eleVate The Citizen Experience Transforming …...2015/02/19 · The Citizen Experience 1 eleVate...

The Citizen Experience

eleVate The Citizen Experience™

Transforming Government Customer Service

February 2015The Citizen Experience


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eleVate The Citizen ExperienceTM – Transforming Government Customer Service Contact: Susan Sharer, HighPoint Global Government Solutions, O: (703) 935-5007; M: (703) 999-1491; [email protected]

HighPoint Global Copyright © 2015

eleVate The Citizen ExperienceTM – Transforming Government Customer ServiceGovernment must elevate the level of service to meet the increasing expectations of the citizens they serve in an effort known as “improving the Citizen Experience (CX).” This series of papers, presented by CX experts at HighPoint, provides an overview of what citizens need and expect in their service interactions with federal agencies and outlines the steps necessary to move from the traditional, outdated approach of transactional customer service to a new, citizen-centered approach that integrates and improves touchpoints between citizens and their government. This series of nine papers is available at www.highpointelevate.com.

Contents

The Public Service Problem: Managing the Citizen Experience ...................................................................................... 2

Definitions: What is Citizen Experience and Citizen Engagement? ................................................................................ 6

Encouraging Citizen Engagement ............................................................................................................................................. 9

eleVate The Citizen Experience™.............................................................................................................................................. 12

The Four E’s of Implementing the Citizen Experience ..................................................................................................... 16

Digital Considerations ................................................................................................................................................................. 17

Measuring and Monitoring Success ....................................................................................................................................... 20

Creating a Citizen-Centric Culture ........................................................................................................................................... 22

The Future of Citizen Experience ............................................................................................................................................. 25

mailto:susan.sharer%40highpointglobal.com?subject=eleVate

http://www.highpointelevate.com


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The Public Service Problem: Managing the Citizen Experience

The United States Government was founded on the core principle that the power is held by its citizens and the government’s role is to serve. The challenge has always been how to engage with individual citizens and address their specific needs when government agencies offer services to millions of American citizens every day to address a wide variety of issues and needs. The demands are immense and are expanding with the proliferation of new technologies that have created expectations for connecting through a variety of channels from anywhere and at any time. Demographic shifts have created greater and different demands, and the complexity of government services require new and more innovative thinking. To overcome these challenges we must rethink and elevate the relationship between government and citizen to a higher level.

Pressure to Change in an Instant WorldThe explosive growth of technology has dramatically changed the modes and speed with which the public expects to interact with service providers. Technological breakthroughs have created a world in which consumers expect an individualized, customized and immediate response. Consumers’ patience for dealing with issues is limited, and problems are expected to be resolved effectively and efficiently. These changes have pressured service providers (including government agencies) to deliver high quality experiences for those they serve. In addition to demonstrating better understanding of consumers, their lifestyles and needs, service providers need to forge more solid partnerships with their consumers. Many private sector business are successfully implementing these changes to capture market share and increase revenues. Foreign governments, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have embraced the concept of collaboration with their citizenry to successfully create better government public service. There is a growing recognition of a need to change the citizen experience.

Historical PerspectiveThe citizen experience is not a new concept – it’s a new term for a relationship that has existed in one form or another since the dawn of democracy. Citizens and their elected leaders have met in a variety of ways to exchange ideas and thoughts on policies, processes and to provide and receive services. Until recently, interactions were limited to a few channels – town hall meetings, printed flyers, telephone calls and surveys, face to face meetings

and 800 numbers with a mix of live customer service and pre-recorded information loops. Now the landscape of citizen engagement has drastically changed. The evolution of technology and societal norms have radically changed citizen expectations, and agencies are struggling to keep up with the demands.

Citizens are more aware of their rights to access information about public services and have higher expectations of service levels and the service experience than ever. Consequently, citizens are demanding the same levels of service delivery they receive in the private sector to make their lives easier, provide choice and deliver results.

The average person spends almost 43 days of his/her life on hold! 86% of customers are put on hold every time they contact a call center.

– Forrester Research



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It is tempting to equate customer service in the private sector to the citizen experience. This must be done cautiously, however. Citizens are not customers of the government, nor are they commercial consumers; and the aim of government is not shareholder value or increased market share. As Joseph Pegnato points out in “Is a Citizen a Customer?”, “Customer-driven governmental administration will be viable only if it does not undermine the principle that public administration is grounded in public law rather than modeled on the entrepreneurial concepts of the private sector.” The relationship is one of trusteeship and public service, which requires a new way of thinking and acting.

Barriers to engagement and communication between citizens and the government have threatened both access to and participation in the democratic process. Difficulty in accessing timely and consistently accurate information about programs and policies can ultimately lead to negative perceptions not only of the specific agency but of the Federal Government in general. Trust can suffer, leading to further alienation and disenfranchisement of citizens. Modern viral

transmission of these perceptions in social media and into the cloud make recovery challenging at best, impossible at worst. The addition of high visibility programs and demographic shifts in those participating in government services have challenged the government to provide new openness—a new transparency—and to critically examine the current approaches to CX. Evidence has begun to surface in response to these demands:

• Agencies are establishing budgets to support improving CX.

• Customer service has been prioritized as a Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal by the White House.

• GSA (the U.S. General Services Administration) has established a CX training and services catalog and a CX index to help quantify levels of citizen engagement.These are small, but substantial steps in the right direction. The work has just begun.

Citizens Have SpokenThe cost of not embracing CX is high. According to Forrester Research, “bad citizen experiences from government agencies has an incredibly sobering effect: it actually reduces citizens’ faith in the government as an institution overall.” They go so far as to say that citizen engagement is a matter of national security since it “strikes at the foundation of our political systems.” In the spirit of the democratic process, citizens want to trust the government to deliver an experience that acknowledges them as important partners in governance—a relationship of trusteeship.

Citizens are demanding the same levels of service

delivery they receive in the private sector to make their

lives easier, provide choice and deliver results.

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” – Henry Clay


http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3380680?sid=21105241368881&uid=2&uid=4


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According to citizens, there is much room for improvement. Most have found their interactions with government agencies to be lacking. In a recent survey, 83% of Americans, aged 18 or older, indicated that federal agencies could improve on customer experience. In fact, the experience was perceived to be so bad that 42% of citizens would be willing to pay more in taxes for a better citizen experience.

