CX in Government: CX Mini Masterclass – E50

Welcome to Decoding the Customer, a podcast about customer experience and how to realize customer-centric change in today’s dynamic business world. I’m Julia Ahlfeldt, certified customer experience professional, business advisor, and host of this program. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you’re new to the show, welcome.

If you’re a returning listener, thanks, and it’s great to have you back. This episode is part of my CX mini masterclass series here in Decoding the Customer. These weekly episodes are published each Thursday and designed to be punchy, bite-sized overviews of key customer experience concepts and ideas for how you can help your organization thrive through customer centricity. Whether you’re new to the field of customer experience, are preparing for the CCXP exam, or are a seasoned professional looking to brush up on a few basics, this series will help you improve your knowledge, skills, and performance to stand out as a CX professional.

This is episode 50. It’s an exciting milestone for the show. And today, I have another mini masterclass presented by a leading customer experience expert.

In this episode, Stephanie Thum joins us again. If you heard Stephanie’s great insights in episode 45, it will come as no surprise that Stephanie is a seasoned CX professional. She’s a CCXP and is one of the founding members of the CXPA. She’s remained closely involved with the association, even spending some time as part of the association staff team.

In her career as a customer experience practitioner, she’s amassed deep expertise through her diverse professional background. She’s had the opportunity to drive customer-centric change within government. And while she’s known for her background as one of the US federal government’s first agency customer experience leads, she’s also been a practitioner and a consultant in the B2B customer experience world, working with small and midsize companies. Today, we have a real treat because Stephanie has invited us into her wheelhouse to learn about customer experience in government.

When we think about customer experience, the default is often to consider implications for the private sector. But consumers don’t check their expectations at the door when they go into the DMV, check out a book from the library, or go for a hike in a national park. And they certainly don’t forget these expectations when they go to the ballot box. Consumer expectations are on the rise across the board, and the public sector is also responding.

In this episode, Stephanie explains three trends that are on the rise with how governments are incorporating customer experience best practices. She speaks about how this trend is gaining global momentum, the importance of adapting citizen experiences for the modern world, and the growing influence of oversight bodies to ensure that governments are doing right by consumers. If you’re wondering how customer experience is being applied beyond the private sector, then stay tuned. And as always, if you happen to be out for a walk or chopping veggies and hear something that you’d like to remember later, don’t worry about writing it down.

You can find an overview of the key concepts that we’ve covered today in the show notes for this episode, which are on my website, julia-ahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com. I’ll also include links to find out more about Stephanie’s work and how you can get in touch with her. So with that, I’ll let Stephanie take it away. Hi, this is Stephanie Thum.

When Julia asked me to do this mini master class on government customer experience, I was a little stumped. And if you know me, you may be puzzled by that. Because while I got my start in customer experience in the B2B world, most people know me as one of the US federal government’s first agency level customer experience leaders during the Obama administration. And since leaving government service, I’ve written, spoken, and advocated all around the world for embracing the concepts and principles of CX as a business discipline in government.

Now, a lot of people ask me why government should even care about customer experience. And the argument is typically that government is a monopoly, so they don’t have to care about citizen experiences. Well, I have two responses for that. Number one, government touches everyone every day.

It belongs to everyone. So trust, efficiency, transparency, and commitment should be at the heart of that relationship between a government and its citizens. But there’s a big experience gap there. And you probably don’t need a lot of fancy data to tell you that.

Just think about some of your own experiences with, say, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or applying for student aid, or maybe a small business loan. There seem to be more sad stories than happy stories. Citizens have expectations that so often are not being met, and that erodes their trust in government, which is not a good thing. CX practices can help to close that experience gap.

The second thing is, and a lot of people might not realize this, but having been on the senior team of a government agency, I’ve been up close and personal with this. There’s a business side to running a government organization. So just like the practices and principles of CX as a discipline can help a business to be more effective and efficient, the same thing is true for government. Now, the nuances can make it much more complicated to get the work done sometimes, but you can’t deny the business benefits of great CX practices.

So I thought long and hard about this mini masterclass. What should I share? Because governments around the world are different when it comes to embracing experience management practices that would improve the lives of the citizens and the business owners that make up their communities. There are differences in commitments, priorities, funding, and cultures, and that all plays into what gets done with CX and government.

