BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THE GOVERNMENT

BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THE GOVERNMENT

Customer Relations Management (CRM) is one of the best practices of corporate governance that has been perfected by the private sector. To make it easy for the private companies to implement these practices, many brands are available in the market that are very easy to install and use. Unfortunately, most of the government agencies have not discovered the advantages of CRM software, and that could partly explain why the quality of customer service in the government has not improved.

As a private citizen, I have been communicating with the Executive and Legislative branches of the government, but I seldom get a reply from them. I am using many forms of communications such as texts, emails, Viber, Messenger and WhatsApp, but almost all the time, I only get automatic replies that “promise” that they will get back to me, but they never do. Of all the senators, it is only Senator Risa Hontiveros who bothers to reply in person, and not via an automated reply or robot.

I wonder why most of the congressmen, senators, cabinet members and bureau chiefs who have received my messages are not replying to me at all, despite the millions of pesos that are available to them for communications. Are they simply just lazy? Or are they simply just snobbish and arrogant? Are they not all required by the law to reply within a certain number of hours or days? Is it not that these congressmen and senators are the ones who made the law that requires them to respond quickly to the public?

And why is it that many government agencies do not even care to publish their mobile numbers in their websites? Don’t they know that the Philippines is the texting capital of the world, and that most Filipinos have at least one mobile phone that they could use to send and receive text messages to and from the government? If we could text anyone at any time, why can’t we text the government in the same way that we text our relatives and friends?

And why is it that many government agencies publish only their landlines in their websites? Don’t they know that many people have already cut off their landlines? Don’t they know that it is very expensive to call a landline from a cell phone? And don’t they know that it is easier to call from Viber to Viber or WhatsApp to WhatsApp because there are no long-distance charges? Is that not the meaning of “ease of doing business”?

The failure on the part of National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) to improve their CRM implementation is an indication that these government agencies are not at all serious to comply with national programs for computerization and digitalization. If they are serious about improving their methods of delivering public services, they should implement CRM projects as soon as possible. IKE SENERES/09-12-2024


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