Transforming Public Sector Efficiency: A Two-Pronged Approach to Modernization

Posted on by Josh Green

Throughout the history of government technology adoption, agencies have continually adapted to the ever-changing technological landscape. With the increasing demand for digital governance, the drive to modernize both the workforce and the citizen experiences is more important than ever. This dual focus ensures that agencies can not only improve their internal operations but also foster stronger, more responsive relationships with the public. This means fulfilling their overall missions easier than ever while rising to meet the ever-growing expectations of the people they serve.

Modernizing the Workforce

Government employees are the backbone of public service, working day in and day out to ensure that citizens receive the support they need. As the demands on these employees grow more complex, it’s crucial that we provide them not just with advanced tools, but with a work environment that fosters collaboration and encourages ongoing learning. The shift isn’t just about adopting new technologies; it’s about creating a culture where innovation thrives, and where every team member feels empowered to contribute to the agency’s mission.

With a rising demand for digital services, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector employees have faced unprecedented challenges. From adopting new technologies to managing complex workflows to rapidly adapting to this surge in service demands, their roles have become more fundamental than ever. This period highlighted the importance of equipping government workers with the skills and tools needed to thrive in a digital-first environment.

To navigate these challenges effectively, agencies must prioritize seamless collaboration and strategic work management. This involves adopting tools that enhance communication, align projects with agency goals, and provide transparency into progress. We’ve seen that by fostering a culture of collaboration and transparency, agencies can ensure that every project contributes to the broader mission, empowering employees to deliver results more efficiently.

Adobe Transforming Public Sector Efficiency Modernization Blog Embedded Image 2024

Moreover, modernization also means streamlining outdated processes that have long hindered efficiency. For example, enrollment processes have traditionally been slow and cumbersome, often relying on paper-based systems. By modernizing these workflows through automation and digital tools, agencies can reduce administrative burdens, improve accuracy, and speed up service delivery. This allows government employees to focus on more strategic tasks, ultimately enhancing the overall employee experience. These enrollment processes are not simply internal agency constraints but also form a core element of the drive to modernize the citizen experience as well.

Modernizing Citizen Experiences

In today’s digital world, citizens expect the same level of service from government agencies as they do from their favorite online retailers. This means that government websites and online services need to be intuitive, accessible, and responsive to the needs of every user. By prioritizing user-centered design and using data to inform decisions, agencies can ensure that their digital platforms are not only functional but also welcoming. It’s about making every interaction count, whether it’s a simple information request or a more complex service transaction.

It is often the case that the online presence of a government agency is the first point of contact for residents seeking information or services. However, many government websites still struggle with outdated designs and inconsistent content, which can negatively affect public perception and engagement. This is why creating those meaningful, personalized experiences is an integral part of digital transformation in the public sector. By doing so, agencies can create more cohesive, accessible, and engaging digital services that resonate with citizens. This approach ensures that online interactions are intuitive and aligned with the diverse needs of the public, leading to higher satisfaction and trust in government services.

Furthermore, in an era where information is consumed rapidly across multiple channels, the ability to quickly create, manage, and distribute content is crucial. Delays in content delivery can result in missed opportunities for engagement and a failure to address the immediate needs of citizens. By increasing content velocity—improving internal workflows, streamlining content management, and ensuring that content is tailored to specific audiences—agencies can more effectively communicate with the public, delivering prompt and relevant information that enhances citizen engagement.

Conclusion

The challenges facing government agencies today are significant, but they also present opportunities for innovation and growth. Modernizing the workforce and citizen experiences are two sides of the same coin in the journey toward a more efficient and responsive government. By adopting strategies that streamline work management, modernize enrollment processes, enhance web experiences, and increase content velocity, agencies can better serve their citizens and build a stronger connection between government and the public it serves. This dual approach to modernization is essential for navigating the challenges of the digital age and fulfilling the mission of serving citizens effectively.

View our Adobe webinar series to learn more about creating experience-driven government services.

Empowering Citizens: The Next Frontier in Government Service Delivery

Posted on by Josh Green

In this era of rapid technological advancement, embracing digital transformation is not just a matter of convenience, but a necessity for ensuring government agencies can effectively serve their constituents. The convergence of policy directives, like the President Management Agenda and the 21st Century IDEA (Integrated Digital Experience Act), with the pioneering spirit of public servants, sets the stage for a new era of government-citizen interaction.

Personalized Government Experiences

As we reflect on the lessons learned over the last few years, it becomes clear that the digital shift was not just about replicating existing services in a virtual space, it was about reimagining the very essence of citizen engagement itself. Agencies pivoted swiftly, using technology to supply critical services while safeguarding public health. This showed the immense potential for innovation within the public sector. The digitization of vital services, from health updates to unemployment assistance, was a monumental first step. Now, agencies stand at the precipice of a new frontier: personalization. Imagine a government service experience that predicts and addresses the unique needs of each individual. It is not just a matter of efficiency; it is a statement of commitment to inclusivity.

