ABSTRACT
Recent ICT-enabled policy initiatives promote expanded multi-channel strategies such as blogs, digital town halls, community forums and the expanded use of social media to promote citizen-centric governance and wider civic participation. This chapter focuses on four issues related to making public administration more citizen-centric and customer-focused. First, it addresses the origins of customer relationship management (CRM) and how the concept evolved from total quality management (TQM) and was subsequently applied in the public sector as citizen relationship management (CzRM) ; second, it emphasizes the importance of CzRM when paired with ICTs to facilitate digital governance; third, the chapter cites specific cases describing how CRM and CzRM have been used by leading countries to implement electronic government; and last, the discussion focuses on practical applications which influence the value of future citizen-centric digital public services. Proposed changes to governmental communication and information systems should be guided by an awareness of the overall values and raison d’être of the public sector — with an explicit public commitment to securing both the equality and quality of services.
