Why You Need Municipal Agenda Software With Industry-Leading Customer Service

Lena Eisenstein
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Municipal governments function best when they have the right tools to do the job and they have the proper amount of time to get things done the right way. With agenda software from iCompass, a Diligent brand, municipal clerks can have the right tools, and those tools will give them more than enough time to follow through with their responsibilities. While having the right tools creates efficiency, it's also important for clerks and staff to know how to use those tools and to be able to rely on customer service representatives who are knowledgeable, responsive, helpful and courteous.

iCompass, a Diligent brand, puts their whole focus on helping local governments of all sizes to modernize their services with intuitive, user-friendly technologies that they designed with the unique needs of municipal governments at the helm of the design process. iCompass software designers have an unwavering commitment to empower the movers and shakers in local government to better the lives of their citizens.

Customer service representatives at iCompass place a high value in knowing that their customers can use the products as intended and can take advantage of every feature the products offer. iCompass stands behind its products with excellent customer service.

Your Local Government Needs Agenda Software Designed Specifically for Municipal Governments

Municipal clerks create council meeting agendas on a regular basis. Manual processes for creating paper agendas and agenda packets are time-consuming and outdated.

Clerks want and need digital tools to make the process easier. Council members are relying on clerks to make sure meeting materials are accurate, complete and timely. Agenda management software is a major asset in making that happen. Clerks have many responsibilities in pulling off a council meeting without a hitch, and they rely on excellent customer service from the agenda management software provider to be their backup.

With many software providers to choose from, local governments will be served best by working with a software provider that understands the daily functions and departments within local government. Clerks need software tools that work well for their current needs. As communities grow and change, they also want to work with companies that keep a pulse on the industry and respond with new innovations to make work easier and more efficient with time. As efficiency grows, cost savings follows.

When a clerk needs to make that frantic call to customer service, they want to know that the person they're speaking with understands the unique needs of municipal governments. Preferably, they'd like to speak with someone who has long-term experience working in local government.

Creating Efficiency With Customer Service-Backed Software

Manual processes for creating agenda packets take hours from a clerk's normal workday. Paper processes cost local governments too much in material and labor costs. Agenda management software cuts down drastically on the costs of creating and distributing agenda packets.

Something that is also important to consider is that agenda software quickly and easily adapts to last-minute changes without having to rework the agenda from scratch. Council members and other attendees will be elated to see that agenda updates occur in real time, so they can always access the latest changes.

Formatting for agendas can be difficult with some traditional word processing programs. Agenda management software by iCompass pre-formats agendas. Clerks can easily type in new headings or agenda items. What's even easier is the drag-and-drop technology that lets them pull in or remove agenda items from the previous board meeting. Other agenda software programs aren't properly set up for the needs of local governments. With iCompass agenda management software, agenda preparation can be reduced from hours to minutes.

When the meeting is over, clerks can easily transfer the agenda information to the meeting minutes platform and finalize the minutes in record time.

How Does Excellent Customer Service Impact Clerks in Preparing Agendas?

Municipal clerks have many bases to cover when preparing for a council meeting. Many things can go wrong along the way, which is why industry-leading customer service is so important.

Once the agenda packets are complete and ready to distribute, clerks turn them into large electronic files and send them out electronically. If a council member doesn't get the packet, can't open it or it isn't in the right format, they won't have materials ready for the meeting. With iCompass, a Diligent brand, agenda management software, the clerk would only have to call customer service to identify where things went wrong and get the correct meeting dockets into the council member's hands before the meeting. Without iCompass's excellent support, clerks would be back to the labor-intensive copying and printing process.

Council members usually have lots of attachments in their agenda packets. They usually need to review reports, committee reports, data and documents from citizens. If all of the documents don't attach, or they don't come through in a readable form, the clerk will be the first to respond. When contacting customer service, the clerk wants assurance that the customer service representative understands the importance of fixing the situation right away ' and what's at stake if they can't get the documents to the council members in time.

iCompass, a Diligent brand, designed their software so that clerks could easily transfer agenda information to a platform for meeting minutes. If the information doesn't transfer, or if the clerk needs assistance in learning how to transfer the information, they need immediate help from customer service they can rely on.

iCompass also makes the process of publishing meeting minutes to the Transparency Portal for public access fast and easy. Once citizens become accustomed to looking for council meeting minutes on the Transparency Portal, they'll be looking to review them on a regular basis the day after council meetings and they may want to see a video of the meeting as well. Citizens will also be looking for other documents and information on the Transparency Portal. Citizen engagement is a leading priority for local governments and they want an industry-leading software provider that also provides unmatched personal customer service for the rare occasions when something goes wrong or clerks need assistance right away.

iCompass, a Diligent brand, has been providing software solutions for municipal governments for almost 20 years. iCompass, is committed to bringing the power of technology and innovation to the local government level to help them operate more efficiently and to provide transparency in government. iCompass, a Diligent brand, is a leading source of local government software solutions that are trusted by over 500 local governments of varying sizes. Let iCompass, a Diligent brand, transform your government operations with industry-leading municipal government software backed by expert and responsive customer service.
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Lena Eisenstein
Lena Eisenstein is a former Manager at Diligent. Her expertise in mission-driven organizations, including nonprofits, school boards and local governments, centers on how technology and modern governance best practices empower leaders at these organizations to serve their communities with efficiency and purpose.