Accessibility, often considered a compliance requirement, is at the core of this transformation. Yet, true accessibility encompasses more than technical compliance. It demands a cultural shift towards empathy and understanding. It calls for dedicated teams to champion accessibility at every stage of service delivery. It challenges agencies to view every interaction as an opportunity to forge a deeper connection with citizens.

Looking ahead, the potential for government-citizen interactions is boundless. The fusion of technological innovation and policy imperatives opens a realm of possibilities. From predictive analytics that anticipate citizen needs to virtual assistants that guide individuals through complex processes, the future is bright with potential. In this quest for personalized government experiences, creating tailored content emerges as a pivotal strategy. This involves understanding the diverse needs and preferences of citizens and crafting information that resonates with them on a personal level. By using data analytics and user insights, agencies can quickly and automatically curate content that addresses specific challenges, provides relevant information, and guides individuals seamlessly through their interactions with government services.

Digital Workforce

Furthermore, the power of personalization extends beyond citizens to the dedicated employees within government agencies. A digitally empowered workforce is fundamental to delivering exceptional public services. Agencies can invest in training and upskilling programs, equipping employees with the digital tools and knowledge necessary to navigate the evolving landscape. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation, agencies empower their teams to adapt to changing citizen needs and drive meaningful impact. Empowering employees goes hand-in-hand with enhancing the experiences of constituents. By streamlining internal processes and using technology, agencies can reduce bureaucratic hurdles and deliver services more efficiently. This not only improves the speed of service delivery but also frees up resources to focus on initiatives that truly matter to citizens.

Seeking feedback from both employees and constituents is instrumental in fine-tuning government services. Establishing open channels of communication allows agencies to gain valuable insights into pain points, preferences, and areas for improvement. This iterative approach fosters a culture of responsiveness, ensuring that government services evolve in tandem with the evolving needs of the community.

A Citizen-Centric Government for All

The pursuit of personalized government experiences is a multifaceted endeavor. It requires a comprehensive approach that encompasses the creation of tailored content, the empowerment of employees, and a relentless commitment to continuous improvement of these experiences. As agencies embark on this transformative journey, they not only meet the immediate needs of citizens but also set the stage for a more agile, responsive, and citizen-centric government in the years to come.

Overall, the journey towards personalized government-citizen experiences is not just a matter of policy compliance, but a testament to the ideals of a government that serves all its citizens equitably. By championing accessibility, agencies pave the way for a more inclusive society. By embracing personalization, they empower individuals to engage with their government on their own terms. Together, we embark on a transformative journey towards a more responsive, inclusive, and citizen-centric government.

Check out this four-part Adobe webinar series to learn more about creating simplified government experiences customers can count on.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a Pillar of CX Service Delivery

Posted on by Tiffany Goddard

Integrating DEIA Into the Larger CX Picture

The Whitehouse Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) in the Federal Workforce promotes standards that can be applied to improving Government customer experience (CX). These include strengthening the ability to recruit, hire, develop, promote and retain the nation’s talent, removing barriers to equal opportunity and creating a space where all employees and customers are treated with dignity and respect. The standards offer Federal and State and Local Government agencies the opportunity to move toward equitable service delivery.

Developing a DEIA strategy involves a multitude of moving pieces like analyzing data, enforcing requirements, measuring effectiveness and ensuring progress. All of these areas culminate in sustainable cultural intelligence for organizations. Starting the conversation around DEIA in the context of CX begins with the on-going theme of communication rooted in trust—especially employee and customer trust in the Government. During Carahsoft’s 2023 Customer Experience and Engagement Summit, panelists examined how their organizations are creating more trusting, inclusive and resilient workplace environments which translates to improved services for customers.

A Focus on Human-Centered Design

In the realm of CX, trust is one of the most important aspects of customer, employee and leadership interactions. One panelist found that previously coming from a background in the user experience (UX) transformation space, all human-centered design exclusively existed within UX. In furthering their understanding of the broader CX spectrum, they discovered that UX is only a small part of the CX journey. While UX refers to the way users interact with an organization’s specific products, CX is how users view an organization’s brand and experiences with the business. The critical missing component to elevate CX is communication and transparency to build trust. Much of the progress made through DEIA initiatives aims to rebuild trust with undervalued communities so they feel secure receiving assistance both personally and virtually.

To truly develop more equitable service delivery models, organizations must be able to manage workplace tension by building both internal and external progress. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has worked to provide tools for success in both areas through various touchpoints. Externally, NSF teams launched a redesign of the agency’s website that allowed them to collect information from several demographic communities. In doing so, the NSF was able to redesign language inputs and outputs to better serve their website visitors. Internally, the NSF has implemented a call-listening program that analyzes empathy, psychological safety and compassion to protect not only customers, but employees as well. The NSF has also designed a DEIA maturity model, which helps to measure the efficacy of DEIA capabilities, identify critical barriers and benefits to employee advancement and operationalize a sense of inclusion and belonging across the foundation.

