Category Archives: Customer Experience & Engagement

Maximizing Service by Engaging Employees as Customers

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At the end of 2021, the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government stated, “Our Government must recommit to being ‘of the people, by the people, [and] for the people’ in order to solve the complex 21st century challenges our Nation faces. Government must be held accountable for designing and delivering services with a focus on the actual experience of the people whom it is meant to serve.” Panelists at Carahsoft’s 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit agreed that this mission begins with an organization’s employee experience.

A New Approach in Customer Experience Over Time

With the recent introduction of mandates and the new executive order, Government agencies have increased momentum to move customer experience (CX) from being a standalone initiative to weaving it into every facet of daily operations. Jill Leighton, Vice President of Public Sector Strategy and Solutions at Qualtrics, said that today, agencies are not just singularly improving a particular service or touch point. Now, they are taking that insight and implementing it into policymaking, strategic planning, reporting success and designing programs, while also learning where to invest and prioritize.

Carahsoft Customer Experience Engagement Summit Part 3 Service Blog Embedded Image 2023Untapped Resources

Using the best resources and constantly staying on top of innovation is an undertaking for any agency. Employees can be the most underutilized asset for organizations, so it is important for agencies to understand what employees need for peak performance. An immense amount of change has happened throughout the pandemic in working environments, and organizations need to take full advantage of the newer talent capacity and building opportunities within teams and employee talent pools. Additionally, agencies can unlock insights from employee and CX satisfaction through data gathering tools like conversational analytics, natural language processing and machine learning.

Artificial Intelligence in CX

Ironically, the possibilities presented by AI technology are critical to a human-centered CX strategy, Leighton said. With the implementation of AI, agencies are able to automate data analysis in various formats, perform automatic cataloging categorization and background filtering. For example, employees on the front lines of call centers can benefit from weekly, even daily summary reports showing the customer’s most pressing problems, their satisfaction levels and other aspects of their experiences. Using AI for the purpose of collecting qualitative and experience data, call operators can gain valuable insight into how to improve their human-centered CX approach and learn how to personalize each interaction they have. Additionally, using that data to optimize efficiency will improve service delivery. These solutions help move employees away from manual processes so they may focus more on interactions with customers.

What Is Impacting the Work Force?

Many aspects of Government operations can be difficult to navigate. Panelists referenced a general talent shortage, lack of funding and outdated solutions as barriers for the CX workforce. One panelist said they encounter homegrown identity and access management solutions and piecemeal fixes throughout their organization’s CX efforts, which makes it challenging to provide a seamless experience for customers and employees. Another problem CX professionals face is increased expectations from those consuming Government services.

Ron Vickery, Area Vice President of Customer and Industry Workflows, Government Health and Higher Education at ServiceNow, expressed, “We are putting employees in a really tough situation if we are not empowering them to deliver against that expectation. So, I think that, across the board, is a big trend; rising expectations of the way service should be received and making sure that we have empowered these employees to deliver that level of service.”

Translating the Employee Experience to Customer Experience

Government agencies must prepare employees to provide excellence service with a mission-driven mindset as well as proper resources and technology to deliver it. Benefits such as flexibility in the workplace, operational efficiency, training and easy access to tools and resources can attract new talent as well as retain existing employees. If they feel supported by and invested in their agency, workers will be more inclined to provide the quality of service expected by their leadership.

Nicky French, Customer Service Branch Manager for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said that the TSA’s security mission presents a unique challenge as this agency must balance national cybersecurity with customer experience. She stated, “Our officers in the front lines have to enforce rules, and sometimes that can come across as a little more militant than we would like. So, we try to make sure that the officers are professional and polite. We spend a lot of time just level setting what customer service means.”

Employees need to know that their organization pays attention to their needs. When positive change is made, employees know their voice is valued and has an impact. Addressing challenges within operations enables employees to make a difference and move their agency’s CX mission forward.

 

Read the previous blog and check back soon to read the rest of Carahsoft’s insights from CX industry thought leaders at the summit.

To learn more about the latest in the CX landscape and how Carahsoft’s industry-leading partners can support your Customer Experience initiatives, please visit our resource hub to access all on demand recordings and information from the 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit.

