Maintaining a safe and secure place for your citizens to live is a constantly fluctuating and challenging job. If you’re a part of local and regional government, you understand the scrutiny placed on these entities by the public as well as government officials.

On top of all that, times, they are a changing! Technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate and people are using that technology very differently than just a few years ago. Your citizens’ expectations are light years ahead of paper processes and they expect answers in minutes, not hours or days!

This blog will focus on citizen engagement and how, if you prioritize it, you’ll be on track to maintaining safety and security, as well as meeting citizen needs in a timely fashion.

Our PowerObjects team of experts has been busy building citizen portals and apps for a few councils in Australia and the UK. Here are our top five reasons why portals are so critical and how they can meet citizen expectations and deliver better service online:

1. Opening Lines of Communication: When you make it easy for citizens to contact you from any device and from anywhere, you’re establishing a trust needed to build a community.

2. Putting a Name to your Citizens: Self-service portals inform your office of who your citizens actually are and how you can serve them accordingly. This type of insight cannot be made up or guessed upon. That data is unique to your local and regional government entity.

3. Real-time Insight into Issues: Having eyes on the ground and within the community is a great thing, but if they can’t report back to the people who solve things, then what’s the point? Portals make it possible for your citizens to report initial or potential issues before they become bigger, unmanageable problems.

4. Connected Citizens are Happier Citizens: When people feel connected and somewhat responsible for where they live, it ultimately makes for a happier, more secure neighborhood. 

5. Citizen Engagement Data is Good Data: When you can report complete end-to-end interactions with your citizens, you can justify funding and support.

As you can see, citizen portals are a big deal, and can pave the way for so many great things, but you also need a powerful platform that these portals connect to that will make all these things and more possible.

Our Local and Regional Government experts have just the solution and are waiting to hear from you!