Moderating Workforce Development for the Future

Recruiting, hiring and retaining employees is successful when an organization considers a wide range of talent representation. Also, being data-informed is critical for an agency’s mission. Collecting data via methods like staff surveys to identify members’ interests and strengths as well as understand where that talent can best serve the agency is imperative for progress. Baking this into daily processes by working with human resources counterparts ensures the DNA of the organization is varied. Ultimately, diversity within CX talent can positively set one organization and the way its employees interact with customers apart from another.

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.

How Digital Learning Tools Are Helping Organizations Create Engaging Content in an Ongoing Virtual World

Posted on by Ashley Weston

Transition to Remote Work

It goes without saying that the switch to a predominantly “work from home” scenario has been quite the transition for most and has required much adaptation on both the human and technologic fronts. Many organizations had to scramble to set up the proper infrastructure and distribute the proper hardware to support a remote work environment. Depending on existing technology/structures and available resources, some transitions proved more challenging, while others ran more smoothly. However, even with the digital piece in place, a question remains: how can we keep the human experience intact in an increasingly tech-dominated world?

Factoring in the Human Element

Although we are living in a digital world, not all experiences are created equal, and it’s important to keep the audience in mind when creating content and delivering within any virtual scenario. While we have moved past the initial brunt of the ongoing global pandemic, according to the most recent Facts & Factors research study, “The Global E-learning market was projected at USD 144 Billion in 2019, is estimated to reach USD 374.3 Billion by 2026, and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 14.6 % through 2026.” As such, trends showing an increased and continued adoption of eLearning overall are strengthened by ongoing remote work necessitated by the pandemic. eLearning has become the norm, and there are so many ways to deliver in that sphere, making it easier for all learning styles to be accommodated and include something for everyone. This can be in the form of a virtual classroom/web conferencing setting, self-paced content or quizzing created through content authoring tools, online activities, or even gamification and social learning. At the end of the day, it’s important to give people a chance to engage in a way that resonates with them.

Gamification for Incentivization

One of the elements that can be incorporated to provide a more expansive digital learning experience is gamification, where users earn points for completing courses or activities. Gamification can foster friendly competition and incentivize learners to engage with available content. Users can see point values increase in real time and track their achievements, giving them bursts of encouragement from seeing their work move them up the virtual scoreboard. Normally, gamification systems are executed through a Learning Management System, used to deliver and track training. Settings can be adjusted accordingly to account for a range of content, activities, and point values.

Social Learning and Non-Traditional Engagement

A large part of training across the government, corporate, and education sphere often involves compliance training and requires concrete proof of completion from an assessment component. While these aspects of eLearning are necessary and important, they can also be complemented by adding more community-based engagement features, such as social learning, which usually entails a forum or social “feed” for users to post, comment, poll, and discuss in custom groups, small or large scope. The concept of social learning adds a friendly side to formal training and offers up another way for users to consume and process content alongside peers. With much of our day-to-day, in-person socialization still restricted within many work environments, options that mimic a more community-like feel have become crucial. Learners who are more engaged and who feel more welcomed in their respective digital environments are more likely to return.

Factors to Consider When Building an eLearning Environment

A few factors to consider when launching a more engaging eLearning experience include scope, training content, and goals, as well as time constraints and accessibility. In terms of the technology involved, usually a content authoring tool, whether it be PDFs, videos, or interactive content, is paired with a Learning Management System to deliver and track training for the full scope. Content can be tailored to appeal to various learning types and be delivered across multiple devices for ease of access. The “one size fits all” approach has shifted to pave the way for more customized education that plays an important role in increasing learn ability.

For more information, view the Adobe webinar series: 8-Part Adobe Digital Learning Webinar Series: Redefine Digital Learning Experiences.

Fostering Trust in Government Agencies Through Customer Experience

Posted on by Samantha Hermes

Trust is the basis of every customer service endeavor which drives interaction between customers and agencies. As such, it is vital for government agencies to establish reliable service to properly meet customers’ needs. If employees can create an engaging customer experience, taxpayers will come back to the agencies for services that they can trust. With this pattern, the government can become the most authoritative information source for citizens.

One way to enhance trust is to improve customer service. Politeness fosters trust in customers, which can lead to smoother interactions. Having a quick turn-around time helps ensure the customers’ needs are being met. Government services should stimulate the free market by offering customers choices so that they can find a tailored solution. The timely, efficient service of private companies should be emulated in the public sector and has become a tax-payer expectation. In mirroring this service model, the public sector can build trust in their services.

Utilizing Government Initiatives

Another important way to build trust with customers is to meet them at their comfort zone. This differs amongst people. Generally, however, taxpayers want to easily gain the information and resources they need in the usual method and timeframe that they are accustomed to. Government services can be provided on a variety of platforms, such as websites, apps, social media, by phone and in person. This way, agencies can reach the greatest number of people possible in real time. Agencies must keep up with modernization to maintain trust between the public and the government.

