A recent piece on MyCustomer.com on the multichannel customer experience by Rod Street takes its approach from the retail sector but can be interpreted through a government lens.
Where ‘click and collect’ is being used in retail, i.e. you order something online but travel to the store at your convenience to collect it, the vision in government might be the option of making an appointment online, along with partially completing the paperwork, and visiting an office at a booked, convenient time to sign off the actual paper work and complete the transaction. If the proposed date of the visit isn’t possible, a call is made to the citizen from the contact centre or a text sent and the visit rearranged. This involves analysing customer (citizen) journeys and examining the best solutions.
Importantly, the article points out the need for metrics and aligning the vision, metrics and channel activity. If your channels are closed when journeys or metrics identify the need, its a complete waste!
How do we start? First, we need metrics of channel activity, then we develop and employ a vision to analyse journeys in the best BPR fashion (but now from the citizen angle), we then examine the mutual value obtainable by restructuring the services around the multichannel mix, never forgetting that, unlike the retail sector, government has to be inclusive.
Posted by greatemancipator 
The Great E-mancipator 