When it comes to getting their questions answered, citizens see a need for speed, accuracy, and flexibility. According to the same study, called Uncle Sam at Your Service: Federal Customer Experience Study, citizens identified the following expectations when interacting with the government:

• Faster responses – 53% thought that federal agencies should reduce the time it takes to respond to requests and resolve issues.

• More-consistent responses – 33% indicated that the requested information was not consistent.

• More information online – 85% wanted federal agencies to provide more information and make it available online as a self-service tool.

According to a Gallup 2013 study, trust and confidence in the Federal Government has steadily been declining over the past 40 years. Along with that decline has come a decline in citizens’ impression that the government cares about them and that citizens can have a say in how government runs.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index press release announcing their findings from January 2014 states that ”citizen satisfaction with Federal Government services declined by 3.4% to 66.1 (on a scale from 0-100) as compared to the year before.”

A Pew Research study from 2013 finds that only 28% of their respondents expressed satisfaction with the Federal Government, and were more satisfied with service from state government. Opinions of the Federal Government have been on a steady decline for ten years.

These results are sobering and should be a loud wake up call for urgent action. It calls for not for a small change, but for a revolutionary transformation.

Administration Calling for ChangeOverall citizen dissatisfaction is a concern shared by the White House. In 2010, the Office of Management and Budget convened the White House Forum on Modernizing Government. The outcome was a call for agencies to form a “community of practice” that would elevate and professionalize customer service across federal agencies by focusing on customer service basics, including:

• Providing consistent service across all communication channels

• Responding to inquiries as quickly as possible

• Remaining compassionate and respectful in response to all citizen requests

Building on this work, President Obama’s 2011 Executive Order 13571 recognizes the need to improve the basics of citizen service, and as a result charged federal agencies to examine and improve their service to citizens. The Obama 2015 Management Agenda, entitled “Creating a 21st Century Government,” reinforces and broadens this mandate by emphasizing a focus not only on citizen service, but smarter IT delivery, better use of shared services, and improved innovation through better use of data and partnerships, and modifying culture. These changes revolve around four major themes: efficiency,


http://www.gallup.com/poll/164663/americans-trust-government-generally-down-year.aspx

http://www.theacsi.org/news-and-resources/press-releases/press-2014/press-release-federal-government-2013

http://www.theacsi.org/news-and-resources/press-releases/press-2014/press-release-federal-government-2013

http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/15/state-govermnents-viewed-favorably-as-federal-rating-hits-new-low/

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-02/pdf/2011-10732.pdf

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-02/pdf/2011-10732.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/21st_century.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/21st_century.pdf


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effectiveness, economic drivers, and people and culture. The terms “citizen experience,” “citizen engagement,” and directing the “citizen journey” have become part of the lexicon and are demanding attention and solutions.

New Government Accountability Report From October 2014 Calls for CX ImprovementsGAO is also taking steps to address the CX challenge. In October 2014, after reviewing five government service agencies (Customs and Border Protection, Forest Service, Federal Student Aid, National Park Service, Veterans Benefits Administration’s disability compensation section), it issued a report entitled ‘Managing for Results: Selected Agencies Need to Take Additional Efforts to Improve Customer Service.’ GAO concludes in the report that these studied agencies should implement formal feedback mechanisms to improve customer service. It is widely anticipated that 2015 will be a transformative year for citizen experience within the U.S. government. Large agencies, such as General Services Administration (GSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have begun to investigate organizational changes to improve the citizen experience. Many of the prominent government trade publications are devoting full issues and articles to the subject in early 2015. The stage has been set, and spotlight is on change.

So what do we mean by citizen experience or citizen engagement? Is it just creating some websites and apps? Or streamlining our contact center? Or is it bigger than that? To improve the citizen experience, we first need to define our terms and what we are trying to address. To download this series of papers go to highpointelevate.com.


http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-84



http://www.highpointelevate.com.


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Definitions: What is Citizen Experience and Citizen Engagement?

What exactly is citizen experience and citizen engagement, also known as CX? To understand that, let’s look at the whole picture. The Federal Government serves the needs of its citizens and the public good by collecting taxes so it can provide resources, collect and distribute information, enforce and advise on regulations, ensure security, and maintain the growth and well-being of the nation. This requires a partnership between the citizen and the government, in which the citizen must reach out to the government to avail themselves of the services required to support their needs.

When citizens engage with a government service to have a need met, they initiate a process that may involve multiple interactions and a number of channels. Each of these interactions, or touchpoints, may leave an impression on the citizen and potentially change their perception of the government. Touchpoints are numerous. They can be contact centers, websites, social media, mobile applications, face-to-face interactions, or

Citizen experience is the citizen’s holistic perception of the relationship with an

agency and the government in general, derived from all encounters at touchpoints along the citizen’s journey.

letters. They can also be conversations with friends about the agency, an advertisement, an interaction with a vendor providing services, or a report in the media. Every aspect of the interaction in these touchpoints impact the citizen’s impression. Some are obvious, such as the timeliness and accuracy of responses or the ease of using a website. But others are more subtle, such as the physical environment of the office, the dress of the personnel, or the feelings of empathy or friendliness conveyed by service personnel. The more that these aspects are consistently positive across all touchpoints, the more positive the experience.

The citizen experience is not limited to a single interaction at a touchpoint. It is the citizen’s holistic perception of the relationship with an agency and the government in general, derived from all encounters at touchpoints along the citizen’s journey.

Each encounter that citizens have with the agency, direct or indirect, molds their perception of the agency’s value, credibility, reliability, integrity, empathy, and professionalism. Good citizen experiences develop from a perception that the agency consistently appreciates and understands citizens’ situations and delivers service based on understanding, care, and concern for them.

CX answers the questions… what do citizens think of their experiences? Was their issue resolved? Did they obtain the information they desired? Did the government provide valuable assistance to them?