When interacting with taxpayers, agencies need to help remove the complexity from technology. If customers do not know how to navigate government websites and online services, then the aid will be futile. Customers should not be expected to understand agency charts or data just to receive benefits. As such, the public sector must prioritize strong customer service to improve customer experience.

Federal government initiatives, such as the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), provide support for technological efforts by financially prioritizing customer experience improvement. About $100 million of the funds will go towards improving CX for civilian end users that interact with U.S. government digital services.^[1]Agencies should harness such government initiatives to improve upon services. This funding can be used to cut waiting times, eradicate duplicative administration paperwork and streamline access to government services, making the processes more favorable for customers.

Trust in Government

While providing customer support is important, creating effective solutions is equally vital for customer trust. Regardless of how emphatic an interaction is, if it results in an undesirable solution, then the public will lose trust in government agencies.^[2] Trust must begin with adequate service, and so customer service must offer effective solutions to taxpayer problems.

Finding the right solution for each customer can be difficult. However, with continuous and effective communication, taxpayer’s needs can be fulfilled. Agencies can provide proper aid to help this process. Documents should be processed quickly and available on a multitude of platforms to reach the widest audience possible. Pensions and benefits must be properly paid out to their respective parties including veteran benefits, insurance or health care.

Customers need to be met on their own terms. For example, customer questionnaires should be straightforward and offered in the customers’ native languages. This eliminates any confusion or frustration on the customer’s part. When agencies use comparative analysis and satisfaction scores, they ensure the services are being provided in the desired manner. After gaps in service are found, the agencies must strategize to improve their training and deliverables. Agencies should use channel shifting such as email alerts to notify customers about updates, or when their document was properly submitted. They should also utilize reminders to alert taxpayers to finish documents. Agencies should not wait for customers to come to them to repeatedly address concerns. Employees must be proactive and engaging with their responses. Ultimately, no amount of communication is too much. Agencies should work to foster a trusting bond with customers.

The Importance of Fostering Trust

Through deploying proactive and diverse customer service, properly implementing technology and creating effective solutions, public sector agencies can provide a desirable customer experience that is both effective and efficient. With these adjustments, taxpayer’s trust in government will increase, allowing agencies to fulfill their duty to the people.

View the Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit sessions to learn more about building trust to improve customer experience.

[1] “Tech Modernization Fund Launches Fresh $100 Million for CX Projects,” Nextgov, https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2022/06/tech-modernization-fund-launches-fresh-100-million-cx-projects/368273/

[2] “Experts Call for More Chief Customer Officers in Government,” FCW, https://fcw.com/digital-government/2022/06/experts-call-more-chief-customer-officers-government/368563/

Delivering Customer Service in the Federal Sphere

Posted on by Samantha Hermes

Customer Experience (CX) is vital to the government’s duty to serve the public. While each federal agency is unique, all must find a strategy that works for them in administrating customer service. The most helpful approach for the federal government is to make customer service accessible, friendly and beneficial across diverse agencies.

Customer Service is a Vital Part of Agencies

For customers, the main deciding factor in how they interact with an agency is their trust in it. To properly serve customers, agencies must improve the experience of taxpayers. Agency services should be straightforward, simple and quickly processable for customers. This will encourage customers to interact with agencies and to trust them with their information. Originally, the most accessible medium for government aid was physical papers. Many agencies still rely on this method. However, as the technological space changes, agencies must make government services accessible on a variety of different platforms, including computers and mobile devices. This way, government agencies can reach the greatest number of taxpayers possible.

Building Trust between Customers and Staff

Because of the diversity of the taxpayer base, customer service cannot be approached in a single, straightforward way. Instead, agencies must dedicate time to training personnel to create a multi-faceted approach. For example, delivering quality solutions allows agencies to focus on problem-solving to integrate customer feedback into their business strategies. They should enhance user experience so that customers can trust in the government.

It is also important to take an internal approach. Quality customer service is equal parts providing the best personnel service and procuring proper solutions. Government services tend to be ad hoc and optimized, with a steady workflow that is processed swiftly and smartly. Typically, having a unique solution for each scenario is unrealistic in the government sphere, as it tends to lose work efficiency. On the other hand, having a standardized process tends to leave some customers without a desired solution. When outcomes feel suboptimal for customers, customer service strategies should come into play. Staff should be trained to handle a diverse customer base in an appropriate and varied manner. If staff handle grievances in an emphatic manner, that will build trust between the agency and the taxpayer, providing the most optimal service.

Delivering on Customer Service Promises

It is important to implement real efforts in improving customer experience. Government agencies can ensure valuable customer service by providing accountability in CX through an office or official that specializes in CX accountability. The federal government and select federal agencies that handle customer experience, such as high impact service providers, should have chief CX officers to provide accountability in service delivery initiatives across the fed landscape and agency level.^[1] That way, agencies must continue to emphasize CX in federal government initiatives.

