Multichannel marketing :
An experiment on leading citizens to online
public services
Marije Teerling
Telematica Instituut
[email protected]
Willem Pieterson
University of Twente
[email protected]
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Channels in Balance | Research background
• Government Multichannel management
• Partners: national government agencies, ministries, local government,
universities
• Basic principle:
– Citizens’ are able to choose their preferred channel
• Key topics
– Channel synchronization: how to realize consistent information for
customers across channels and services
– Channel marketing: how to entice customers into using the most cost
efficient channel given their problem (usually the electronic channel)
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Multichannel marketing| Trends & developments
• ’90  introduction new (digital) service channels
• Digital channels  efficiency, lower costs
• Citizens still mainly use the traditional channels!
Country Switzerland
Channel
Canada
Australia
The
Netherlands
Front Desk
55%
48%
46%
33%
Phone
54%
55%
28%
28%
Internet
24%
25%
13%
24%
Post
(and/or Fax)
14%
30%
19%
13%
• How can governments lead citizens to the online public services?
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Multi-channel marketing | Examples of instruments
Municipal
Rescricted access
to the front desk
Land registry (office)
Online prices lower
than offline prices
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Singapore
eCitizen helpers
Multichannel marketing instruments | Citizens’ preferences
Communication
web service
(CWS)
.03
Legal /
Distribution
(LED)
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Four categories of
instruments
•
Citizens prefer soft
instruments, like
communication and
web service offering
•
Strong correlations
between ‘positive’
instruments
•
Citizens do not favor
compulsory or
discriminatory
instruments
.39
.62
.05
•
Web
Service
Offering (WSO)
.26
.34
Price
Web services
(PWS)
Teerling and Pieterson (2008)
•
Effectiveness
instruments is unclear
Objective
So:
• Citizens continue to use digital channels.
• Service provision through digital channels can be more cost efficient.
• Citizens & governments seem to favor softer instruments like
communication.
• Lack of clarity on the effectiveness of multichannel marketing
instruments.
Our objective:
• To determine the effectiveness of communication – specifically through
a personal letter – in
1. influencing citizens’ choice of channel and
2. its effects on citizens’ perceptions of service delivery
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Multichannel marketing | Field experiment with the SVB
• Field experiment with Dutch
government agency responsible
for pensions and child benefit
(SVB)
• First time a citizen submits a claim
for child benefit
• 2nd – xth child fully automated
process
• Goal: ensure all citizens who are
entitled to child benefit receive it
as soon as possible
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
• 2x2 field experiment
• Procedure
– Current
– Experimental
• Group
– Experimental branch offices
– Control branch offices
Experiment | Apllication procedure for child benefit
Standard procedure:
•Citizens receive a letter and a pre-completed form
Citizen
Experimental procedure:
•Citizens receive a letter indicating them to go online
MBR
(1)
SVB
System
filled
Internet application
is online
Internet
form
(6)
(2)
Bi-weekly mailing
(3000 ex.)
