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State and Local Leaders: Achieving a Customer-Centric Mindset
Digital services have become ubiquitous in the past couple of decades and now encompass nearly all aspects of state and local government operations. Whether they streamline access to benefits or focus on improving public safety and health, digital services exist to make people’s lives better.
Evolving technologies, such as artificial intelligence, promise to transform the customer experience (CX). However, success also hinges on making the cultural changes necessary to truly meet customers wherever they are, which often means bringing together different departments and even different levels of government.
In addition, state and local agencies must have appropriate levels of security to make use of individuals’ data while maintaining privacy. They must also hire, train and empower employees to find innovative ways to meet customers’ needs.
Those efforts are important because investing in an exceptional CX brings widespread benefits that include increased efficiency, satisfied constituents, and more productive and engaged employees. And digital services have an essential role to play in meeting the daunting challenges that government and society face, such as climate change, natural and man-made disasters, and public health emergencies.
‘Digital can no longer be an afterthought’
Digital services and CX cover the whole spectrum of government communications. The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA) outlines the key elements of online government services, and although it was enacted on the federal level, the law encompasses goals that are relevant for all government agencies. Some states, such as New Jersey, are passing their own versions of the law.
According to Digital.gov, 21st Century IDEA requires all executive branch agencies to modernize their websites, digitize services and forms, accelerate the use of e-signatures, improve CX, and standardize and transition to centralized shared services.
Modern websites are easy to navigate and organized around users’ needs rather than government silos. They also function well whether the user is on a laptop, tablet or smartphone and are continually updated in response to user feedback and other data. Digitizing services involves adapting outdated, inefficient manual processes and paper forms into applications that are easily accessible online. The result should be more productive, satisfying processes for constituents and employees. Agencies can further streamline processes by incorporating electronic signatures, which saves time and money while improving security and visibility into document workflows.
21st Century IDEA’s goal of improving CX requires cultivating an active dialogue with the people who use particular government services. Such dialogues should happen before and after a new digital service is developed and deployed. That sort of involvement is crucial for success, and it builds trust in government.
Given the complexity of the services provided and the multiple moving parts that need to align, there are many opportunities for agencies to fall short of their goals. In her 2023 book “Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better,” Jennifer Pahlka writes that a disconnect between an agency and the people it serves is often to blame. Pahlka was deputy U.S. CTO during the Obama administration, and she founded Code for America, a nonprofit organization that seeks to apply human-centered technology solutions to improve all levels of government.
“Our digital age is different from previous eras not because information is sent electronically instead of physically but because technology has changed people’s needs, expectations and behaviors,” she wrote. “The capacity government needs today is multifaceted, but one thing that’s clear is that digital can no longer be an afterthought.”
Reaching users through multiple channels
Pahlka’s emphasis on connecting with and truly understanding users mirrors comments made by Michael Rupert, interim CTO for Washington, D.C., at an event hosted by GovExec and Carahsoft. “Taking the time to do the journey mapping frustrates people,” he said. “They want to get started. But it’s very, very important to take the time to talk to the people at the front desk, not just the executives or program managers, and to spend some time actually looking at the feedback.”
The insights developers glean from such conversations might lead them to non-digital options, particularly when state and local agencies are trying to connect with older or lower-income people and those who live in rural areas where broadband is not as widely available.
Read the full report here.
This content is made possible by our sponsor Carahsoft; it is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Route Fifty’s editorial staff.
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