Communications: The Missing Government CX Link

U.S. government leadership is working together to rethink, retool, and improve how federal services are delivered to customers and citizens. With much focus on technology, data analysis, culture, leadership, and human-centered design, agency communications offices must also play a critical role.

This recent movement for government agencies to improve customer experience (CX) was precipitate by President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order 14058, Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery To Rebuild Trust in Government. It was the hot topic at November’s At ACT-IAC’s CX Summit 2022 held in Washington, D.C.

A year in, CX is a top priority of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), said Andy Lewandowski, an Office of Management and Budget digital experience advisor to the federal CIO. The vision if for “simple, seamless, and secure” government service,” Lewandowski told the audience. It is technology, employees, vendors, and contractors “that are making this vision a reality,” he said.

To succeed, Lewandowski said technology must be harnessed in the right ways. “Technology is the common thread and the power behind the public’s customer experience and the workforce’s employee experience.”

He noted three important factors:

·       Technology powers a 360-degree customer experience. Technology affects every CX channel, including analogue channels.

·       Digital is the default in a world that expects to have self-service options. “Digital first but not digital only,” Lewandowski added.

·       Technology serves humans. Humans do not serve technology.

But technology comes with a warning. “Too often,” Lewandowski said, “we find ourselves at the mercy of the system. Too often it is a technology system that is dictating the customer’s experience or how an employee gets [their] work done. This is backwards and it is wrong.”

The Important Role of CX Communications

I would add one more important common thread: communications. Wherever there is a call for new technology and demands for change in staff behavior, you can bet there is a need for solid communications. As communicators, we can serve as a vital link on the road to distribute CX-centered change throughout the organization. We can be the catalyst for the CX revolution.

Here’s how:

Communications must become close partners with CX teams.

Perhaps this is already happening at your agency. But too often, Federal communications teams find themselves without customer experience data. Government is not alone. A Hubspot poll of 1,200 marketers found that only 31 percent of marketers know the online communities preferred by their target audience; even less know anything about the challenges they are facing. This is the case even though CX is considered smart business. A Boston Consulting Group study found that companies can improve customer advocacy by 20 to 40 percent, and realize cost reductions between 15 t0 25 percent and revenue increases from 10 to 20 percent.

As a tremendous business and communications advantage, CX data is the food that shapes and energizes highly targeted message campaigns, delivered at the right time, and which speaks to specific customer needs at critical points along the customer-based journey.

As a simple example, customers are either unaware, uniformed, informed but in need of more information, or ready to act. Each if these stages require very different communications approaches. If we communicate without understanding the different needs at each of these stages, communications will fail. CX will fail.

CX needs a gritty communications team.

Creating a CX culture is hard, never-ending work. It’s a big change and requires constant messaging and feedback loops. At the implementation level: What’s the vision? What will this mean to staff and the status quo? How will we address concerns? How will we demonstrate success and success stories? Creating a CX culture will require a strong public relations and internal communications strategy.

But there’s an equally important communications role. As a vital CX partner, and with the help of AI-powered conversation tracking tools and analysis, communicators are best positioned to quickly share real-time CX updates.

Take the simple example of a broken website link. AI-based data can show us which audiences are most impacted by the issue. Communicators can then quicky gather the information needed to assist customers and provide department-specific guidance to resolve issues. Just as with audiences, the information needs for IT are often quite different from the information needs of operations, training and development, Web teams, staff, the call center, and so on.

Communicators, not CX professionals or IT, are the most qualified to take CX data, package it, get executive approvals, and the share trends and the actions needed. This is communication’s wheelhouse.

Technology, as Lewandowski reminds us, “is not a panacea. Technology, when done well, should do the low-level work so humans can focus their time, energies, and talents on the high-level work.” CX is also not a panacea. It will fail without a communications strategy to back it.

Communications is the vital link that can turn spreadsheets of data into meaningful information and directives inside and outside of the government agency. Agencies that take a more proactive CX approach and use communications to share important CX knowledge will gain an important advantage. In return, the work of communications will greatly improve from better CX data.

Written By Barry Lawrence