Citizen Relationship Management: deploy innovative approaches, strengthen ties with citizens, optimize the processing of requests and enhance the user experience.
Citizen Relationship Management (CRM), or Gestion Relation Usager (GRU), corresponds to the commitment of administrations to improve service quality and simplify the processing of procedures and requests from citizens, thus developing a relationship of trust and proximity with users.
Through a user-centric approach, GRC aims to reinvent administrative processes, making them more intuitive, responsive and personalized. To achieve this, it relies on dialogue and exploits digital solutions to respond precisely and efficiently to citizens’ expectations, thus promoting a more human and connected administration, which is therefore accessible!
"Citizen relations are a major challenge for public policy. It's a synthesis to be found between ease of access for users, improved working conditions for agents, and diversity of fields of intervention "
Since the launch of the Public Action 2022 program in October 2017, the Public Sector has been strongly encouraged to accelerate its digital transformation. It must reinvent its practices and operating methods by relying on innovation and digital technology. The aim is threefold: to ensure a better quality of service for citizens, to lower public spending by optimizing internal resources and processes, and to improve working conditions for public employees. The concept of “citizen experience” to define a user’s experience of a service is becoming increasingly important.
It is against this backdrop that Citizen Relationship Management (CRM) in France is undergoing accelerated change, driven by citizens’ growing expectations for more responsive, transparent, accessible and omnichannel public services.
The impact on local authorities is twofold. On the one hand, there is the need to adapt to an ever-changing regulatory framework, which aims to strengthen personal data protection and promote digital accessibility. On the other hand, we need to seize the opportunities offered by new technologies to rethink our relationship with citizens, making it more efficient and enriching it with new online services.
What’s more, while in the majority of local authorities, the digital transition is carried out primarily for the benefit of users, it also concerns the staff themselves. The transformation you have to carry out is therefore global!
Citizen Relations are part of a regulatory environment and government initiatives
In this complex context, for local authority General Managers, Customer Relations Directors, CIOs and elected representatives, these changes in customer relations represent both a challenge and an opportunity to thoroughly rethink the relationship between public services and citizens.
The RGPD strengthens the protection of citizens' personal data and imposes specific obligations on local authorities in terms of consent, transparency and data security.
The Law for a Digital Republic encourages the opening up of public data (Open Data) and improves access to digital public services, thus impacting the modalities of citizen relations.
The RGAA ensures that local authority online services are accessible to all citizens, including people with disabilities, influencing the design of user interfaces.
And these aren’t the only elements that have an influence! We can mention, for example, the Loi d’Orientation et de Programmation pour la Refondation de l’École de la République, which includes provisions for digital development in education, and therefore the relationship between local authorities, schools, students and families, the FNE (France Numérique Écologique) initiative, which includes reducing the environmental footprint of digital services, FranceConnect, the identification and authentication platform enabling users to identify themselves on online public services using a single account, and numerous other initiatives (CADASTRE, API Particulier… ).
Implementing transformation is a major challenge for many local authorities and public sector organizations. To be effective and deliver the best possible citizen experience, this transformation is based on a number of complementary challenges :
The citizen must not perceive any dissonance in his journey (search, agent counter, teleservices, e-mail…).
Access and follow-up must be simplified, and the same information must not be requested several times.
Digital services must be available 24/7, whatever the medium.
Users want to be as autonomous as possible in their procedures, and reduce processing times.
They also want to be able to track the progress of their requests.
While part of the customer journey can be completed digitally, exchanges with agents are intended to provide greater value, dialogue and a personalized response to complex needs.
The majority of citizens are fully aware of cybersecurity risks. Trust, which is essential to the community-citizen relationship, implies both compliance with regulations (RGAA, RGPD) and the guarantee that personal data provided and exchanges are secure.
Offering the possibility of carrying out procedures online is a significant first step. Your reflex might be to use an existing software package to respond to the first teleservice to be implemented, then a second one for the next online procedure, and so on.
This is a mistake: this approach will further reinforce the separation of your Information System and your data into silos, to the ultimate detriment of the citizen experience! There are therefore two opposing logics: the multiplication of specific applications, which are quick to implement at the outset but which ultimately complicate your Information System, and the implementation of a complete, scalable, cross-functional CRM solution integrated into the IS, which will build the foundation for years to come.
The public transformation program and the implementation of a high-performance CRM strategy and software offer local authorities the opportunity not only to respond more precisely to users’ needs, but also to optimize their internal processes and their Information System for a more efficient public service.
"An essential point to understand is that the quality of request processing is directly linked to data processing issues !"
For citizens, of course:
Not to mention the benefits for agents :
At Blueway Public Sector, we’ve been working with local authorities and government agencies for many years, helping them to meet the challenges of transformation and agility.
We are well aware of your specific constraints :
FORUM GRU, our Customer Relationship Management solution, offers you a turnkey solution specifically adapted to the needs of the public sector, to enhance the customer experience.
Take a fresh look at your Customer Relationship Management!
"Optimizing the citizen experience is not just a question of the front office (user portal, etc.), especially if it means longer processing times! GRU must be part of an efficient organization, information system and processes."
Our solution introduces a real logic of industrialization to the deployment of online procedures. You capitalize on a common base that consolidates with each new teleservice offered (connections with internal applications, portal and screen graphics, etc.), guaranteeing a fluid, consistent user experience.
The solution becomes both your citizen portal and a veritable “teleservices factory”, incorporating all Public Sector requirements as standard: API France Connect, API Particulier, RGAA (Référentiel Général d’Accessibilité pour les Administrations). The off-the-shelf processes offered in our solution save you precious time by enabling you to build your own workflows from a database capitalized on by public-sector players like yourself.
Easy to use, with no need for development skills (No Code), FORUM GRU is quickly adopted by your teams, notably through our training courses, and meets the limited availability of your technical resources.
Forum GRU is fully integrated into our product range, dedicated 100% to local and regional authorities, and benefits from the full complementarity of Data&Process technologies.
A citizen, in the community context, is more than an inhabitant; he or she is an active individual within the community, with rights and obligations. A user, on the other hand, encompasses every citizen who interacts with public services, whether in the form of requests for documents, administrative procedures or any other request requiring a response from public institutions. Thus, every citizen becomes a user as soon as he or she needs a service or information provided by his or her local authority, marking his or her active participation in local and democratic life.
Personalizing communication with citizens via a Citizen Relationship Management (CRM) solution relies on the detailed analysis and strategic use of data. By collecting and processing information on citizens' past interactions, preferences and requests, local authorities can tailor their messages, services and responses to reflect the specific needs of each user. This means, for example, sending notifications or targeted information via the user's preferred channels, offering services tailored to their personal situations, and anticipating requests thanks to interaction history. The key is to use this data to create a consistent, relevant and engaging citizen experience, thereby boosting satisfaction and trust in government.
The implementation of a Citizen Relationship Management solution like Blueway's Forum is structured around four main stages:
We recommend that you start with use cases that will have an immediate impact on both citizens and your agents, either because there is currently a lot of friction, or because they bring significant innovation and added value.
Typical use cases are :