Across Europe cities are facing a wide range of challenges as businesses and citizens demand better, more efficient and more flexible services.
This guide was produced by partners in the Smart Cities project to show what cities need to do to establish a customer contact centre. It includes practical examples and case studies highlighting the experiences of staff in seven municipalities from across the North Sea region. The guide was written by people who are currently working to improve customer services in their cities, and it is written for the growing number of people who want to do the same in their city.
The issues that cities faced when trying to set up customer contact centres (and the factors which affected their success) were remarkably similar across cities in the North Sea region. The need to put customers first, and to develop a demand-driven approach to delivering services, often requires significant changes in how municipalities work – a transformation that many have struggled with.
Once established, customer contact centres need to continue to develop and adapt as organisations, customers and services change. For examples of this look at the results from Like! and OpeningUP.