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One thing that must be recognized is that the citizen experience is not limited a single agency; since each agency is a representative of the Federal Government, the interaction with the citizen forms impressions of the Federal Government in general. The interaction with each agency contributes to a total citizen experience. One could argue that to truly transform the citizen experience, we must go beyond the transformation of a single agency and affect a coordinated change across the entirety of the Federal Government. While that may be true, change on that scale may take a generation or more to affect, so while ideal, Agency by Agency is a good start. Proactive Citizen Engagement Perspectives: Inside and OutThe citizen experience comes from the relationship that occurs between the citizen and the government. Citizen engagement is how this relationship develops. Creating great citizen experiences requires vigilant attention to citizens’ needs and taking proactive action to anticipate their needs and expectations. One way to think about the experience is that if the citizen has to call for service to solve an issue, something has already gone wrong with the citizen experience.

Citizen engagement can be considered from two perspectives: how the government is engaging with citizens and how the citizen is engaging with the government. Both are important. The first perspective is usually interpreted as how service is provided to the citizen, or how is the government is handling each touchpoint? The second takes the relationship a step further. It involves creating a much deeper relationship between the government and the citizens, one in which citizens are invited to participate more actively, to assist in improving processes and decisions, to become a perceived partner on the journey.

The goal of citizen engagement is to involve the citizen more deeply in the experience. As the experience progresses, the government should become more supportive, empathetic and proactive, developing deeper trust with citizens. The result is citizens willing to advocate for their government based on their new positive citizen experience and relationship with the government, thus improving the public perception of the services provided. Effective (responsive) citizen engagement is a key element of success to the ongoing public profile of any agency and the ultimate execution of the agency’s mission. Poor citizen engagement, whether perceived or real, will damage the agency’s public image and potentially call into question the execution of the agency’s mission.

Benefits and Results from Improved CXApplying a proactive and innovative systematic process to transform citizen experience and citizen engagement will have far-reaching impacts both for the citizen, the agency, and the Federal Government in total:

• Improved satisfaction: More satisfied citizens, who share their experiences with their friends, thus increasing the public opinion that government is providing worthwhile services to the public.

• Increased trust in government: As stated earlier, trust in government has been steadily dropping for decades. ResearchGate’s report on “Trust in Government” has shown that better service leads to increased trust in the government as a whole. Citizens who receive a good experience are more likely to become advocates not just for the agency, but for the government, helping to increase its image. An increase in trust may also lead to investment in new programs to aid the citizenry.

• Efficiency: Having more efficient and effective service leads to efficiencies that could increase the demand for the agency’s mission-specific services. This would benefit taxpaying citizens and could also free up funds to improve technologies and provide enhanced service.



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• Positive media attention for services provided to the public: Positive press leads to increased trust and commitment to the agency.

• Increased employee morale: The morale of government civil servant workers is remarkably low. The 2014 government-wide Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey showed that only 64% of government employees are engaged across 48,000 offices at 82 agencies. In order to improve that score, government agencies must also consider improving internal customer service to each other. As civil servants, government workers usually find meaning in being able to help citizens with issues and provide service in a time of need. Improving the citizens’ and colleagues’ experience allows employees to have a more meaningful work experience, which would improve both motivation and performance.

• A more educated and informed public: By engaging citizens more in the workings of the government and serving them better, the government creates the opportunity to increase the knowledge of citizens both about the processes of government and policies and regulations. A more informed public leads to a richer democratic process.

• Increased partnership with the public: The more citizens are brought into the process, the more they can be involved in the process itself, becoming

collaborative partners in problem-solving, decision-making, and advocacy. The agency benefits from a better understanding of the public and both the public and agency benefit from processes, legislation, and policies that better suit the needs of the country.

• Innovation: Co-creation of solutions and ideas with the public through feedback mechanisms can build a stronger partnership between government and the public. Making everything a two-way conversation, for example, with mobile and social tools and technologies, can help agencies put better ideas into practice.

Understanding to the needs of citizens is the first step on the critical path to enhancing the citizen experience. Some interactions with citizens are transactional (merely providing a requested need). Others go much further and deeper to require relationships (building an empathetic bond with the citizen). Optimizing your agency to provide a more effective and efficient transactional citizen experience involves long-term change. In the next installment of the white paper, learn about what how you can transform your agency.



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Encouraging Citizen Engagement

Understanding to the needs of citizens is critical to understanding citizen experience. Some actions with citizens are transactional (merely providing a requested need). Others require relationships (building an empathetic bond with the citizen). Optimizing your agency to provide a more effective and efficient transactional citizen experience involves change; moving to a more relational citizen engagement requires transformation. Both are important as part of improving citizen experiences.

The experience citizens have in their interactions with government can be poor or good or even great. The goal is great, and with focused effort, agencies have the opportunity to mold consistently great citizen experiences. Left unaddressed, however, experiences will remain all over the map. Entities in government have different levels of maturity in relation to the experience they provide citizens. Some pay no attention to it at all. Others have started efforts and new behaviors are emerging. By systematically designing the citizen experience and encouraging citizen engagement, agencies will mature into a position of providing consistently great citizen experiences.

Four Components to Encourage EngagementThere are four components that must to be addressed to improve the transactional and relational citizen experience:

1. Speed

The expectation for instant gratification has become engrained in every aspect of life, including service. We want our needs met fast and we want others to demonstrate they value our time. In terms of service, first contact resolution is more important than ever. Answers are expected to not only be accurate, but to come quickly. Websites must to be intuitive and easy to navigate. Call wait times must to be short.

4 Components

Speed Integration

Signi�cance Personalization

2. Integration

Service is no longer about calling an 800 number – it has moved far beyond the contact center. Citizens have multiple platforms at their fingertips for communicating, seeking information, solving problems and building relationships. In addition to the phone and in-person contacts, citizens rely on self-service websites, email, chat, and social media interactions.

Like any relationship, communication is key to success. Citizens expect touchpoints along their journey to be flexible and varied; they want service to be accessible anytime, anyplace and through whatever communication channel they prefer. They expect channels to operate seamlessly - integrated across all platforms so that all conversations, information and context will flow to create a unified experience.

3. Personalization

In a world that caters to the needs and desires of the individual through easy customization, citizens expect that each interaction will take into account their specific situation and their individual needs. They want the service to feel up-close and personal. Answers and solutions need to reflect an understanding and appreciation of the citizen and their unique situation at each touchpoint.



