ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the principal techniques governments employ for obtaining customer-like information: citizen or customer relationship management (CRM) systems, citizen, customer, and stakeholder surveys, focus groups, and management by getting around. Holding regular meetings to review data trends can accelerate the process of learning how to use CRM data. To provide high-quality service, governments need accurate and up-to-date information on the publics they serve. Citizen-initiated contacts and customer relationship management systems may have become the principal means used by governments to obtain and analyze information about members of the public. Citizen-initiated contacts by themselves offer several advantages as sources of information on customers and citizens, independent of CRM systems. As one disadvantage, although likely reflecting the opinions of many, citizen-initiated contacts do not necessarily reflect either the majority or a representative sample of the population. An early task with any citizen or stakeholder survey is to settle on the form of administration.