Letting Data and Leadership Inspire Change

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Every agency strives to provide quality customer service, but learning and executing new ways to do so can be daunting. Attendees at Carahsoft’s annual Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit learned that while the process may differ for each agency, there are a few main principles each group should follow in providing an excellent customer experience (CX).

Expounding On Census Data

Over the past few years, agencies have changed the way they collect data to find the best way to reach customers. For some audiences, this may include both electronic and paper forms. If both methods are deployed every so often, agencies can better understand which customers still need that physical conversation or mail-in form, and which prefer online methods. Agencies must embrace observability in both controlled and uncontrolled environments to collect the most effective data on customer experience. One such uncontrolled feedback forum is social media. Previously thought to be uncorrelated to constructive feedback, agencies are finding that customers use social media as a feedback mechanism. By monitoring responses on social media, government organizations can find action items for the way they serve the public.

Carahsoft Customer Experience Engagement Summit Part 2 Blog Embedded Image 2023After collecting data, agencies need to know how to sift through it to find relative action items. To provide better customer service, agencies need to find measurable results from these initiatives. Actionable plans should be formed around the data results. Ultimately, the customer’s experience must guide agency programs.

Leadership in Action

Data can be utilized in practice through strong and guided leadership. A government agency may be the sole provider for a particular service, such as taxes with the Federal government, or issuing drivers’ licenses through the local government. Therefore, it is increasingly important that the government provides excellent service. Government agencies must center their service around empathy. By connecting and understanding customer needs, employees can balance data insights and other priority goals such as cybersecurity and regulatory framework in light of its main goal of centering services around the customer. Agencies can utilize journey mapping and analytics to find predictive routing for continued customer service improvement.

Addressing CX can benefit other service priorities, too. By focusing on each individual customer interaction, handling time and average transaction time will decrease, while overall satisfaction between employer and customer will be higher. During Carahsoft’s 2023 Customer Experience and Engagement Summit, Abraham Marinas, the Product Design Director at Federal Student Aid, attested, “…as you focus on the customer experience, all those metrics eventually will fall in line.”

Technology can be utilized to fulfill innovation in customer service. Technology has improved vastly in the past several years. While agencies may have previously structured themselves around technology, now, technology should be formatted to fit the agency’s specific needs. By investing in strong partnerships with the IT industry, agencies can create better solutions and technology for their organization.

As the government strives to better serve its people, agencies must continue to update their processes and services for positive change by considering the following:

  1. Have a clear, focused image of the change it wants to make.
  2. Decide how to will demonstrate the benefits of that change.
  3. Share that image with each individual team; even when an organization has a shared vision, it might need to change the implementation process depending on the structure of each team.
  4. Upscale existing talent or hire new experts to specialize and understand new changes.

By engaging in genuine and emphatic conversations and utilizing data to influence leadership and progress, employees can form bonds with their customers to help foster trust and respect for the Government.

 

Read the previous blog and check back soon to read the rest of Carahsoft’s insights from CX industry thought leaders at the summit.

 

To learn more about the latest in the CX landscape and how Carahsoft’s industry-leading partners can support your Customer Experience initiatives, please visit our resource hub to access all on demand recordings and information from the 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit.

Returning to the Heart of Customer Experience: A Government for the People

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At Carahsoft’s annual Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit hosted in June, experts from industry and Federal, State, and Local Government came together to discuss stewardship, innovation and paths forward in customer experience (CX). At the one-day event, the thought-provoking sessions examined trends regarding two main themes in the CX journey: culture and technology. The culture track explored ideas for effective leadership, understanding and supporting employees and the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. The technology track considered goals within IT modernization, artificial intelligence and automation and the digitization of services. This blog series highlights lessons learned from the 2023 Summit and unpacks strategies for achieving excellence in Government CX and engagement.

The Big Picture of Customer Experience

During the opening keynote session, President of GovExec360, Troy Schneider, held a discussion with Barbara Morton, Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer, Veterans Experience Office (VEO) at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), emphasizing the importance of accessibility and accountability in service delivery. Morton said that purpose is at the heart of customer experiences. Whether they are in the government or supporting from the outside, public servants must consider the barriers along with the opportunities that foster trust, serve the greater common purpose and create excellence in CX. In the Public Sector, CX establishes how constituents engage with civic services. By transforming CX, the public sector can build and progress toward greater trust with those it serves.