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4. Significance

People want to feel that they are important, and worthy of focus. They also expect to receive value for their time and effort. They want to feel that their issues, needs or concerns are recognized as important and that the agency serving them cares about them and their issues.

Addressing the first two components, speed and integration, involves optimizing the transactional nature of the citizen experience. This involves improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the citizen’s interaction. These types of changes are familiar to most organizations since they involve optimizing and reengineering processes, tools and structures. The second two components, personalization and significance, call for transforming the personal relationship between the agency and the citizen. This involves developing trust and commitment. Transformation is much more challenging since it involves addressing culture and the “softer” aspects of organizations, which few are accustomed to tackling. It should be recognized that optimization will only lead to a good citizen experience; transformation will lead to great citizen engagement.

Maturing into the Citizen ExperienceTransforming the citizen experience will not happen overnight. It is a process of growth through maturing stages of optimization and transformation which build on each other. Transformation can be considered on two levels: the government as a whole and each agency. There are five stages of citizen experience maturity at both levels:

1. Ad Hoc:

Citizen experience has not been formally addressed and interactions are inconsistent. Little effort has been spent becoming aware of the current state of citizen experience.

2. Emergent: A preliminary vision has been created and localized projects have been initiated to learn and begin to formalize the engagement process. On the government level, this may be focusing on a single agency as a pilot project. On the agency level, this could be focusing on a single touchpoint or a single channel.

3. Defined:

The lessons from the emergent projects are consolidated into more formal processes, metrics are created and approaches more standardized.

4. Integrated:

The vision is more broadly communicated and more broadly implemented and consistency is developed across touchpoints. For the government, this would involve creating consistency across agencies, while individual agencies would implement across multiple channels.

5. Established:

The engagement process is embedded in a culture of service, continuous improvement, and innovation.



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Many government agencies (and even consumer-facing organizations in the private sector) are at the ad hoc stage. Advancing CX maturity requires having a vision (goals/objectives) in place and the development and implementation of strategic actions to address the citizen experience. Fully maturing to an established level requires both optimization of transactions and transformation in the relationship with the citizen from “us and them” to “we.”

How to Optimize and TransformThere is no magic bullet that will instantly transform any organization into a top provider of CX. Developing a citizen-centered organization involves a systematic process of change and transformation. Several seemingly simple points must be addressed to enhance success of the effort. The challenge is in the implementation:

a. Link to a citizen-centered vision and mission: A citizen-centered vision and mission is relevant at all levels of the agency and provides a meaningful line of sight for all employees and provides direction for action and motivation.

b. Empathize with those you serve: It is critical to understand and approach change from the viewpoint of the citizens seeking service, to recognize where value is not being provided and expectations are not being met. It is critical to research the citizens served and understand who they are and what they need.

Ad HocEmergent

De�nedIntegrated

Established

• Reactive• Unaware

• Reactive/Proactive• Learning

• Proactive/Reactive• Formalizing

• Proactive• Aligning

• Proactive• Innovating

c. Develop and Incremental Approach: Change evolves over a period of time and creating a citizen experience should be approached in phases or stages, each building on the other to achieve the final vision.

d. Identify the “low hanging fruit” to gain momentum: A key to success is finding an area with energy and motivation that can provide quick wins to build trust and confidence in the new approach. This can be achieved, for example, by focusing on a single channel or modifying one small set of processes and demonstrating success.

e. Understand the gap between the current and desired state: If you don’t know where you are (from thorough analysis and diagnosis) and you don’t know where you want to go (in a clear and compelling vision) and the difference between them (the changes that need to be made), the project will struggle.

f. Engage all levels of the agency: Improving service, whether through optimization or transformation, requires commitment rather than compliance, which can only be gained by including all levels of employees in the solution.

g. Set citizen-centric service standards and metrics: Targets and measures demonstrate the progression of the change. Metrics must be measuring the right issues to achieve the citizen-centric model.



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eleVate The Citizen Experience™

A recent Gartner report, Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, reports that 77% of consumers use more than one channel when seeking service. Many organizations are delivering a multi-channel service experience. But just because they are doing it, that doesn’t mean they are doing it well. The consensus among analysts is that the real challenge facing service organizations is providing a consistent experience across all channels. So organizations must prepare for the future state of customer experience in both the private and the public sectors.

While service used to be limited to call-in numbers, handwritten letters, or in-person conversations, today’s world is multi-channeled. 74% of consumers now use at least three channels when interacting with organizations (Forrester & Accenture report Customer Desires vs. Retailer Capabilities: Minding the OmniChannel Commerce Gap, and 65% of online consumers expect to have seamlessness in those channels, expecting not to have to repeat their situation across channels. The only way to attain this seamlessness and consistency is to address the citizen experience in total, examining all the touchpoints together as part of a journey.

How to eleVate the Citizen Experience™To fully eleVate the citizen experience, we must address two challenges: transforming the relationship with citizen and aligning the experience across touchpoints. The connection with the citizen transforms from a focus on reactive problem solving to proactive engagement demonstrating caring for the individual. Processes, values and systems are aligned and integrated to ensure that they support this type of relationship. These focuses create four different processes. Channel Optimization: The focus of this process is transactional, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of independent channels (one or more independently) and begin transitioning them to being more integrated.

Agency Optimization: The purpose of this process is also transactional but seeks to integrate, to create consistency across all the channels to ensure seamless connection amongst all the touchpoints.

Channel Transformation: The focus of this phase is to develop a more relational connection with citizens within a single channel in order to increase levels of trust and commitment in that channel.

Agency Transformation: The purpose of this phase is relational but seeks enterprise integration into the agency culture so that all channels are integrated and aligned under a culture of service.

The fully integrated citizen experience can only be achieved by integrating the transformations at all agencies. This will ensure consistency of both relationship and engagement in processes at all touchpoints, both direct and indirect throughout government.

