DTIS Customer Relationship Management

The RE-Designed Call Center

In my experience the introduction of new technology comes with resistance. Regardless whether the resistance is for the sake of resistance to change or just the inconvenience of having to learn something new or different, the affected employees often fail to see or simply ignore the positive aspects of the innovation.

The solution to the problem is collaboration. As presented in the video, the most important part is to work with the affected employees and to identify the existing business processes and the steps they take from start to end. Considering the end result and identifying what is necessary to successfully complete the process might shed some light on where the weaknesses are. The DTIS team worked with the city employees, to re-design the current processes to better meet the needs of the employees as well as the customers, here citizens. The CRM system with its designated service number provided an easy way for customers to make various service requests, which are stored in a central database. While the CRM system is customized to the needs of each department the creation of a central data repository allows interdepartmental collaboration that results in more efficiency and better customer service.

According to Engle “management resists change in process far more than changes in technology.”  No surprise there, changes in processes affect management since their development is a management function.  Technology changes would affect the workers’ daily operations more than management. Convincing management to change processes is a difficult task and has to be approached very strategically (Engle, 2012). Why should it be different with operations employees?

References

Engle, P. (2012). Moving from A to B. Industrial Engineer: IE, 44(7), 20.

Laudon, K. & Laudon, J. (2012). Management Information Systems: Managing the digital Firm (12th. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.