Governments have a variety of channels at their disposal to interact with their citizens. Having realized that citizens still prefer the traditional channels, such as the front desk and the telephone, governments have to (re)think their multichannel marketing (MCM) strategies. In order to be successful, not only knowledge on citizen multichannel behavior is required but also on the effects of MCM instruments. Questions such as how do citizens’ perceive the various instruments and to what extent are the instruments associated with each other rise up. Moreover, can instruments be used to target specific citizen segments? Based on qualitative depth interviews we formulate constructs to measure the citizens’ perceptions on the instruments. Subsequently, we answer our research questions based on a quantitative survey amongst almost 2,000 citizens. As a result, this research increases the knowledge on government MCM and as such the possibilities to influence citizen multichannel behavior.

1. Government Multichannel Marketing:
How to seduce citizens to the
web channels?
Dr. Marije Teerling Willem Pieterson
Telematica Instituut University of Twente
Marije.Teerling@telin.nl W.J.Pieterson@utwente.nl
www.kanaleninbalans.nl

2. Channels in Balance | Research project
• 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)
HICSS – 42
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3. Multichannel Marketing| Trends & Developments
• ’90  introduction new (digital) service channels
• Digital channels  efficiency, lower costs
• Multichannel management (front desk, telephone, website, post, e-
mail, sms, etc.)
• Citizens still mainly use the traditional channels!
Country Switzerland Canada Australia The
Channel Netherlands
Front Desk 55% 48% 46% 33%
Phone 54% 55% 28% 28%
Internet 24% 25% 13% 24%
Post 14% 30% 19% 13%
(and/or Fax)
HICSS – 42
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4. Multichannel Marketing| Background | Instruments
Transfer of information;
C e.g. mass media, pr,
(Communication) training.
(promotion)
Instruments are rarely
used in isolation.
Product; e.g. quality,
assurance)
CLE CEL
Laws & regulations;
e.g. taxes Economic stimuli; e.g.
Place LCE ECL discounts, grants.
SERVICE (price)
LEC ELC
L E
(Legal) (Economic)
Which instruments can be empirically distinguished?
How do citizens perceive the instruments?
Are the instrument associated in their minds?
HICSS – 42
www.kanaleninbalans.nl January 5 – 8, 2009

5. Multichannel Marketing| Background | Citizen characteristics & requirements
Citizen characteristics
• Differences in multichannel behavior (e.g., Burke, 2002;
Balasubramanian et al., 2005)
 How do citizen characteristics influence the perceptions of the
instruments?
Requirements for multichannel behavior
• Access to the internet
• Experience with the internet (e.g., Montoya-Weiss et al., 2003)
• Awareness and knowledge of the e-gov services (e.g., van Dijk et
al., 2006)
 What is the influence of the requirements on the perceptions of the
instruments?
HICSS – 42
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6. Multichannel Marketing| Background | Citizen multichannel behavior
Citizen’s decision Citizen’s broad
to use a medium patterns of
in a specific medium usage
situation over time
Channel
Marketing
Citizen Multi-Channel Behavior
How does citizen
multichannel behavior
Channel Channel Channel Use
Choice Usage Evaluation vary the perceptions
of the channel
Experience
marketing
instruments?
Influenced by
perceived channel
characteristics
HICSS – 42
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7. Multichannel Marketing| Empirical Setting | Method
• Medium sized Dutch municipality (136.573 inhabitants)
– Based on size, population and services, the municipality is
average sized.
• Local government service channels:
– Front desk
– Telephone
– Website
– Post
• Two-stage methodology
1. Exploratory depth interviews with citizens (n=15)
– Main topics: use of front desk services, appointments
made for services, use of e-services, e-mail contact,
opinions on the various instruments.
– Scales developed based on the interviews
2. Survey among Dutch citizens
HICSS – 42
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8. Multichannel Marketing| Empirical Setting | Data > 65 < 25
2%
10%
25 - 45
• Survey conducted early 2008 through: 42%
– Front desk
45 - 65
– Online channel 46%
• Response & Sample size
– Front desk sample = 127 citizens Age distribution
– Online panel sample = 1,802 citizens
• 3,068 e-mails sent out. Response rate = 58.7%
• Demographics indicate a representative sample for the
municipality.
– 46% women, 54% men
– Average age = 48 years
– 74.8% has at least a high school diploma
– Majority of respondents have extensive or very extensive
Internet experience (72%).
• Total sample is representative for the Dutch population
HICSS – 42
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9. Multichannel Marketing| Results | Which instruments can be distinguished?
• In total 20 items related to the various instruments were formulated
based on the qualitative interviews.
• Measured on a five-point Likert scale
• Exploratory factor and reliability analyses resulted in 5 underlying
constructs and the final selection of 16 items.
Abr. Name Nr. of items Cronbach’s α
LED Legal / Exclusive Distribution 3 0.72
CWS Communication Web Service 4 0.80
PTC Price Traditional Channels 3 0.69
PWS Price Web Services 3 0.69
WSO Web Service Offering 3 0.70
HICSS – 42
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10. Multichannel Marketing| Results | How do citizens perceive the instruments?
Average perceptions of the instruments
Construct N Means St. dev • Negative about
LED & PTC
LED 1942 1.72* 0.67
• Positive about
CWS 1941 3.79* 0.64 PWS, WSO,
CWS
PTC 1942 2.15* 0.81
• Most positive
PWS 1938 3.45* 0.89 about CWS
WSO 1938 3.73* 0.69
*Means shown differ significantly from the neutral point (3) of
the scale at the 0.05 level.
HICSS – 42
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11. Multichannel Marketing | Results | Are the instruments associated?
Communication
web service • Only 1 not
(CWS)
significant
correlation:
LED*WSO
.39 • Price traditional
.05 .62
channels (PTC)
strongest
Web associated with
Service legal / exclusive
.03 Offering (WSO)
.34 distribution (LED)
and price web
Legal / Price services (PWS)
Distribution Web services
(LED) (PWS)
.26
HICSS – 42
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12. Multichannel Marketing | Results | Influence of citizen characteristics
Service offering online
3.80 • One-way Anova for age:
3.75
– WSO (F(4,1924)=3.05; see
figure)
3.70
• T-test for gender
3.65
PTC WSO t
3.60 M 2.21 3.78 3.44
3.55
F 2.08 3.67 3.3
3.50 • One-way Anova for Education:
3.45 – Higher educated citizens
Younger
36 - 45
more positive about WSO
than 35 46 - 55
years
years
years
56 - 65
years
66 years • One-way Anova household size
and older
– Bigger households favor
One-way Anova: Age * WSO
economical instruments
HICSS – 42
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13. Multichannel Marketing| Results | Influence of the requirements
Internet Access
4
3,8
3,6
3,4
3,2
CWS
PTC
3
PWS
WSO
2,8
2,6
2,4
2,2
2
One accesspoint or no access Access at multiple points
HICSS – 42
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14. Multichannel Marketing| Results | Influence of the requirements
Internet Experience
4,0
3,8
CWS
3,6
PWS
WSO
3,4
3,2
3,0
Not experienced Neutral Experienced
HICSS – 42
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15. Multichannel Marketing| Results | Influence of the requirements
Knowledge of online services
3,90
3,85
3,70
CWS
3,50
3,80
3,30
3,10
WSO
3,75
2,90
2,70
3,70
2,50
2,30
3,65
2,10
1,90
3,60
1,70
Low knowledge Neutral High knowledge
1,50
Low knowledge Neutral High knowledge
LED CWS HICSS – 42
PTC PWS WSO
www.kanaleninbalans.nl January 5 – 8, 2009