AgencyOptimization

AgencyTransformation

ChannelOptimization

ChannelTransformation

Transformation

Alig

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Transactional Relational

Inde

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Inte

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https://www.gartner.com/doc/2747817/magic-quadrant-contact-center-infrastructure

https://www.gartner.com/doc/2747817/magic-quadrant-contact-center-infrastructure

http://www.accenture.com/us-en/landing-pages/Documents/Seamless/Accenture-hybris-Forrester-new_2014.pdf




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Integrating all agency transformations create a government transformation. To deliver better citizen experiences and to create a more efficient operating environment, it is critical to simplify, standardize, and share activities that take place across intra-agency organizations. Movement is toward a more proactive engagement of citizens across all agencies, a consistent culture of service, continuous improvement and innovation, and a collaborative spirit between agencies to achieve that engagement. The full benefits of transformation can only be achieved if this approach is taken for all key business processes and cultural norms across the service value chain.

Steps Toward an Established MaturityMoving toward maturity requires a systematic progression through a process that fosters growth through change and transformation. Two major mistakes are often made when approaching change and transformation: a lack of vision and moving too fast. At the same time, organizations are different and require

Simplify: Ensure that processes, policies and protocols are simple to understand, follow and execute.

Standardize: Adopt the same simple, lean processes to drive out inefficiencies of approach and avoid the need for technology customization or local variations. Reinforce consistent cultural norms across the agencies.

Share: Move appropriate processes to shared functions or best practices models, enabling agency employees to concentrate on delivering core services at optimal levels.

flexibility so that the process meets their unique situation. The maturity process provides a systematic yet flexible approach for increasing the probability of success.

Maturity happens in four steps: vision and planning, change, emerging transformation, and transformation.

1. Vision and Planning (Emergent)Every organization is different, as are their views of the citizen experience. The first critical step in moving from ad hoc to emergent maturity is to understand the citizens served (who they are and what they need) and what their experience currently is. It is critical at this point to shift the perspective from that of the agency to that of the citizen. Profiling and mapping exercises help to create this shift. Developing profiles of the characteristics of citizens served helps to better understand their needs and expectations. Citizen journey mapping is a process that examines what happens at each touchpoint along their journey and compares it with their expectations and needs to identify gaps and positive and negative effects on perceptions. Information and value mapping help to understand how information contributes to or hinders the process, and how value is brought to the interaction.

Visioning & PlanningCitizen Experience Metrics Dened

Agency Transformation

Channel Optimization

AgencyIntegration

ChannelTranformation

Reactive Change

Proactive & Reactive

Reactive & Proactive

Emerging Transformation

Transformation



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Then, the agency leadership and the service personnel must work together to create a vision for what the experience should and could be, and a plan for how to get there. This serves to unify the effort across the agency and provide a “north star” for the effort.

2. Change (Emergent)Transformation is most successful when it starts with a small change and then spreads through the agency. This serves the purpose of creating momentum and also generates confidence in the agency that the change is real and the commitment genuine. Change involves optimizing existing channels, focusing on how to more efficiently and effectively respond at existing touchpoints. Start by focusing on a single channel or a small part of the agency (channel optimization). Then examine touchpoint performance data for the channel, including tool and process use. This will identify gaps between desired performance and current performance so that new performance metrics can be established or identified and implemented to close the performance gap. These changes often include modification or creation of new tools, increasing knowledge and skills through training, quality monitoring systems, and system changes.

Channel optimization results in several outcomes:

• By achieving success in a limited area, agencies create momentum to push practical change and transformation throughout the agency.

• By localizing the efforts, the agency can begin defining processes and approaches in a more controlled “incremental” way to learn what works and doesn’t.

• By improving the efficiency and effectiveness of citizen contacts, optimization results in better first contact resolution and a more positive citizen experience.

• By working more efficiently, resources are used more appropriately in the channel.

3. Emerging Transformation (Defining/Integration)Once momentum is established, the agency may take a broader strategic approach with two options:

• Agency Integration: Optimizing multiple channels and integrating the experiences so it is consistent across these channels, or

• Channel Transformation: Creating cultural change within the single channel that develops a sustainable and proactive service culture.

Both of these efforts move the organization toward broader transformation, but have different targets and results.

Agency Integration focuses on optimization of transactions (more efficient and effective responses to citizen issues), but looks to provide a seamless experience across multiple channels and optimizing all those channels to best meet performance metrics. The outcomes gained in channel optimization are extended to all the channels in the agency. This helps move the agency toward definition and integration of technical processes of CX. Agency integration may be the most comfortable second step for most agencies after channel optimization. There may be significant resistance in the agency to the culture change that is necessary for transformation. The organization may also be facing other significant organizational or policy changes that demand energy, making focus on culture change difficult. The risk of not addressing transformation is that as optimization spreads, culture change becomes even more difficult. In reality, some culture change will be necessary even during the integration process.



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Channel Transformation focuses on culture change. While optimization creates efficiency and effectiveness in the existing organization, it does not necessarily develop strong relationships of trust with citizens, nor does it ensure a sustaining environment of continuous improvement. Transforming an optimized channel focuses on developing new relationships among the citizens, the service personnel and the leadership that instills trust, care and confidence and seeks to proactively anticipate and serve the needs of citizens before they have issues. Cultural change involves developing and instilling values that are reflected consistently in the processes, systems, communications, environment and relationships both in the agency and in their interactions with outside contacts. Employees at all levels are engaged in and committed to the values and to the direction of the transformation. This helps move the agency toward definition and integration of cultural aspects of CX.

Addressing culture change at the channel level and then building out to the rest of the agency is ideal. However, it does require significant involvement from leadership and the focus of employees working in the channel.

Channel transformation serves as the foundation to support a transformational growth in the culture throughout the agency. The benefits of this approach include:

• Proactive strategies which anticipate issues reducing the reactive load

• Increased level of citizen trust for the channel (potentially the whole agency)

• Higher employee retention in the channel

• Achievement of intangible returns (trust, reputation, relationship) for the channel and possibly for the agency

• Sustainable culture that can change as needed

4. Transformation (Established)Agency transformation represents the combination of both optimization and transformation throughout the agency. All touchpoints are aligned with addressing the needs of the citizens with care, and even new touchpoints are created that proactively serve those needs. Not only is satisfaction at a peak, but the agency creates a resiliency that allows it to withstand and respond more efficiently and effectively to outside changes that impact it (changes in administration, policy, economics, etc.). Employees and leadership are equally and fully engaged in and committed to the continued evolution of the agency.



