack of user-focus. Experience has shown the common pitfalls in channel management by governments include: * Managing new, digital channels as "bolt-ons", with business and technical architectures which are entirely separate from traditional face-to-face or paper-based channels * No common view of customer service across multiple channels * Operational practices, unit costs and service standards for many channels which fall well below standards set for those channels in the private sector * A reliance on government-owned channels, with insufficient understanding of how to partner with private and voluntary sector organizations who have existing trusted channels to government customers * Unproductive and costly competition among service delivery channels Transformational Government programs seek to avoid these pitfalls, by building a channel management approach centered on the needs and behavior of its citizen and business customers. This means that delivery of services needs to be customer-centric, with services accessible where and when citizens and businesses want to use them, including through both "one-stop" services and a wide range of private and voluntary sector intermediaries. Services should be offered over multiple channels, but with clear policies to shift service users into lower-cost digital channels (including a digital inclusion strategy to enable take-up of digital services by those segments of the customer population currently unable or unwilling to use them). This pattern helps deliver integrated, customer-centric services as part of a Transformation Business Model and the Franchise Marketplace, as well as to enable the service innovation envisaged by Customer Empowerment. It is extended by two further patterns, Channel Mapping and Channel Transformation Strategy.

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Indicator:1

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