The federal government must commit to CX. The presidential administration agenda has validated these efforts by prioritizing user experience improvement. To jumpstart this effort, the federal government has allocated $100 million of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) toward improving CX for civilian end users that interact with U.S. government digital services. Some of these funds will go to cutting waiting time, eradicating duplicative administration paperwork, and streamlining access to government services.^[2] The administration hopes to improve delivery, which, according to the Federal Chief Information Officer and TMF Board Chair Clare Martorana, has previously not kept pace with the needs and expectations of the public. Efforts to improve this include deploying secure technology that will reduce costs for agencies, eliminating burdens on workforce, and meeting the public’s expectations.

Moving Forward

Customer service is a vital way to build trust between an agency and customer. In the federal government, genuine initiatives to improve CX must be addressed. This can be as simple as training personnel on handling customers, or as encompassing as creating a CX office. And as the world changes, the best approach to delivering CX will include tangible solutions, modernization and emphatic customer service.

View the Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit sessions to learn more about delivering on customer experience promises amongst federal agencies.

[1] “Experts Call for More Chief Customer Officers in Government,” FCW, https://fcw.com/digital-government/2022/06/experts-call-more-chief-customer-officers-government/368563/

[2] “Tech Modernization Fund Launches Fresh $100 Million for CX Projects,” Nextgov, https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2022/06/tech-modernization-fund-launches-fresh-100-million-cx-projects/368273/

Future-Proofing Digital Service Delivery

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the government rushed to offer more digital services, and as the public health crisis stretched into a third year, agencies are relying on those services more than ever. Like their private-sector counterparts, they have come to recognize that digital service delivery is the key to solving a range of challenges. Digital services are not static. Instead, agencies must continuously introduce innovations and improvements based on customer needs.

Learn how your agency or municipality can continue to improve customer experience, including increasing employee retention and training, adding sustainability initiatives, and utilizing scalable technology, in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

Digital Transformation and the Power of a Platform

“In using traditional and legacy IT systems, governments dedicate significant amounts of time, money and expertise to select, build, integrate, test, scale and secure new technologies, often accumulating decades of technical debt. One clear lesson from the pandemic is that we need to find a new way to operate, and time and speed are of the essence. New technology helps introduce the speed, agility and digital services needed to operate in today’s world. The technology that was delivered during the pandemic saved lives and could not have been built on legacy technology. That’s why digital transformation and a powerful platform are paramount.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s President for the Global Public Sector, Dave Rey.

Reimagine Service Delivery with a Proactive Digital Strategy

“Customers expect timely services in flexible and convenient mediums. As a result, government IT systems need to be modified to meet customer expectations, where new features and capabilities are rolled out in days, not years. Creating an “agile first” policy can help the government update its policies and foundation to focus on modern IT. Governments should invest in cloud-based and low-code and no-code platforms that are secure and agile. The primary benefit for government agencies to leverage cloud solutions is the access to an ecosystem that is regularly updated and constantly evolving to meet changing demands.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Senior Vice President of Energy and Utilities, Nasi Jazayeri, and Digital Transformation Executive, Mia Jordan.

The Benefits of Treating Employees Like Customers

“Agencies can foster an eagerness for learning by encouraging employees to gain new skills and expertise that enable them to expand their career horizons, further the agency mission and benefit the end user. Employees can be provided with resources that enable them to understand different technologies and how they can be used to address business needs. Agencies can also provide time during the work week for employees to learn new software or get certified on new technologies and with the flexibility to attend conferences.”

From Salesforce’s Director of Digital Strategy for Global Public Sector, Tahera Zamanzada.

Investing in a Secure and Modern Platform

“By leveraging modern technologies, agencies can quickly deploy secure, customer-centric applications in weeks, instead of months or years. But to achieve this, they’ll need to prioritize IT modernization efforts that focus on their platform, integration and security. When government leaders select an IT platform, they are typically making a five- to 10-year commitment to that technology and the vendor behind it. Before making such a long commitment, government leaders should evaluate and understand the platform’s ecosystem.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Executive Vice President of Global Public Sector, Paul Tatum.

How Government Agencies Can Take on Sustainability

“Government agencies can work toward creating a sustainable future and accelerating their net-zero journeys by developing their own climate action plans. To start, leaders should bring together and listen to their stakeholders in an effort to gain a holistic understanding of the situation, its impacts and how to make changes that can have positive results. The next step should be to focus on reducing and their emissions. Agencies and their energy suppliers can achieve this by using renewable and cleaner energy sources.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Vice President for Federal Government Affairs, Hugh Gamble.

