Page 32 - GCN, Jun/July 2016

SERVING THE CITIZEN
Executive Viewpoint
ONE-ON-ONE WITH MARTHA DORRIS
Former director of strategic programs for GSA provides suggestions for improving a citizen’s experience with the federal government.
MARTHA DORRIS
PRESIDENT,
DORRIS CONSULTING INTERNATIONAL
The federal government is focusing on customer service more than ever before. But that focus may evolve in the near future. Martha Dorris championed the customer experience concept throughout her 33 years of public service. Now Founder and President of Dorris Consulting International, Dorris spoke recently with Francis Rose, host of
Government Matters on ABC 7 and News Channel 8, about the federal government’s evolution in dealing with customers.
brought together in a way so that you could share the data across agencies, and break it out by demographics. Some agencies try it, but it is so difficult because of the hoops we have to jump through because of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Rose: Is there a role for the vendor community
in improving customer experience in government beyond just selling services to the agencies that need or want them?
Dorris: I think trade organizations could bring a lot of
the companies together in this space to help identify best practices, share them between industry and government,
and even help identify ways that we can share them across government agencies. Services is one of the major ways that you can improve customer experience. I think industry can play a big part in that, to educate and share the way that they have done things and learn from the government as well.
Rose: We have less than a year until the Obama administration ends and a new President and new administration take over. What do you want to see customer experience leaders in the government do to make sure there is minimal loss of momentum between now and next year?
Dorris: Everybody just needs to look at their programs realistically, and understand the experience that their customers are having. Then they should ask themselves what experience they want their customers to have, and what
the action plans are that they need to do to improve that experience now. What’s within their own jurisdiction, or their own authority to do? What do they need help with? Leaders should have those lists ready when the new administration comes in, and then they should say, “Here are ten things that I need you to do.” That’s how to hit the ground running in the new administration.
This interview continues at Carahsoft.com/innovation/Dorris
Rose: What’s the difference between customer service and customer experience
in a government setting?
Dorris: Customer service is related to a single touch point. Customer experience is about the entire journey. It’s about the perception your customer has of your organization.
Rose: Is making a citizen’s experience with the federal government like the private sector a reasonable expectation?
Dorris: I think it would be great if we could provide the kind of experience that the public has with Amazon, for example.
It would be great if you went to USA.gov and you were able to access different agencies, services, and information the way you can when you go on Amazon and access all of those different products and services from different companies. There are some challenges with that. One major challenge is, we don’t have a single identity management solution in the federal government, even though we tried and tried. Having
a single ID would be a big thing for customers. It would also save the government millions of dollars because every agency is building its own identity management solution.
Rose: Does the government do a good job of understanding the customer’s expectations and needs so they can improve the experience? Dorris: I think there are pockets of agencies that do some decent research on what their customers want. But it is not
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