Which two contribute to the difficulty in accurately measuring the impact of multichannel marketing?

In most western countries, citizens have a wide range of government service channels at their disposal. Because of their cost effectiveness, government agencies prefer citizens to use electronic channels. For example, the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency has calculated that the delivery of electronic services is on average 20 times less expensive than in-person services (Ebbers et al., 2008). The use of these channels, both for information and services such as electronic tax filing, has grown tremendously in recent years. Nevertheless, citizens have continued to rely on traditional service channels for many of their service needs (Pieterson & Ebbers, 2008). There are a number of possible explanations for this ongoing preference for traditional channels. First, channels differ in their characteristics; this implies they also vary in their suitability for specific types of services. Communication theories, like Media Richness Theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986), argue that different types of communication require different types of channels (or media). The theory posits that communication is most effective and efficient if ambiguous tasks are dealt with via ‘rich’ media (such as face-to-face contact and uncertain tasks via ‘poor’ media (such as e-mail). Second, the design of electronic channels may not meet the needs of citizens. Supply and demand are often mismatched; citizens are unaware of service offerings, unable to find services, and/or in many cases the desired services are not available online (Van Deursen et al., 2006, Van Dijk et al., 2007). Third, citizens are often guided in their choice of channel by other factors, such as ease of use, habits, and emotions (Pieterson, 2009).

The continued preference shown by citizens for traditional channels is undesirable from a government agency perspective. Service delivery is expensive and contacts via electronic channels cost a fraction of those via traditional service channels. Hence, influencing citizens' channel choice and behavior through channel marketing strategies may allow government agencies to reduce their costs. So far, there is little empirical evidence on how to encourage citizens to increase their use of digital channels. Few government organizations have specific strategies to influence channel choice, no specific theories exist, and there is little empirical evidence.

One of the few studies aimed at providing insights on influencing channel choice shows how citizens perceive several ‘policy’ instruments—i.e., communication, legal or restrictive, economic, and service/product-related instruments—designed to stimulate the use of electronic channels (Teerling & Pieterson, 2009). Citizens see communication, such as the transfer of information from government to citizens through a letter, as the preferred tool of influence. There is, however, no empirical evidence on the actual impact of the instruments under study (Teerling & Pieterson, 2009). Moreover, it is not only citizens who show a preference for communication; government agencies also prefer to use this less obtrusive instrument. This is in line with their goal of providing citizens freedom of channel choice.

In this study, we look at how the instrument of communication can be used to lead citizens to the online channel, i.e., how to change their channel choice in favor of the digital channel. We increase current knowledge by presenting the findings of a field experiment that was developed and executed in collaboration with a major Dutch national government agency. The main objectives of this study are (1) to determine the effectiveness of the communication instrument—specifically, a personal letter—in influencing citizens' choice of channel and (2) to ascertain the personal letter's effects on citizen's perceptions of service delivery. Do they feel hampered in their choice or less satisfied with service delivery as a result of multichannel marketing?

First, we discuss on the arrival of the electronic channels and the current status quo in the adoption of the electronic channels and e-Government. Second, we review current knowledge regarding channel marketing strategies. Third, we introduce the experimental design used in this study, followed by our findings. Finally, we present the main conclusions, the limitations of our study, future research, and the managerial implications.

e-Government adoption

Usually, governmental organizations are seen as “bureaucratic” organizations. This Weberian type of organization focuses on such aspects as departmentalization, specialization, standardization and routinization of the production process (Simon, 1976). The consequence of this focus is that “cost-efficiency” has become a central goal of bureaucratic governmental organizations (Tat-Kei Ho, 2002). The New Public Management that arrived in the 1980s primarily aims at reducing the size of government,

Channel marketing

In order to change behavior, governments use various instruments or tools. These so-called policy instruments can be defined as all equipment deployed by a civil servant or public organization to achieve a behavioral change by other persons or organizations. Various scholars have distinguished between different policy instruments. Known classifications are “Regulations and Stimuli” (Mitnick, 1980), “Information, Money, Regulations ,and Facilities” (Hood & Margetts 2007), and “Physical,

Experimental design

In order to empirically investigate the effectiveness of communication as a tool to lead citizens to the electronic channels, we chose to conduct an experiment. In the experiment, we compare a service delivery process in which citizens are steered via communication to the electronic channel (the experimental group), with a condition in which they are not specifically led towards the website (the control group). We designed the experiment in cooperation with the national Dutch government agency

Results

In the subsequent subparagraphs, we show the results with respect to the channel used to claim child benefit, comparing the before and after periods as well as the different customer groups (experimental versus control group) (Section 5.1), the reasons why citizens in the experimental group call to ask for a form (Section 5.2), citizen perceptions of the organization in both groups (experimental versus control group), method of child benefit claim, and contact with the organization concerning

Conclusion

Citizen multichannel behavior and the instruments which could be used to change this behavior is a relatively new area of research. We notice that this issue is of increasing importance to researchers and practitioners, given the costs associated with providing service through the different channels. Even though numerous studies determine the effects of marketing instruments in a commercial setting, we believe there is a lack of empirical examination of the effects in a government multichannel

Acknowledgments

This paper results from the ‘Kanalen in Balans’ project (‘Channels in balance’—www.kanaleninbalans.nl) of Novay, a combined research initiative with partners from government and academia, comprising the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Dutch Ministry of the Economic Affairs, SVB, UWV, IB-Groep, IND,VDP, the University of Twente, and Delft University of Technology. The project aims to find solutions for the multichannel management problems of government organizations. In

Marije Teerling is a researcher at Novay; a research institute on networked innovation in the Netherlands. She obtained her Ph.D. at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Groningen. In her research, she focuses on the role of the customer and measuring the effects of the integration of the virtual and traditional on customer behavior. She has published journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers related to e-commerce, channel marketing, and e-Government.

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