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Improvement of the citizen experience within an agency relies heavily on the actions of its leaders. Agency leadership must incorporate it into the mission and vision of the organization and empower the staff to participate actively. Additionally, the front line staff must be committed and take ownership for creating and participating a service culture. This is a top-down and bottom-up approach that will involve all relevant levels of the organization.

The move toward transformation focuses on four areas:

Education: Training is common in most organizations, but education provides an additional level of learning that goes beyond skill building. To build empathy, respect, and responsibility requires educational experiences that blend skill building with awareness and increasing emotional intelligence. Both leadership and front line staff benefit from this type of deeper level education, in addition to training.

Enhancement: Processes and technologies need to be continually developed, improved and expanded based on performance measures to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the citizen experience. Continuous improvement ensures that the organization evolves to meet the changing expectations of citizens.

Expression: Communication is critical. Expression addresses the development of a service-oriented language for the organization, used for internal and

The Four E’s of Implementing the Citizen Experience

external communications concerning expectations, leadership messages, care for the citizen and values.

Empowerment: Private sector organizations empower employees by allowing them to take action for the customer without approval, even providing discounts or complementary goods or services. While discounts or special services for individuals are not possible in the government, employees can be empowered to take more initiative in personal problem-solving, be involved in process improvement initiatives, and support a culture that encourages their development and fulfills their needs to serve.

Each of these sets of action is involved in the optimization and transformation of the citizen experience. For optimization, the actions emphasize enhancement of processes and training for those changes. For transformation, the actions emphasize changes in culture and commitment of employees to building relationships.

Agency Mission & Vision

Service Culture

Enabling Leadership

Frontline Ownership

Education Enhancement Expression Empowerment



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Not long ago, citizen service was limited to phone calls, handwritten letters, or in-person conversations. Today, the world is multi-channeled. According to Forrester and Accenture, 74% of consumers use at least three channels when interacting with service providers, and 65% of the online consumers expect a seamless experience in those channels, that will carry over their information from one channel to the next (Customer Desires vs. Retailer Capabilities: Minding The Omni-Channel Commerce Gap). With the boom in technology, this number is expected to rise.

To meet the demand, many agencies have begun the process of introducing new channels of communication. Constituent inquiries, are being fielded through a mix of contact centers, mobile devices, email, webcasts, social media, live and web chat, websites, blogs and face-to-face interactions, depending on nature of the inquiry.

Citizens want to be able to access information, check the status of their situation and communicate via mobile technologies. Social media casts a wide net for information distribution and data collection. These channels do not replace the traditional contact centers, but they can complement them by reducing call volume or providing alternative means to solve simple problems. Digital solutions offer the opportunity to create a more open government for citizens by providing them with unprecedented access to information and resources. Engaging with citizens in an open government through transparency, accessibility and responsiveness builds trust between the citizens and their government.

Technology should be used strategically and thoughtfully. Creating channels to keep up with a popular trend may lead to significant effort with little

Digital Considerations

return. To achieve a technology advantage, agencies should:

• Communicate with a purpose: Citizens must know the options that are available to them. It is critical to share changes with the citizens to keep them informed of new and improved options for delivery.

• Identify the technologies used most prevalently by the citizens served: The key is to focus on those technologies that will have the most impact. Using technologies that your particular set of citizens do not use will waste effort and money. Create your technology solutions according to the citizens’ lifestyles and access. Create experiences using technology that appeals to their ways of communicating and interacting.

• Identify user-friendly self-service technology options: Small self-service options can have a huge impact both for the citizen and the agency. For example, if a contact center is strapped by a large number of calls requesting help with a specific task, look to automate that task so that the citizen can do it themselves through a website. By enabling user friendly

Engaging with citizens in an open government through transparency, accessibility and responsiveness will build trust between citizens and their government.






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self-service options, citizens are able to satisfy their needs at the time most convenient to them without CSR intervention. This presents an opportunity for significant improvement in contact centers wait times to yield more contact time for citizens who need personal assistance.

• Create a mobile presence: In today’s mobile society, a mobile presence has become a necessity. Seek to create apps that give citizens access to general and personal information, to update their information, or to request services. Be sure that you enable all types of mobile devices to use these services.

• Design the technology to be a good citizen experience: The advantage of technology is that it is easily accessible; the challenge, however, is that it cannot as easily determine context and can feel very impersonal and unresponsive. Technology solutions must be designed with the citizen fully in mind and should be integrated with other channels to ensure a good and seamless citizen experience. The technology should reflect the agency’s care for the citizen in the same way that it would on a phone call or in person.

• Measure and monitor success to consolidate continuous improvements: Technologies enable broad data collection that can be used to better understand how to serve citizens. Collection and analysis can be built into each interaction, through data or from direct surveying. A continuous evaluation cycle should be put in place to seek improvements and innovations that will foster sustainability.

What’s Next in Digital Communications for Government?In the coming years, a number of digital investments will take center stage in improving the citizen experience:

• Analytics

• Social Media

• Content management

• Mobile (39% of people say they prefer to use them according to Adobe 2013 Mobile Consumer Survey)

• Web presence

Technology enhancements will likely require changes in the processes of the agency to best optimize their use. Creativity and innovation will be needed to foster the use of technology to its greatest advantage. Staff expertise is needed to develop, understand and use technologies and keep up with their evolution. New targeting techniques will have to be developed to best involve and engage citizens and customize messages and services to their needs.

In the end, technologies will be integrated to enhance the citizen. Multichannel integration gives citizens what they want and expect. They may be used to reduce the volume of calls into contact centers, reduce resolution time, and provide opportunities for better management of scarce government resources. A well-designed and operated online presence extends the reach of the agency and has the potential to bring it closer to the citizen.Ensure User Friendly Citizen Experiences OnlineIt is critical that agencies invest time and resources to ensure a great citizen experience (CX) with their technological solutions. To achieve this we must create robust technology strategies; identify key performance indicators and goals; create an appropriate information architecture and wireframes; involve the citizens in user-centered design practices; and perform usability


http://empoweryou.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Adobe-2013-Mobile-Consumer-Survey-Result.pdf


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testing that will help to develop an experience that best meets user expectations. Too often in the design of applications and websites, the developers assume that they know what is best for the user. Moving to a technology-based solution requires getting the users feedback and collaboration to develop a solution that best meet their needs and expectations. If an application is too hard to use or not intuitive, it will create a poor user experience and consequently a poor citizen experience.