Responding Quickly to a Public Health Emergency

“To deliver services quickly in a pandemic, agencies should keep these key considerations top of mind. They can begin by assessing and understanding the governance and delivery structure around the type of implementation they’re trying to make and understand that rapid deployment cannot happen without having the right technical infrastructure in place. Agencies could leverage cloud-based, low- or no-code platforms rather than building something new. Cloud-based technology is scalable and can be configured for multiple use cases, making it easier to deliver services quickly while meeting the needs of a rapidly changing environment. It’s also important that agencies understand that customers want to be engaged in different ways and leverage technologies that provide omni-channel engagement.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Health and Human Services Industry Executive, Courtney Hawkins.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these digital service delivery thought leaders and additional industry research from FCW.

Government Experience: Driving Digitization of Services

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Carahsoft recently hosted the 11th Annual Government Customer Experience & Engagement Seminar. The virtual seminar discussed how agencies can transform customer experience (CX) and satisfaction and increase constituent engagement across federal, state, and local government agencies. This session featured insights and statistics from industry-leading panelists who outlined ways the government can seamlessly transition to digital, utilize hybrid as a strategy, embrace feedback, and leverage omni-channel engagement.

While many government agencies are constantly progressing towards greater digital transformation, for many, the pandemic forced them to accelerate their implementation. However, the path to digitization is not always smooth, and the process is ongoing and ever changing. Agencies must also contend with the challenges of reaching constituents who have limited use of devices or internet and those in rural areas where internet access is not always immediate.

Transitioning to Digital

Many agencies still rely on in-person, manual, paper-based processes while others have one foot in the digital world and one in the physical world. Some agencies know that they want to digitize, but knowing where to start can be a daunting prospect. One of the easiest cloud technology use cases to implement is storage and archival records. Agencies often start with these systems, demonstrating the value of digitization by simply drawing insights out of a digital repository that would not have been possible with paper. Of course, digital records are also more secure and less susceptible to flood, fire, and other risks. Agencies also find it valuable to institute self-service options that allow constituents to complete forms and obtain services on a website rather than in-person or over the phone.

When records are digitized, different agencies and service providers can more easily collaborate on shared initiatives. Tools like AI can help to demonstrate value at scale, versus manual, error-prone paper-laden processes, and accelerate digital transition. Late in the process, agencies can introduce RPA, focusing on automating processes that have a high return on investment and can free staff to perform more high value activities.

Many agencies take an incremental approach. For example, the Oregon Health Authority started with digitization of electronic signatures, allowing the remote execution of agreements. Once they had a repository of documents, they looked for opportunities to automate processes and added AI to identify risks to be mitigated. They improved their processing times by 93%, but the incremental process allowed them to evaluate outcomes along the way.

Hybrid as a Strategy

One hundred percent digitization is not necessarily the goal for government agencies. Many constituents do want self-service to avoid waiting in line at the DMV. But people on the other side of the digital divide need to have in-person experiences. In addition, many services rely on face-to-face interactions where constituents develop relationships with government workers. Taking a hybrid approach allows self-service, leaving more time for agency employees to deliver high-quality, in-person experiences for those who need a human touch.

The Importance of Feedback

There is a cost of doing nothing; the most vulnerable constituents aren’t getting the services and information that they need. For this reason, it’s important to constantly measure service delivery and satisfaction; you can’t fix what you can’t measure. Agencies need to get feedback from constituents to build trust and ensure they are putting customers at the center of every decision. They should provide definitive measures and confirmation of business outcomes, quality rates, and customer measurements of perception, satisfaction, and ease of use.

The first step is to add a button to the website which allows feedback and helps identify opportunities for improvement. This allows agencies to understand how their investments are paying off—often in real time. Agencies should track customer satisfaction, using reference scoring and A/B testing across all channels of engagement to identify improvement opportunities. Ultimately, this data needs to be fed into the product and service delivery roadmap to drive evolution of the customer experience.

Feedback also allows greater personalization: fully understanding and meeting the needs of the end user. It requires a concerted effort to gather information, especially user preferences. The cloud is an important part of personalization, making it easier to collect relevant information and enforce policies.

Omni-Channel Engagement

Some constituents are limited in their technology choices because of disability or financial status, but they are expected to verify their identity, apply for benefits, find a job, and use many other services that often are only available on a mobile device screen. The public sector must take these factors into account, creating and delivering services that don’t depend on screen size, connection speed or even access to internet.

The concept of omni-channel expects the user’s experience to be intuitive and immersive—easily accessible regardless of the channel a constituent is using. Individuals should be able to interact seamlessly through their preferred channel. Government is one of the only industries where it’s critical that services are accessible to every person, on any device, or in any channel.

To learn more about the digitization of government services, view our session and hear from government speakers looking toward the future of digital transformation, customer experience, and constituent engagement.

Government Experience: Modernizing Websites

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

Carahsoft recently hosted the 11^th Annual Government Customer Experience & Engagement Seminar. The virtual seminar discussed how agencies can transform customer experience (CX) and satisfaction and increase constituent engagement across federal, state, and local government agencies.

Digital services became vital during the pandemic as many in-person services weren’t available or were limited; however, many people needed more help from the government during this time. This combination of factors acted as a catalyst for agencies to modernize their digital infrastructure.

