In October, I had the pleasure to sit down with Francis Rose, host of “In-Depth with Francis Rose” for his Industry Chatter program on Federal News Radio. Our conversation focused on the Government cloud—the state of adoption, its benefits and challenges, and how it can be leveraged to improve citizen experiences.
One of the most important points that came up during our conversation is that the government doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Citizens expect to interact with the government in the same ways they interact with the private sector, and often compare the two along the way.
It is now second nature for citizens to turn to websites and social media platforms for general information and service questions in the private sector. They’ve become accustomed to rapid response times and expect every member of the organization to be an expert or to connect them quickly with someone who is.
To retain the trust and approval of its citizens, the government is searching for ways to compete with the private sector customer experience with limited resources and human capital.
The answer is to start small. At RightNow, we firmly believe the first step to improving citizen experience is to develop a strong knowledge base. Understanding the questions and information most important to the citizen is critical to providing the best answers at any contact point, be it a call center, website or social media platform.
Developing a dynamic knowledge base – beyond a simple FAQ – allows citizens to address their own questions, and frees agency resources to develop more innovative and proactive service interactions through outlets such as community forums and social media.
We’ve seen many of our federal customers take the first step towards improving citizen experiences and later go on to develop citizen interactions that compete with the best of the private sector. We all have to start somewhere – citizens are waiting.
Click below to hear the complete Industry Chatter interview.