Build Connected Mobile AppsThe development of compelling mobile apps for Android, iOS and Windows devices that integrate with the rest of your citizens’ overall experiences is critical to the success of a modern contact center. Apps could be built for commonly used services – applying for aid, updating information, changing status and much

more. In addition, citizen information from databases can be brought in to personalize the app experience in real time. A well-developed mobile strategy will enable agencies to radically streamline and accelerate mobile adoption in the future.

Embrace Data AnalyticsThe analysis of customer feedback and information across their service delivery is critical to success of any service provider – government or commercial. Agencies that do not use any sort of customer experience analysis tools at all do so at their own peril. Speech analytics, social media monitoring tools, and trend identification tools can help to continuously identify and drive improvement. Speech analytics can even recognize changes in a person’s voice pattern and emotion to help quickly identify key areas for improvement. Aided by technology, this data analysis can be a rich and untapped source optimizing operations.



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Measuring and Monitoring Success

Define and collecting relevant metrics is critical to the citizen experience effort. Some organizations view metrics as a tool for demonstrating value or justifying existence, but this approach weakens their true purpose which is to develop an understanding and create value by providing the organization with the information needed to make informed decisions. Effective metrics will enable the organization to evolve the citizen experience, to adjust, to fill in gaps, to better “hit the mark.” The metric used most often in understanding the citizen experience is customer satisfaction (CSAT). While important, these metrics give little understanding about the experience itself. Satisfaction is fragile and fickle, highly linked to the moment. It provides a general impression, but gives little understanding about the true experience. What was the history of the citizen’s journey to that point? What were the expectations? How did the experience unfold? What did the citizen need? What will help in the future? Many agencies are moving away from tracking key performance indicators like a contact center’s average handle call time because getting the customer off the phone or off your website faster does not always solve the problem the citizen faces. New metrics must be created to be more proactive and keep the end desired results in mind.

Metric Sources The new metrics collected should address four general areas:

• Expectations - In what ways are needs being met or not being met?

• End Results – In the end, is value provided to the citizen?

• Engagement – What actions are taken? How do the experiences unfold?

• Effort - What effort is being expended to get what the citizen needs?

Citizen Feedback is a powerful tool for understanding the experience and satisfaction with public services. It’s also critical for the development of strategies to improve services. Despite this, citizen feedback has traditionally been under-utilized by public sector agencies. The lack of feedback can be a source of major operational risk and can severely hinder an agency’s continuous learning capabilities. As a result, we recommend a continuous learning model to

ensure an ongoing, iterative approach to incorporating citizen feedback into service design, processes and citizen interfaces.

Proactively seeking and using feedback from both citizens and front-line staff, public sector agencies can

Metric CollectionChannels

Citizen ExperienceMetrics

Agency Sta�

Internal Quality

Functionality

Citizen Feedback



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ensure that service improvement strategies focus on those areas that will make the greatest positive impact on the citizen experience. Indirect feedback, for example, monitoring social media trends and volumes over time in order to identify systemic issues, can also provide valuable customer insight, which government can use to proactively improve CX.

In addition to collecting metrics from the citizen, the agency should rely on internal sources for data to answer the critical questions:

• What new concepts about service and citizens have been learned?

• What new ideas for serving citizens have been discovered?

• What new service skills has the staff mastered for serving the citizens?

These metrics ensure that the organization is following through on processes needed to improve the citizen experience and can be sourced from:

• Functionality: The internal organizational functions can provide data about staff education, changes that have been implemented, and processes.

• Internal Quality: Quality organizations provide deep data about the citizen and his or her experience without burdening them through web analytics, contact monitoring, linguistic analysis and trending.

• Agency Staff: Employees can provide data about each experience, ideas for actions, usefulness of tools and processes, and citizen relationships.

Characteristics of MetricsTo be successful, an approach to collecting data for metrics must have three characteristics:

1. Relevance: It should produce data that is relevant to the strategy of the effort and serve to increase the value provided to the citizen (using some of the key questions above).

2. Simple and engaging for the citizen: Gathering metrics from citizens must be done in such a way that their time and effort is respected and their participation is appreciated and honored.

3. Multi-sourced: An agency should conduct strategic sourcing of data from a spectrum of internal and external sources.



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It is inevitable in the discussion of organizational change the topic of “culture” will present itself - and it presents as a thorny problem. The ugly truth is that only 20% of large-scale cultural transformations in organizations are successful. This can be attributed to a number of factors:

• Attempting too large a transformation too fast

• Not understanding the nature of culture

• Declaring a culture change victory too early

• Applying ineffective change processes

• Lack of or inappropriate leadership engagement

• Poor follow-through and persistence

• Relying on a “plug and play” solution

The reality is that cultural transformation is difficult. At the same time, it is absolutely critical and has huge payoffs if done correctly.

Why Optimization is Not EnoughIf optimization improves efficiency and effectiveness, and improves service, why do anything else? The answer is that optimization takes an operations centric approach. If an agency wants to build trust and relationships with the citizens, it must take a citizen centric approach. Everything that comes out of an agency is a reflection of its culture. If that culture does not resonate with the citizens, they will feel alienated from the agency and their government. Trust requires a strong relationship and the culture of the agency must reflect a desire for that relationship.

What is Culture Anyway? Culture is a word used often, but it is rarely defined and can be very fuzzy and confusing. Culture has to be thought of in terms of shared mission in the agency. This common mission informs all the actions of the employees, based on the mission vision and values of

Creating a Citizen-Centric Culture

the agency. Every organization has a set of assumptions, beliefs and values to inform how things are done—about people, about time, about the work that is done, about relationships. Sometimes an organization will express its values openly and put them on the wall. These are expressed values but they don’t necessarily represent the true values left unexpressed. The true values are embedded into everything that the organization does and is. They are expressed in its language, dress, stories, processes and procedures, everyday “rituals,” and even its physical space. On open floor plan, for example, demonstrates a culture of collaboration and openness, while one with offices, with doors, and walls demonstrates one of independent, individual work. A culture is aligned when its values and meanings are consistently expressed in every aspect of the agency and it is supportive of its mission and vision. Every agency has a culture. The question to ask is, “Is it the right culture for what we are trying to achieve and, if not, what are we going to do about it?