Agency leaders started investing in things like revamping customer relationship management software, deploying chatbots to handle volume, providing digital signatures and fillable forms, and ensuring websites are easy to use. Forward-thinking agencies have taken advantage of these challenges to revamp their websites into becoming their digital front door.

Starting Website Redesign

Many agencies struggle to know where to start with a website redesign. Some experts recommend starting with your ideal end result. What do you want the constituent to walk away with viscerally and emotionally? What could make them say “That was an amazing site.” What is meaningful to them that they’re excited about? In addition, agencies should look for great tools that are robust, scalable, secure, and flexible. Find great partners with experience in delivering on time and within budget—and who will bring new ideas to your site.

The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experiences Act (IDEA) mandates the modernization of federal websites and digital services. It also showcases the value of human centered design, demonstrating how agencies should be innovating around the people that they intend to serve.

The US Web Design System has a great toolkit for agencies to get started, whether a federal or state and local agency, providing components to redesign parts of a website. The toolkits offer a maturity model so teams can evaluate the maturity of their design practice, including skills, processes, and outcomes. By providing ready-made templates, the site also saves agencies money and time.

Prioritizing User Experience

Being user centered should be the #1 priority for any redesign. It means that digital experiences are designed around users’ needs—as determined by data driven analysis. Agencies need to use both qualitative (understanding behaviors and motivations) and quantitative data as evidence for design decisions. They should take the time to research what’s happening with their customers and understand what they need.

Searchability is a close second priority. It doesn’t matter if the content is authoritative, mobile friendly, or customizable if no one can find it. Agencies need to tag content with conceptual keywords, learn from behaviors, and measure how well search results are working. This can help organizations better adjust search results. Organizations should also ensure that content shows up in search engines, which requires a concerted content strategy effort.

Mobile Delivery of Services

The pandemic led to a shift in the way constituents use websites. In 2019, one agency’s desktop usage was 40% and mobile was 60%. During the pandemic the opposite happened, with desktop usage at 60% and mobile at 40%. However, many agencies still prioritize mobile-friendly designs because the people who most need government services frequently don’t have access to a computer; however most do have phones.

Pierce County, NC set up a contactless process to distribute funds from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Their process has a chatbot on the front end to prequalify visitors by asking a series of questions. If they do prequalify, it sends them to a form. This saves constituents’ time and reduces the social workers’ workload.

Making Effective Use of Analytics

In order to create a good customer experience, agencies must be constantly aligning, learning, designing, and testing. They need feedback from their constituents and analytics to understand the usage patterns.

Robust analytics tools can move beyond simple traffic statistics to determining the customer journey: what people are seeking, how easily they’re finding it, and heat maps showing where they spend the most time.

One way to capture information for analytics is through fillable forms. Even when you digitize a PDF, you’re not capturing the data in a digitally native format. However, an html form— such as the one in TurboTax—walks someone through intuitive interviews and pre-populates with the information the system already has about the person. It captures data electronically, requiring no re-entry of information and creating no errors.

One experience with implementing the Affordable Care Act illustrates the importance of analytics. When they implemented analytics on the sign-up site, they found that a million and a half users started the process and then abandoned the form. The analytics application showed that many of the missing users were using an older form of a particular browser—which wasn’t processing the data correctly and dropping people from the website. With such information, they could salvage that environment, making it stable in two days and solving 98% of the core issues within a week.

View our session to learn more from industry speakers discussing the future of governments’ digital transformation, customer experience, constituent engagement, and service delivery initiatives.

Digitally Transforming the Customer Experience

Posted on by The Carahsoft Team

The federal government first sharpened its focus on efforts to digitally transform customer experience (CX) beginning in 2018, when enhancing CX became a cross-agency priority goal and the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA) was signed into law. That’s also the year that 100% of public-sector respondents to an IDC survey said digitally transforming their organizations was a top priority. Then COVID-19 struck and reinforced the vital role that digital services play in ensuring the health and well-being of our country and the continuity of business and daily life. People turned in droves to websites, contact centers and other digital resources, often overwhelming agencies that were technologically unprepared for such an influx. Agencies need to enhance their understanding of customers so they can make better decisions about delivering services and providing important information. Agencies must also be able to build digital services quickly without compromising quality or security. And because engaged employees are essential to the delivery of government services, agencies must make sure employees have the technology and support they need to do their jobs. Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in emerging technology in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government^® report.

Customer Experience is a Team Sport

“Many requests for government services start with a form, which can be a frustrating touchpoint. That’s why improving forms is an essential component of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act. Americans can save time and avoid frustration when they easily enter data into a mobile-friendly digital form on any device, sign it electronically and submit it securely. Digital forms also save time and effort for government employees, and they limit the opportunity for data entry errors, which further strain government resources and lead to an unsatisfactory experience for employees and citizens. Improving CX is becoming a top priority for many government agencies. Rallying the organization behind the goals and enabling employees at each touchpoint in the customer’s journey can lead to positive outcomes that everyone can be proud of. Helping everyone understand who their customers are, the major tasks they want to complete and the pain points in each customer journey is critical to any CX strategy. It can be helpful to have an agency senior leader, such as a chief customer officer, oversee all of the CX initiatives and bring the customer perspective to all conversations to drive the strategy agency-wide.”

