Translating telephone calls to spreadsheets: Creating data on citizen multichannel behavior through practioners’ involvement

The adoption rates of e-government channels are increasing, but the use of traditional channels remains high. More knowledge of citizen and employees’ multichannel behavior is needed, particularly on the specific problems, which cause inquiries using traditional channels. Caseworkers are key to generating this knowledge, as they have direct contact with citizens’ and businesses. However, studies on multichannel management have found that caseworkers do not necessarily share managements’ perspectives, and that MCM initiatives often fail, because they do not fit into caseworkers existing work practices. We present a study from a public authority of how scholars, practioners, and caseworkers collaborated to improve the use and data quality of a call classification system caseworker use to classify incoming calls.