Everything that comes out of an agency is a reflection of its culture. If that culture does not resonate with the citizens, they will feel alienated from the agency and their government.



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Critical Success Factors for Transforming CultureAddressing culture is difficult and often unsuccessful. A typical approach to addressing culture involves changing job performance requirements and standards to match new expectations. While this is necessary to ensure consistency with new values, it is not sufficient to change culture. In fact, it often leads to a compliance mentality whereby things are done because it is being asked rather than because it is the right thing to do. More must be done.

Strong resistance because of fear or discomfort is inevitable. The emotionally charged and challenging nature of, cultural transformation should be approached with the following in mind:

• Recognize that it is a long, evolutionary process. Cultural transformation does not happen overnight; it often takes years of incremental change.

• Leadership must be fully committed and engaged. Culture is ultimately set by the top leadership; if the top leadership is out of alignment, transformation will never happen.

• Find the energy, start small, and build out. Transformation does not just involve compliance to the top—it involves commitment from the bottom. Find an area willing to participate that has energy and work on that small area to create some momentum and success.

• Challenge deeply-held assumptions. The trick to transforming culture is to transform mindsets—old assumptions must be challenged and, if necessary, be replaced by new ones.

• Be as consistent as possible, but leave room for error. This type of change takes time as old habits are hard to break. Consistency is key to success—seek to align as much as possible to values—hiring and promotion practices, training classes, leadership messages, tools, meeting processes, even physical space.

• Communicate continuously. It is critical that everyone is aware of what is happening and knows the status of the transformation. This does not always have to come from leadership. It can also come from those at the front line.

Steps to a Successful Cultural TransformationThere are systematic ways to approach cultural transformation; however, each agency is different. For citizen experience, it is critical to create a “culture of caring.” To build trust and relationships and to truly meet the needs of the citizens, all members of the agency must demonstrate that they care about citizens, their situation, and want to help them get the service that they need.

The following steps can be taken to transform an agency’s culture:

1. Envision what culture and values are necessary to achieve a citizen-centric mission: This step should involve the whole agency from top to bottom. Since everyone will be involved in implementing this vision, getting them involved early will help to create ownership and also provide diverse voices in the establishment of the values.

2. Identify the existing values and assumptions: This is challenging because it is something that few people think about. By examining the way the agency operates, its language, tools, processes, space, “habits,” and the like, a pattern of values and assumptions will surface.

3. Challenge the existing values and assumptions: Do they really express the type of culture that is necessary to serve the citizen the way your vision seeks to? Do they embody what the agency is “about?”

4. Establish new values that reflect the desired culture: The new values may be similar to some of the old ones or they could be completely different. But they should involve the voices of all layers of the agency.



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5. Find a “testing ground” to begin work: The best starting point is to find a part of the agency that has energy to transform and that is willing to embrace these new values.

6. Build momentum and small successes: The testing ground provides a place to learn and to create some momentum and success that will convince others to participate. Those involved can become influencers and spokespeople for the process.

7. Expand the circle and orchestrate the transformation: Seek opportunities to create more transformation in other areas of the agency. Eventually a tipping point will be reached and the transformation will take hold.

Creating a culture is a collaborative approach that involves all levels of the organization. The citizen-centric culture is one that develops commitment and engagement at all levels by creating meaning.



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The Future of Citizen Experience

It’s what citizens expect. You can make a difference.Citizens today expect a citizen-centered experience that delivers highly customized, personal attention. They expect integrated multi-channels to provide seamless touchpoints. They expect accuracy and consistency. They expect the people they contact to care about them and their time. Agencies should never stop listening and making adjustments to their initiatives accordingly. Put yourself in the citizens’ shoes. Don’t focus on just one method to connect. Diversify your outreach and go to where your citizens are for effective engagement. By doing so, you will create more positive citizen experiences and gain greater trust not only in your agency but in government at all levels.

“The only title in our democracy superior to that of president is the title of citizen.”

– Justice Louis Brandeis

eleVate The Citizen Experience™ We have heard the call for change in customer and citizen experience and we are ready to respond. At HighPoint, we are citizen-engagement experts with years of experi-ence focused on elevating the citizen experience for our customers. Our goal is to provide strategic consulting ser-vices that enables our clients to provide the best service experience possible for their customers. We work hard to help our clients realize their full potential by ensuring they have every opportunity to provide the best possible outcomes. We succeed because of the integrity of our employees, our commitment to citizens, and our passion for staying current with the newest innovations of our industry, with consideration for the communities and the country where we live and work.

HighPoint is proud to be a contributing member of the “Harnessing Life Events to Connect Services to Citizens”

from the ACT-IAC Institute for Innovation Task Force. The ACT-IAC Institute for Innovation’s task force is a public-private partnership that is determining how life events that affect the public are, or can be, used to design and deliver citizen-centric services – improving how government serves the public in 2015 and improving citizen experiences.



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If your agency needs guidance on how to improve your employee morale and better engage citizens seeking your services, contact HighPoint at highpointelevate.com.

We are experts in eleVating the Citizen Experience.

HighPoint specializes on improving the TouchPoints where government and citizens meet and helps you achieve a citizen-centered mission.

Dr. Josh Plaskoff authored this series of white papers. Dr. Plaskoff is Director of Learning and Technology Service Development for HighPoint. For almost 30 years, Dr. Plaskoff has been working with large organizations, both in the private and public sector, to help them improve performance through transformation. In addition, he is a former faculty member of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and Fellow of the Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence. He has written and spoken extensively on the topic of learning and culture change. He received his Master’s degree from the University of Southern California and Doctorate from Indiana University.

We are experts in eleVating The Citizen Experience™

Contact:

Susan Sharer, HighPoint Global Government Solutions

Office: (703) 935-5007

Mobile: (703) 999-1491

[email protected]


http://www.highpointelevate.com

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