Read more insights from Adobe’s Technical Director of Government Solutions, Jonathan Benett.

Optimizing the User Experience at the Edge

“Modernization efforts lead to improved security. Legacy systems are becoming increasingly harder to secure, particularly if they’re on physical infrastructure. The 21st Century IDEA advocates using a flexible cloud infrastructure to make it easier to improve the user experience on any device while enhancing security. As agencies seek to offer better digital services, many of them turn to responsive design engines to send websites to mobile devices. However, the time it takes for those engines to analyze and assemble a unique response to specific devices slows down the user experience, leaving citizens frustrated and unable to complete necessary tasks. What if the distance between the user and the data could be lessened? Enter the Akamai Edge. Akamai executes business logic and security policies at the edge to improve performance without compromising security. We can also put capacity rules in place at the edge to distribute the load and keep a distributed denial-of-service attack or sudden rise in traffic from affecting a website’s performance.”

Read more insights from Akamai’s Senior Solutions Engineer, Micah Maryn.

Amplifying the Power of the Customer’s Voice

“When government agencies went remote, offices stayed open virtually and services (mostly) remained available. And while those areas where government needs more digitalization (such as unemployment systems) were made even more apparent, the trains kept moving. So what is next? Government can respond by doing something it has done more of in recent years — listen. As the power of the customer’s voice reaches government, agencies that are savvy listeners and can integrate customer feedback into their service improvement plans will set the leadership tone for a responsive and digital government. Lawmakers are embracing the need for digital government. The central components of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act — modernizing websites, digitizing services and forms, accelerating the use of e-signatures, improving the customer experience, and transitioning to shared services — apply to all levels of government. Agencies understand the value of those changes, and the experience of the pandemic has given them even more incentive to make those changes.”

Read more insights from Granicus’s Vice President for Business Development, Patrick Moore.

How to Build a More User-Focused Website

“After the 21st Century IDEA was signed into law, the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services published the U.S. Web Design System. This offers guidance and technology that agencies can use to create websites that are IDEA-compliant. Liferay applied the principles of the U.S. Web Design System to our platform to further streamline agencies’ ability to create websites that achieve the goals of the act. Liferay is particularly focused on facilitating action-oriented, self-service interactions. Our analytics component allows agencies to create audience segments so they can personalize the experience of website visitors based on why they use the site and what’s important to them. We also offer a more robust cloud-based analytics offering and the ability to test different versions of content to find the best way to reach the target audience. With Liferay, agencies can meet IDEA’s searchability requirement with a best-in-class capability right out of the box.”

Read more insights from Liferay’s Director of Federal, Kale Fluharty.

Government Unifies the Citizen Experience, Goes Digital

“Agencies should start thinking about creating a unified engagement layer that can house everything they know about a customer and that customer’s journey over time to ensure a positive, productive experience. That engagement layer also makes it possible for agencies to modernize back-office activities and seamlessly improve the customer experience. Thanks to the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, government agencies have been modernizing websites and digitizing forms. But those websites and forms are still disconnected from the data and still fail to address the customer life cycle. Furthermore, agencies must also embrace the other elements of the act, including adopting e-signatures, improving the customer experience and moving to shared services. Citizens, businesses and other government partners need a single front door — a place where they can engage regardless of where they are in their particular interaction. That front door service should include everything they have done and everything they could do regardless of which agency, office, department or person is handling the interaction on the government side.”

Read more insights from Salesforce’s Senior Director of Digital Transformation, Global Public Sector, Thomas Saracene.

The Next Evolution in Contact Centers

“Digitally transforming the contact center would enable agencies to leverage technology for speed and efficiency. Imagine a scenario in which a person can call the local unemployment office and talk to a “virtual agent” (or voice bot) to receive an update on their unemployment benefits, identify gaps in submissions or self-report required activity. Not only does this create a better citizen experience, it also deflects the call from a live agent, reducing strain on the contact center and allowing agents to focus on more complicated citizen requests. At Talkdesk, our goal is to automate 80% of customer interactions in the next three years. This means 80% of interactions will either be fully automated or conducted via an automated process that improves agent efficiency. The ability to scale up to handle a sudden workload influx while enabling work location flexibility will continue to be a concern. Moving systems and processes into the cloud is a foundational step on the road to digital transformation, and new deployment methods enable agencies to keep existing call-routing structures while adding cloud capabilities.”

Read more insights from Talkdesk’s Vice President of Regulated Industries, James Ward.

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these government customer experience thought leaders and additional industry research from FCW.