Answering the Call |
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Summary Report |
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Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 and yet, almost 125 years later, we are still working to improve how it is used in the public sector environment. Perhaps this is inevitable. As humans, we are always striving to do better. And, the public servants behind the Answering the Call project are no different. This is a dedicated group of individuals who are determined to help their organizations deliver the best public services possible.
The “citizen-centred” approach to service delivery has caught fire across Canada – at every level of government. Day-in and day-out, public servants are collaborating to examine all aspects of service delivery. It is not surprising then, that when two world-class research projects – Citizens First and Taking Care of Business – revealed that the telephone channel was a “trouble spot” for Canadians, a decision was taken to get to work. The idea for Answering the Call was born.
Expressed lightly, you could say that the primary goal of this Answering the Call project was to provide public sector service managers with insights that could change the telephone from a channel with ‘hang-ups’ into one that is a ‘ringing success’. It has been well documented that when the telephone works well, client satisfaction levels are high.
There are, however, so many aspects of public sector telephone service delivery to consider. The issues run the gamut from helping Canadians find the correct telephone numbers in the blue pages to quickly linking them with the government expert who can answer their specific inquiry. The steering committee decided that only a multi-phase project would allow these and other issues to be thoroughly addressed.
Answering the Call gathered public sector service delivery practitioners into a community of practice and tapped into their knowledge and experience in managing telephone service. But it didn’t stop there. Private sector telephony experts were consulted, a literature review was conducted, best practices were examined, focus groups were held to capture citizens’ voices and, finally, all the pieces were pulled together into this summary document which was skilfully written by Dr. Faye Schmidt. The Answering the Call project has concluded with a set of clear recommendations that, if acted upon, will almost guarantee significant and measurable improvement to public sector telephone service delivery in Canada. While this research project may be complete, the implementation of the recommendations has just begun.