16. Multichannel Marketing| Results | Citizen multichannel behavior
One-way Anova Channel Choice variables
Last channel LED CWS PTC PWS WSO Preferred channel
Website 3.9 3.9 2.2 2.3 3.6 3.6 Website
E-mail 1.8 3.9 E-mail
Post 3.5 2 1.9 3.2 3.1 3.9 3.5 Post
Front desk 1.6 3.6 Front desk
Telephone 3.7 Telephone
LED significant at 90% reliability for last channel, LED not significant for preferred channel.
One-way Anova Channel Usage
Most often used LED CWS PTC PWS WSO
Website
E-mail 2
Post 3.9 2.3 3.6
Front desk
Telephone 3.7 3.1
LED and WSO are not significant for most often used channel
HICSS – 42
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17. Multichannel Marketing| Results | Citizen multichannel behavior
Channel choice – channel characteristic combination • Citizens that
Characteristic LED CWS PTC PWS WSO associate the
Personal situation E W W W E website with
Language variation W E W E E characteristics
Fast answer E W W W W favor CWS,
Multiple cues T W PTC, PWS
Ease of use E W W W E and WSO
Achieve goal E E W W W
Fast in contact W W W W
Most service E W W W W • Citizens that
Cheapest W W W W associate
Best experiences E W W W W email with
E = E-mail, W = website, T = Telephone, characteristics
Blank cell indicates no significant differences in MCM instrument perceptions.
favor LED
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18. Multichannel Marketing| Conclusions
• Four main multichannel marketing instruments
– Legal or distribution, communication, price (traditional channel or
digital channel), web service offering
• Citizens favor the ‘softer’ instruments
– CWS, PWS, WSO
• Promote e-accessibility
– The better citizens do on the requirements, the more they favor the
use of instruments to promote e-services.
• The softer instruments may enhance each other!
– The softer instruments are strongly correlated (CWS, PWS, WSO)
• Target specific segments
– WSO  younger, higher educated and/or male citizens
– PTC and PWS  larger households
– Depending on citizens’ multichannel behavior: perceptiveness for the
instruments may vary
HICSS – 42
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19. Multichannel Marketing| Future research
• Determining the effectiveness of specific instruments /
combinations of instruments
– In terms of efficiency and customer satisfaction
• Short term versus long term effects of instruments
• Requirements for the instruments to be used
– Accessibility of citizens; quality of web offering
• 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
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20. Q
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