Carahsoft Customer Experience Engagement Summit Part 1 Blog Embedded Image 2023Great CX starts with an organizational understanding that building and sustaining trust matters. With that agreement in mind, organizations can better support the mission of delivering efficient CX by learning and adapting to the needs of people they are serving. Agencies should provide visibility to customers on the timeliness and process of their requests, as well as deliver on their promises to foster trust and assurance of reliability. Using human-centered design throughout all stages of CX is also essential for understanding the human perspective and anticipating customer needs. As data is collected throughout the human-centric design approach, organizations gain actionable insights that help them create the best tangible solutions for customer challenges.

Use Case: The Department of Veterans Affairs

Government agencies and organizations must focus on traditional operational measures, and the VA ensures it takes another step forward to evaluate experience-based metrics and treat these insights as co-equal when it comes to agency performance. Morton said that action drivers like executive orders and Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) efforts are significant authorities in the transformation of Government CX to continuously progress toward access equitability and efficiency. With their guidance, agencies must agree on the top priorities for service delivery and then incorporate the human-centered design aspect. For example, the VA examines women and tribal veteran’s experiences to ensure it can translate those insights into meaningful and applicable products so those groups feel better understood when interacting with the VA. Additionally, in a digitally driven world, organizations must provide experiences with easy-to-navigate accessibility. Each agency should have a clear homepage or “digital front door” that customers know how and when to access.

Lasting Progress for Lasting Change

In the government, CX can make a measurable difference in the lives of individuals or families going through significant life changes, such as a natural disaster or medical crises as an active or retired veteran. Open source technology that intersects with the government at Federal, State and Local levels can achieve economies of scope and scale, and the improvement of financial savings proportionate to goods produced. The addition of effective CX technology allows government agencies to provide more assistance to more people, having a profound impact in their lives.

 

Check back soon to read the rest of Carahsoft’s insights from CX industry thought leaders at the summit.

 

To learn more about the latest in the CX landscape and how Carahsoft’s industry-leading partners can support your Customer Experience initiatives, please visit our resource hub to access all on-demand recordings and information from the 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit.

Reaching Customers with Client-Driven Solutions

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One of the biggest challenges of government service is how their personnel interact with customers. Adequately supporting customers can be tricky, especially when serving people with vastly different needs. So, it is vital that government providers know how to support individuals with accurate, time-effective aid for their specific issues – for example, a mental health or public safety crisis.

Equal and Equitable Access

ConcernCenter/AWS Customer Experience Blog Embedded Image 2023What is the best way to provide care? Offering constituents and customers equal and equitable access and care means government employees need to be prepared to handle a variety of problems. First, the experience of each individual should be at the forefront of every interaction; customers should be treated with respect to their wishes and goals. Second, making the customer feel valued and heard is critical in every encounter. Customer service should not be transactional, but relational. By building trust with clients, agencies establish value now and for the agency’s future. Third, service should take into account who the individual receiving the assistance is as a person.

A Look at the Customer

Different customers prefer different styles of customer service. For governments, this means addressing the varied needs of a range of customers, including:

  • Students, parents, faculty and staff
  • Veterans
  • Employees
  • Survivors of crime and their families
  • At-risk youth
  • Patients
  • Disabled patients and their families
  • Caregivers
  • Younger generations
  • Older generations

Employees must be prepared to actively support the unique individuals that use their agency or organization. It is vital to identify who the customer is as a person, what resources are accessible to them and what their main concerns may be. This can affect all aspects of the interaction, as organizations need to consider what kind of people are reaching out, and how to best orient their services toward their target audience.

Online Support

With the growing presence of the internet in everyone’s lives, websites should be created in ways that best serve the end-user. There are a few main questions to consider when determining whether consumer-facing websites and services are meeting their intended goals:

  • Who is visiting the website? What is their age group and knowledge level?
  • What is the biggest concern to these customers? What questions are consistently being asked?
  • What results is the customer expecting on the other end of their experience?

All customers visiting a website will have a shared experience. To create a client-driven solution, first identify their ideal user experience. When customers know what questions to ask, when to ask them, and who to ask they can be confident they will receive the correct solutions they need.

