Why government needs to embrace smart technologies

There are few organisations that need to be more people-first than government agencies and departments. At their core, government agencies are set up to help and serve citizens. Consequently, the customer experience (CX) is one of the most essential elements of a government agency, especially when it comes to its contact centre operations.

As with most industries, digital transformation has revolutionised the agent and customer experience in government contact centres. Citizens are consumers, and their experiences with other organisations and industries has led to increased demand for more frictionless experiences, omnichannel solutions, and self-service options to be integrated into their interactions with government agencies.

While some government organisations have already taken significant steps towards transformation, others continue to lag, leading to frustrated citizens enduring negative experiences each time they engage with a government department contact centre. While it’s essential for the laggards to accelerate their transformation efforts to improve CX, it’s equally important for leading departments to continue to engage with new and emerging technologies to ensure their services deliver what customers need.

How improving CX through technology leads to frictionless citizen experiences

Investing in new technologies and modernising operations is only one piece of the puzzle, albeit an essential one. It’s crucial that government organisations take the time to understand what areas of their operations can be improved by integrating new tools and technology, including automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), among others. However, for the best return on investment (ROI), and to truly make a difference to the customer (and agent) experience, it’s equally important to understand what processes must also be improved, and how to more intelligently use new technology to deliver frictionless experiences.

There are two key ways government agencies can transform their operations for the future:

1. Voice of the customer

The focus of government departments should ultimately be on the people they serve, so an effective Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is critical to help identify gaps in services that need to be remediated. Investing in a VoC program will help agencies uncover customer pain points, while simultaneously identifying limitations with the service or its contact centre agents. This should be department-wide and conducted across every channel through which people are contacting the government contact centre.

Asking for and acting on feedback demonstrates that the department is actively engaged in improving CX and delivering excellent service. It also helps the department to proactively improve its operations and streamline processes where possible, identifying opportunities to leverage new tools.

2. Agent experience

Beyond the citizen experience, VoC programs can also help to uncover areas of opportunity to improve the agent experience. Understanding where customers are having negative or positive interactions with agents can help departments understand where improvements or additional training needs to take place across its team. Investing in digital contact centre platforms that facilitate streamlined agent training and sentiment analysis, among other features, can help government departments significantly improve the customer and agent experience in tandem.

At the same time, cloud-based contact centre platforms that facilitate flexible hybrid work environments also empower agents to engage more with their tasks. Additionally, solutions that leverage smart technology, such as AI, ML, and automation, can help agents reduce the amount of time-consuming, manual processes involved in their work, while redirecting their skills to more high-value tasks.

The contact centre environment will continue to evolve, and government departments can’t afford to be left behind, especially when lagging results in negative citizen experiences and poor customer service. Government departments must invest in new technologies to modernise their contact centre environments, delivering frictionless experiences for customers and agents alike.

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