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Elevating Government Services with Cloud
THE EMPHASIS ON providing a government customer experience (CX) that matches or exceeds that
of the private sector is not new. It dates to
at least 1993, when President Bill Clinton issued an executive order that set customer service standards and measurements. But new advances in technology developments, particularly cloud, are giving agencies an unprecedented ability to understand and enhance all aspects of customer engagement.
Improving the customer experience is one of 14 cross-agency priority goals in
the 2018 President’s Management Agenda. The document notes that individuals and businesses expect government services to be as efficient and intuitive as the services they receive from commercial organizations. And it puts a particular emphasis on providing a better digital experience.
To help achieve those goals, the Office of Management and Budget updated Circular
A-11 last year to give agencies more specific CX guidance. Agencies are required to perform an annual self-assessment of how well their citizen-facing services meet
the CX program maturity model’s core functions: measurement, governance and strategy, culture and organization, customer understanding, and service design. Based on those results, agencies must develop an action plan for addressing any gaps in performance.
In addition, the General Services Administration’s Digital.gov offers a Customer Experience Toolkit that has
tips on assessing an agency’s current
CX environment and planning for improvements. Digital.gov’s Customer Experience Community of Practice boasts more than 700 CX practitioners across more than 140 federal, state and local government offices.
On the National Association of State CIOs’ list of Top 10 Policy and
Technology Priorities for 2020, CX figures prominently in the goals related to digital government, cloud services, customer relationship management, data management and analytics, and innovation and transformation through technology.
Why CX starts with the
employee experience
The push for better CX has accelerated in recent years due in part to technological advances in cloud technology. Emerging solutions such as artificial intelligence
and software as a service thrive on cloud’s flexibility and scalability. In addition to saving money, the latest cloud-based tools have profound implications for the employee experience.
In fact, improving CX begins with improving the employee experience because engaged employees are the only way to deliver topnotch customer services.
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The government’s ability to improve the customer experience is being fueled by the scalability and flexibility that cloud technology offers
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