Leveraging the TMF to improve customer experience

Focusing on customer experience as part of the Technology Modernization Fund investment strategy will enable agencies to improve service and build trust in government.

customer experience (garagestock/Shutterstock.com)
 

Government’s interaction with members of the public occurs throughout a person’s life. By focused attention on delivering a great experience for customers – a goal commonly referred to “CX”, short for customer experience – agencies will provide great value for the people they serve. CX thus becomes a strategic imperative in mission delivery, and a foundational element to build public trust in government.

In this final post of our series on how agencies can leverage the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) to improve performance, we discuss the use of the TMF to support improvements in CX -- a key goal expressed in OMB’s recent TMF guidance. And in a further reflection of the importance of CX, Congress has embraced the subject in newly introduced bipartisan legislation, the Trust in Public Service Act.

An individual’s interaction with government is generally triggered by a journey through life events, or even through one of many daily life activities. To illustrate a common life event journey, a person receives a social security number at birth; moves into adulthood and can obtain loans for education or to start a small business, housing assistance, health insurance, or veteran’s benefits; and ultimately returns to Social Security as well as Medicare benefits upon retirement.

To illustrate a daily life activity, the travelling public interacts with the Transportation Security Administration when traveling by air for business or pleasure. Any interaction with the federal government can lead to a satisfying or frustrating experience, which either engenders or discourages trust in the government’s ability to deliver on its promise.

This is especially true for those agencies that have been designated as High Impact Service Providers (HISPs) as outlined in OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 (“Managing Customer Experience and Improving Service Delivery”). HISPs are service providers that have significant scope and scale and a high impact on the public, due to the number of customers they serve or the importance of the service they provide. Section 280 also sets guidelines for a high-performing CX organization in terms of service effectiveness and perception of value, simplicity and speed, equity and transparency, and employee interaction. All are goals that TMF investments can support.

The Section 280 guidance requires that agencies transform into organizations with a culture of meeting unmet and constantly evolving customer needs, using a continuous customer feedback loop to drive innovation. That innovation includes out-of-the-box thinking that does not simply make incremental change and automate existing processes, but reimagines service delivery based on all-important customer feedback. Imagine if technology experts had simply automated taxi dispatch instead of creating new services like Uber or Lyft. Today’s personalized transportation experiences exist because entrepreneurs modernized by taking the latter approach.

In order to optimize improvement from customer feedback in developing TMF and related proposals, agencies focused on great CX must discern when the landscape begins to shift and customers change their expectations. Customer feedback can come from multiple sources, both digital and human. Digital feedback data comes from things a simple as a survey taken at the end of an individual online transaction.

Direct human-to-human feedback is extremely valuable and somewhat more complex. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs produced a video to show the approach it took to transforming the process by which veterans apply for benefits. In this video, a CX manager met a veteran at a Starbuck’s coffee shop and observed how the veteran interacted with a new customer interface page when applying for a benefit. Through this observation and verbal feedback, the manager made the interface simpler and more user-friendly. Both types of feedback can help to pinpoint needed CX improvements.

Members of the public are not the only “customers” of government services. Government customer service employees represent a key part of the delivery value chain in their interaction the public, and government employees are also negatively impacted by a subpar digital customer interface. And both government and public customers are impacted when a digital interface to a transaction meets expectations, but the back-end systems that support the processing of the transaction have not been modernized for speed, efficiency and accuracy. The public only sees the end result, which government can transform by modernizing the end-to-end transaction process. In making TMF investments that meet the CX goals of the OMB guidance in a holistic fashion, agencies must also address legacy systems “behind the curtain.” CX must be addressed holistically (as noted below, previous posts in this series have provided some approaches for using the TMF to modernize legacy system).

When developing a business case for TMF funding that supports CX improvement, agencies should demonstrate that the project has a positive and measurable impact on customer experience. TMF investments can also highlight a mature agency approach to CX that incorporates the changes in culture, governance, and process to support success. A clear demonstration of all the factors that affect customer experience will lead to a positive return from TMF funding – one that builds trust by being visible to the public that government serves, and to the government employees who deliver those services.

This final post builds on previous pieces, which highlighted approaches for leveraging the TMF in sync with other funding sources to help agencies accelerate progress in their modernization efforts. We have also addressed using TMF to improve the cyber posture of critical agency mission assets, and to invest in enterprise services that allow multiple agencies or agency components to share infrastructure, platforms or applications.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.