Customer Relationship Management for San Francisco City Government

One of the most pervasive arguments for privatization is that government services are inefficient by nature and ignore the customer due to a lack of competition. I have always disagreed with this notion on a fundamental level and found this video to be a heartening rebuttal. First, there are certain industries that private companies should always be left out of, for instance the health care industry and in this example, the towing of cars.

A delicate balance must be struck: Leaving all abandoned cars would eventually swarm the city in a cluster of rusting metal. Towing too soon would enrage law-abiding citizens and tourists. I think that a private towing company would gladly field complaints and remove vehicles to an impound lot as quickly as possible, and have no respect at all for the "victim". This is clearly a service that qualifies as a public obligation, and I am happy that a private enterprise was utilized appropriately as a consult. Streamlining complaints, organizing data and satisfying customers should be the ultimate goal of any organization and I am glad to have seen the SFPD evolve in such a way.

DTIS provided a wonderful improvement to a flawed system, and I am very interested to see where the future lies. QR scanners went from being a private use to a near ubiquitous public marketing tool, and perhaps there will be a day in which aggrieved customers can merely scan pictures of cars or license plates, a database can provide aggregate data and abandoned cars will spend mere hours on the pavement. All aboard the QR express.