But that’s not all that different from organizations that aren’t government agencies. So I thought I’d share with you three things that are really rising to the surface right now for me that might interest you about how governments around the world are embracing CX. First, there is CX momentum around the world. I take a look at the incredible work of what Service New South Wales in Australia is doing.

And I visited their offices in Australia earlier this year. More than 850 transactions across 40 agencies have now been brought under the Service New South Wales umbrella. That streamlines experiences for citizens. And that means there’s less confusion about where to go for what.

And if you’re a citizen, less running around for you when you have to get something done. They also created a role for a minister for customer service, so things are only going to continue to improve. And they just got 50 million in funding. And when you see funding, then you know they’re serious about improving the experiences for their citizens.

Number two, finding ways to digitize and modernize with the resources they have. Let’s talk about the city of Dublin, Ireland. It used to be that as a citizen, to have your opinion heard about a policy or a new law or maybe a new retail developments going up by your house or road closures are coming, you had to show up to a city council meeting, stand up and maybe speak your opinions into a microphone. Now, that might not be your style.

And in today’s world, you might be too busy to get to those city council meetings. That doesn’t mean you don’t care about your city. So I recently talked with the leaders of the Dublin City Council. They’re using opt-in online panels to increase the number of voices they can cultivate when they’re making decisions.

So citizens and residents opt in, they get a quarterly survey on the topics that matter, and then the city council uses the feedback they collect to help make decisions. That’s a win for modernization, and it’s a win for digitizing services for citizens. The third thing is there’s a growing influence of oversight bodies. This is something I’m seeing in the US on the federal level.

Now, in addition to the new White House guidance on CX and legislation that actually moves CX practices from nice to have into the realms of requirement, you’ve got oversight bodies, like the Government Accountability Office and Inspectors General, and they’re calling for agencies to collect more customer feedback, pay more attention to how they communicate with citizens because there can be a lot of confusing communication out there for citizens, and they’re calling on them to fix problems with wait times at the post office, for example. So you have to understand the influence of the Government Accountability Office and Inspectors General. They’re separate groups, but they have similar missions to make government better and to mitigate fraud, waste, and abuse. And they put it in the public eye when they find agencies need to improve.

They publish written reports, and agencies then have to respond in writing and publicly as to what they’re going to do about the recommendations that the Government Accountability Office and Inspectors General have made. Now, all this being said, it’s important to understand that there are big roadblocks sometimes for even the most well-intentioned government agencies. For example, did you know that in the US there is decades-old legislation that requires paper processes in some instances? That stands in the way of digital solutions that would make it easier for citizens and even for agencies.

But it’s important to understand, Congress is in charge of changing the laws. Agencies aren’t. So sometimes the regulations and rules that were created long ago, usually without citizen input, they’re at odds with what would make things better for citizens. But the pressure is on now from citizens, and governments know it.

And there’s also the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, also known as the OECD. Now the OECD is a global organization that uses their influence and connections with governments around the world to advocate for lots of things, including more innovation and more policies that are modern that make things better for citizens. So there you have it. Some of my observations about customer experience practices in government right now.

And I love this topic, because it’s great to share what’s happening around the world with government and CX because it touches all of us. And it’s great to share some of the reasons why it’s not always easy, as you think that it should be, for governments to just change. Now the good news is, we haven’t seen the last of the progress. In fact, I think this is just the beginning.

Thanks so much for listening. So there you have it. Special guest, Stephanie Thum, sharing insights on how customer centricity and experience management are becoming part of the way that governments work. I had no idea about the growing role of consumer oversight bodies, but I’m glad to hear that there is someone tasked with advocating for customer needs among government agencies.

Maybe this is something that the private sector can learn from government. A summary of Stephanie’s insights will be available in the show notes for this episode, along with a link to her ebook and information on how to get in touch with her. If you’re on Twitter, Stephanie’s handle is at Stephanie Thum. She’s active on this platform and is always sharing great gems and insights.

I’ll be back next Thursday with another episode of Decoding the Customer. If you’d like to get in touch in the meantime, you can send me an email, tweet, or LinkedIn message.

My handle is at Julia Ahlfeldt, and my full contact details are also listed on my website, julia-ahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com.