Advanced Web Comment Forms
From DoWire Wiki
More UK highlights and priority briefs
Lead Editor(s): User: Steven Clift
Title: Advanced Web Comment Forms
Advanced Web Comment Forms are self-service forms that route public comments and queries to the proper decision-maker or customer service contact.
Summary:
Organisations with a large amount of incoming online communication may use comment forms to gather specific information from citizens in order to ease the response. While web forms should not replace the right of a citizen to send an e-mail to his or her own elected officials or government, they can be designed and promoted as a more effective communication tool.
Rationale and Objectives:
What can you use this feature for?
- Allowing citizens to self-sort their communication to government by policy issues or service queries.
- With proper set-up, incoming service queries can be automatically routed to the most appropriate civil servant or department. Furthermore, the remaining policy-related comments or questions can be routed to top decision-makers or directly to councillors.
- Ensuring that full address information is collected which may influence the response and will help the councillor prioritise their responses based on whether the communication is coming from a constituent or not.
- If built into the form, citizens could tick a box noting that they want their message to be read, but do not require a specific response other than confirmation that it was received. With online petitions or e-activism campaigns designed to generate the same/similar message to one elected official or government from many citizens, generating a tally of "for" and "against" is all the political interest group and their members may desire. If an office still prefers to respond in writing with a signed letter via the postal service, this cost can be avoided by allowing citizens to state a preference.
Why use it? (Compared to other options)
- If the web form is tied into a constituent management system, key data need only be verified instead of cut and pasted from an e-mail or typed in from a paper letter.
- Auto-responses, moving beyond a one-size fits all response (like you can with e-mail), can be tailored based on the issues or services selected. For example, answers to frequently asked questions can be mailed out with instructions on whom to contact if the response did not answer the question. With elected officials, links or text related to a policy query could automatically be sent on less controversial issues, although the language used when communicating a different position than that of a citizen is very delicate.
- It allows management to begin tracking the response time of the organisation more effectively, as well as more easily generating statistics on the types of queries received. Ideally, self-service portions of the web site may be improved so the need for service related queries diminishes and more time can be spent providing substantial responses to policy or democracy related queries.
- Comment forms complement the use of often more detailed web forms and online applications for services. A number of the related resource below apply to both citizen communication forms and more advanced replacements of paper forms.
Benefits - Describe the top benefits for each group
- All Users: Better audit trail of communications can ensure more rapid responses.
- Citizens: More likely to get their queries past manual sorting of e-mail sent to general government e-mail boxes.
- Councillors: Access to address information to determine if the communication is coming from a constituent.
- Local Administration: Ability to route service queries, send automated responses, and better determine what types of improved self-service content is required on the web site.
Limitations and Cautions
- Web forms should never be used as a complete replacement to e-mail. Citizens should have the right to e-mail their government from their own e-mail address. This is the primary way citizens are able to easily keep a copy of what they sent to the government.
- All advanced web forms must send an e-mail to the citizen that:
- Confirms the time and date that the communication was received.
- Includes a full copy of what was sent so the citizen has a copy.
- Advanced web forms should also:
- Assign a case or tracking number to the query that connects to the organisation's constituent/customer relation management system.
- Provide an estimated response time and instructions on what to do if a response is not received by a certain time.
- Share tailored links to self-service online content that might more rapidly answer the citizen's question.
- Allow the citizen to cancel a request for a reply if they no longer require it.
Successes collected
projects
- Successful Implementations
- Example 1: Direct Connect - City of Menlo Park, California
- Link: http://www.menlopark.org -
- Direct Link: http://www.comcateclients.com/feedback.php?id=2
- Usage and Results: This system is significantly unique. It asks citizens to create special correspondence accounts. Through this account, the city can manage communication with the citizen, and the citizen can track progress on their pending queries. This allows for dual transparency - where did my e-mail go on the citizen side and from the government, a view into the volume of queries a certain individual might be generating across the organization. Citizens may note the type of response they prefer - telephone, postal letter, e-mail, or none.
- Example 2: Tell it to the Village Hall - Village of Hastings on Hudson, New York
- Link: http://www.hastingsgov.org/VILLHALL.htm
- Usage and Results: Once you select "Tell it to the Village Hall" you get a sense about all the possible service related coding a government could ask a citizen to help direct a query to the proper department or person.
- Example 3: Planning online comments form - Lewes District Council, UK
- Link: http://www.lewes.gov.uk/environment/783.asp
- Usage and Results: A very simple form that allows someone to comment on specific planning applications and note ones support or objection to a proposal.
Further Information
Top Related "How-to" Online Resources
- Providing Form Online Government Checklist
- eGovernment Resource Centre - Forms Online
- Guidelines for Designing Web Forms
- Forms that Work
- Designing Accessible Forms
-- For Drafting Purposes --
Audio background comments: http://dowire.org/media/briefs
Single Unique Keyword: web-forms
Link to Shared Bookmarks (via del.icio.us) for drafting assistance:
http://del.icio.us/tag/web-forms
Shared Bookmarks provides additional details.