Providing a Client-Driven Solution

Customer service should be client-driven, rather than business-driven. A client-driven solution is based around customer concerns. It is written simply, in words customers use every day rather than the organization’s technical jargon.

For government agencies, whose main goal is to be by and for the people, business models should be client-needs focused. In addition, organizations should provide multiple support options for the customer to choose from. This way, if a customer does not feel comfortable with one option, they have other methods of support to utilize. As soon as the customer no longer feels supported, they stop searching for help, which is exactly what we hope they will not do.

Providing client-driven solutions can look like:

  • Reducing confusion by compiling all resources into one accessible place
  • Investing in long-term staff that is experienced with the organization and its processes
  • Providing support options that are available after hours and on weekends
  • Using data analytics to gain insight into when and where support is being accessed
  • Customizing software to center around the customer base’s needs
  • Providing options for services in multiple languages
  • Offering password protection and an emergency click-away button for safety and confidentiality purposes
  • Clearly directing to answers, helpful resources and next steps

By providing client-driven solutions, agencies can build trust with customers that will allow them to more equitably serve the public.

 

ConcernCenter works with businesses, school districts, organizations, institutions, and non-profits to support users and solve common concerns. To learn more about effectively aiding customers, visit Carahsoft’s page to view ConcernCenter’s webinar on customer service.

How to Achieve your Agency’s Customer Experience Goals

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Customer experience pervades every aspect of what the government does — and some might argue, why it exists. What’s more, it has become profoundly clear that everyone is a customer. There are the obvious customers, people across the nation. But then there are current and former federal employees, businesses large and small, the government’s contracting community, other agencies and even other nations. Likely, there are more. Unlike a private company, a federal agency often has no competitor for its services. That fact has created a lag in the evolution of federal CX and digital services — relative to what businesses and nongovernment organizations typically provide today and what people now expect. Agencies are on it now though. The presidential executive order on customer experience of December 2021 targets the need to evolve CX and points up the destructive affect that poor service delivery has on public trust. Download the guide to learn how to meet the expectations of the public, as well as the many other customers agencies serve, with a multipronged strategy that focuses on culture, processes and technology.

 

Want to Enhance Customer Experience? Here’s Where to Start

“The key to the success of Farmers.gov is its simplicity, Bremby said. USDA has put all the information farmers need in a single place and made it easy for them to complete the necessary processes to receive services. USDA consolidated seven digital systems and 150 web resources into one intelligent platform that follows a user’s progress. And that, Bremby noted, is the biggest metric for success in customer experience: Did the customer complete the transaction? Or did they drop off somewhere in the middle of the process, like abandoning a cart while shopping online?”

Read more insights from Rod Bremby, Regional Vice President for Global Public Sector at Salesforce.

 

IIG FNN CX Blog Embedded Image 2023Meaningful Communication Creates the Foundation for Good Customer Experience

“Agencies are familiar with traditional communications media. They engage with public relations firms and the news media to promote stories. They conduct public awareness campaigns across every available platform, from bus stop advertisements to social media, and they tend to be pretty good at driving broad awareness. Where they fall short though, Peterson said, is more granular, personalized messaging.”

Read more insights from Angy Peterson, Vice President at Granicus.

 

How Federal Agencies can Pivot to Experience-driven Government

“People who rely on government services are usually accessing them at critical junctures in their lives, often moments of profound need. They’re looking for relief in the aftermath of a natural disaster, for public health data during an epidemic, for financial stability in retirement, and for ways to prepare for growth or cope with losses affecting their families and businesses. That’s why agencies need to pivot to experience-driven government, meeting citizens where they’re at in their journeys and connecting them with the right services at the right time.”

Read more insights from James Hanson, Head of Industry Strategy for the Public Sector at Adobe.

 

Don’t Let a Cyber Staff Shortage Weaken Your Defenses

“Federal agencies are taking note and have started making significant strides toward digital transformation, driven in no small part by recent directives, including the president’s executive order on customer experience. While competitive pressures often motivate private sector enterprises to invest in innovation, the government’s greatest competition is usually the status quo. Agencies have been delivering services in the same way for so long that impacting change requires redirecting institutional inertia — to say nothing of overcoming budgetary obstacles. One way for agencies to get started on this journey is to begin digitizing agreements.”