Application of
DigiD
(3)
Mailing company
(4)
(7)
Letter &
form
(5)
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
SVB judges
application
(8)
Form send
by mail
Inform
citizen by
mail
(9)
Experiment | Data collection
• Data collection period: June 2008 during two bi-weekly periods
Group
Experimental
Control
Procedure
Letter
Letter and precompleted form
Channel choice
Post and Website
Website and Phone
(followed by post)
Offices
Rotterdam, Zaandam,
Deventer, Nijmegen,
Roermond
Groningen, Utrecht,
Leiden and Breda
Customers in the
collection period
344 per office/mailing;
3,444 in total
373 per office/mailing;
2,982 in total
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Experiment | Data collection | Measurements
Measurement before experiment
• Average number of claims
through each channel (post
versus website)
• Number of letters sent June
2007
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Measurement during/after experiment
• Number of claims through each
channel for each group
• Number of citizens in the
experimental group that call for a
form
• Survey amongst citizens in both
groups measuring their
perceptions with respect to the
SVB and the procedure for
claiming child benefits
Experiment | Results | Channel of application
Channel of application before the experiment:
•63% applied through post (equal for control and experimental offices)
•37% applied through the website
% Applications
Experimental offices
% Applications
Control offices
Office
Post
Website
Not
Office
Post
Website
Not
Deventer
11,1
82,3
6,6
Utrecht
57,7
38,9
3,4
Nijmegen
13,5
81,7
4,8
Groningen
60,9
36,8
2,3
Rotterdam
13,0
76,2
10,8
Leiden
59,6
39,3
1,1
Roermond
9,5
80,5
10,0
Breda
65,4
32,4
2,1
Zaandam
11,5
79,8
8,6
Average
11,7
80,1
8,2
Average
60,9
36,8
2,2
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Experiment | Results | Forms requested by phone
• 333 citizens in the experimental group contacted the SVB to request a
form
• Reasons to request a form:
– About 40% did not have access to the internet
• 33.8% have no access at all
• 7.7% temporarily did not have access
– DigiD
• 15% did not have a DigiD
• 20% got stuck using it
– Other obstacles
• Clumsiness in using the internet
• Language problems
• Technical problems on the website
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Experiment | Results | Citizens’ perceptions | The letter
CG: Message
EG: Message
CG: Tone
EG: Tone
CG: Overall
EG: Overall
0%
10%
20%
30%
Bad
40%
Neutral
50%
Good
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Excellent
• Respondents are similar in their view of the letter, regardless of which
they received.
• In both conditions respondents were equally pleased with their choice
of channels.
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Experiment | Results | Citizens’ perceptions | The procedure
100
90
80
70
60
control positive
experiment positive
control neutral
50
experiment neutral
control negative
40
experiment negative
30
20
10
0
Ease of use
Clarity
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Speed
Reliability
Non-personal
Effective
Cumbersome
Pleasant
Experiment | Results | Citizens’ perceptions | Satisfaction
Satisfaction with the SVB
7.8
7.9
8
Experiment group web site
Experiment group phone & post
Control group web site
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
7.7
Control group post
Experiment | Results | Demographics
• Average age is 31.89
– Is the approximate average in the Netherlands for women to have their first
child
• Gender
– Women are more likely to apply through post than men
• Experimental group: 16.4% versus 10.7%
• Control group: 26.2% versus 20.8%
– Men are more likely to apply through the website than women
• Experimental group: 49% versus 39.8%
• Control group: 19.5% versus 17.6%
• Education
– % of elementary or high school educated citizens is highest in the
experimental group applying through phone & post (resp. 26% and 46%)
– % of college educated citizens is highest in the control group and
experimental group applying through the website (resp. 47% and 42%)
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Experiment | Conclusions
• Adoption literature indicates the following crucial aspects for adoption:
–
–
–
–
•
Citizens who called for a form:
–
–
•
a well-functioning web service
increasing awareness of e-services
showing that the e-services provide more value than services offered
through the traditional channels
building trust
Lacked trust (in themselves and DigiD)
Got stuck  well-functioning web service
By increasing awareness of the e-service through a simple letter
–
–
–
Advantage of the web over the other channels was reached by leaving out
the pre-completed form
Usage was practically doubled
Respondents still felt they had a sufficient choice of channels
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Experiment | Conclusions
• Customer groups
– Digital divide (based on education level) still needs attention
• Governments should carefully consider
–
–
–
–
Implementing a recall mailing possibly with the pre-completed form
Keep website functioning at all times
Make e-services as simple as possible
Improve the identification procedure (DigiD)
• SVB management was advised to implement the experimental
procedure as the standard.
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Multichannel Marketing| Future research
• Communication as information or as propaganda
• Effectiveness of the other instruments / combinations of instruments
• Removing barriers to internet use
• Further research within the project Kanalen in Balans
–
–
–
–
Qualitative study for the Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs
New smart forms of communication @ SVB
Training & self-service technology @ IBG
From channel choice research to defining a multichannel marketing plan @
3 Dutch municipalities
– Improving the web channel (chat function) @ UWV
www.kanaleninbalans.nl
Q
HICSS – 42