[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY IKE SEÑERES
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Multimodal communications
“ANYONE could contact anybody at any time, from anywhere, using any available means.”
That is an old mantra that I have always wished for, but now it has taken on a completely new meaning. Applying this to the government, this could read as “Any citizen could access any government agency at any time, from anywhere, using any available means.”
In the old days, contacting the government could mean walking in to an office, making a phone call or writing a letter. The latter could also mean sending a fax or a telegram. As it mostly turned out however, most citizens could hardly get the quality of service that they want, regardless of what means they would use in accessing the government.
Many citizens who would call in to a government agency are either given a round around, or are either passed on from one government employee to another, until someone at the end of the line would suggest to them to just come in to get what they want.
Sad to say, walking in to a government agency is not even a guarantee that citizens could get the quality of service that they want, because they would often have no choice except to wait in long lines, or be told to come back another day, because the one in charge is absent or is not available. That is really sad, because it is rather inconvenient for citizens to keep coming back, and keep spending for transport and meals.
Fortunately, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has already decreed that citizens should no longer be subjected to waiting in long lines, and aside from that, the government agencies have been ordered to reduce the requirements that are needed to be able to get the services that they want.
Aside from that, President Duterte has also decreed that the documents or the requirements that are honored in one government agency should already be honored by the other government agencies, thus cutting the red tape. This latter decree might be difficult for the government agencies to do, but there are computerized solutions that would enable them to comply with the order in many ways that would make it easy for them to do so.
Anyone could freely interpret what Duterte means, but as far as I am concerned, that would mean having databases in the government agencies that could “talk” to each other, so that the data kept by one government agency could be accessible by another.
If only the government agencies would try to understand what he means, they would sooner or later realize that what he means is for them to do the validation of requirements between and among themselves, instead of passing on to the citizens the burden of going around all the government agencies in trying to get done what they need in the first place. In other words, the “burden of proof” should now be passed on to the government agencies, this making it easier and faster for the citizens to get the service that they want, and possibly even cheaper too.
Given the fact that many citizens now have access to the internet and to mobile networks, it would now be possible to say that they should be able to get the service that they need via voice, video, text, email and chat, and also via mobile apps, web forms and social networks.
One way or the other, this is what I actually mean by “any available means.” This is also what I mean by “at any time, from anywhere”, because unlike walking in to a government office, the citizens should be able to get the services on a 24/7 basis, regardless of where they are, whether they are in Metro Manila, in the provinces or even if they are abroad.
As it was originally meant to be, the 8888 phone number of the government was meant to be a call center where citizens could call in their complaints. As it is now however, the project is transforming to become a facility for Customer Relations Management (CRM), a concept that goes beyond the handling of simply just complaints.
As it is commonly done in any CRM facility, customers could access it by using any means available to them, and of course, that should mean the use of voice, video, text, email and chat, and also mobile apps, web forms and social networks. As of now, video calls may not be that commonly used yet, but it is the way of the future.
In reality, social networking sites (SNS) are really just websites too, but there are many websites that are not considered as SNS. It could be said that most SNS would offer web forms for subscribers to use, but these other websites would only offer web forms. The private message (PM) of many SNS is actually a hybrid service that could be a substitute for text, email and chat.
There are also many SNS that offer voice services that could be a substitute for landline calls or mobile calls. There are now many internet and mobile technologies that could be considered as “any available means”, but the bottom line is that the customers could contact the service provider and get the service that they want./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