Read more insights from Michael “MJ” Jackson, Vice President and Global Head of Industries at DocuSign.

 

Here are 3 Phases to Begin Modernizing Customer Experience Right Away

“For years, agencies have been researching, modernizing and overhauling how customers experience doing business with the federal government. Over the course of several presidential administrations, with the help of Office of Management and Budget mandates, presidential executive orders and an influx of customer experience talent, there has been a noticeable shift toward organizational CX management approaches. Agencies have an opportunity to take full advantage of technological advances to improve customer experience management capacity at scale. Advances in cloud technology, data analytics and new communications channels have opened up new avenues to improve an agency’s capability to design and deliver services for both customers and federal employees.”

Read more insights from Matt Chong, Vice President of Federal at Qualtrics.

 

Download the full Expert Edition for more insights from these customer experience leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research.

Shaping the Future With 3D Software in Government

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Over the past few years, the use of 3D software has become increasingly important in Government Agencies. With advances in technology, government officials are turning to 3D software to help them visualize, analyze, and design projects with greater efficiency and effectiveness. This technology can provide several benefits, including improved collaboration, better decision-making, and increased efficiency.

One of the most significant benefits of 3D software is the ability to create realistic visualizations of data and designs. This is particularly useful in areas such as architecture, urban planning, and transportation. By using 3D software, government agencies can create realistic models of buildings, roads, and other infrastructure, allowing stakeholders to see how designs will look in the real world. This can help to identify potential issues early in the planning process, leading to more efficient and cost-effective solutions.

Adobe 3D Software Blog Embedded Image 2023For example, a city planning department could use 3D software to create a digital model of a new highway interchange. The model could be used to identify potential traffic bottlenecks, analyze the impact on nearby neighborhoods, and make design modifications to optimize traffic flow and minimize the impact on the community. By using 3D software, the planning department can gain valuable insights into the project and make better decisions that benefit both the city and its residents.

Another benefit of 3D software is improved collaboration. By creating 3D models of designs and data, government agencies can share information more easily and effectively with stakeholders. This can lead to better communication and a greater understanding of the issues at hand. Additionally, 3D software allows multiple stakeholders to view and interact with the same model, allowing for more efficient collaboration and problem-solving.

For instance, a team of engineers and architects working on a public works project could use 3D software to create a digital model of the project. The model could be shared with all team members, allowing them to see and interact with the same information. This would facilitate better communication and collaboration, as team members could identify potential issues and make design modifications in real time.

3D software can also improve decision-making in government agencies. By visualizing data and designs in 3D, agencies can better understand complex systems and identify potential problems before they occur. This can help agencies to make more informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Additionally, 3D software can help agencies to evaluate the impact of different policy decisions, allowing for more effective planning and resource allocation.

For example, a state transportation department could use 3D software to evaluate the impact of a proposed toll increase on highway usage. The department could create a 3D model of the highway system and use data analytics to simulate different traffic scenarios. This would allow them to evaluate the impact of the proposed toll increase and make more informed decisions about transportation policy.

Finally, 3D software can increase efficiency in government agencies. By using 3D software to create models and visualizations, agencies can streamline their workflows and reduce the time and resources required for planning and analysis. This can lead to faster decision-making and more effective use of resources.

For instance, a Federal agency could use 3D software to analyze satellite imagery of a natural disaster area. The software could automatically generate 3D models of the disaster area, allowing the agency to quickly assess the extent of the damage and prioritize response efforts. This would reduce the time required for manual analysis and allow the agency to more efficiently allocate resources.

In conclusion, the use of 3D software in government agencies can provide several benefits, including improved collaboration, better decision-making, and increased efficiency. As technology continues to advance, 3D software will likely become an increasingly important tool for government agencies across a range of fields.

 

If you or anyone you know would like to dive deeper into the Adobe creative applications and how they can be applied to current government projects, watch the on-demand recordings from our 8-part webinar series, Engage Audiences Across Screens with Powerful Collaboration and Creation.

Discover how Adobe Creative Cloud solutions accelerate creative workflows, allow for content creation across all screens and mediums, and enable quick and efficient creation of digital experiences. Our team of Adobe solutions experts demonstrate how to utilize the newest tools, upgrades, features, and integration capabilities that teams across all fields can leverage for compelling and exciting digital designs.