COVID-19 Froze Digital Transformation Initiatives. Here’s How to Overcome That.

COVID-19 Froze Digital Transformation Initiatives. Here’s How to Overcome That.

State and local government agencies are facing a dual economic challenge: delivering support while dealing with a loss of tax revenues and fees. Cities, towns and villages can expect to face a collective $360 billion budget shortfall from 2020 through 2022, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.


For government contact centers, this means citizens are demanding immediate services when agencies are forced to reduce technology investments and other spending. However, government contact centers can still improve speed and service quality while reducing costs with the right strategy and mindset.


Think Incremental Innovation


When government agencies are operating on thin budgets, it’s essential to focus on citizen experience innovations that will deliver the most impact without breaking the bank. Consider criteria such as:


Does it meet a pressing need? 
Can it be deployed quickly without IT resources? 
How long will it take to show outcomes and recoup costs? 
Does it require purchasing new technology and/or hiring more employees? 

For instance, faced with unprecedented demand for unemployment assistance related to the COVID-19 outbreak, one state’s labor department needed to quickly upgrade its contact center. Rather than overwhelm phone lines or hire more staff, the agency implemented mobile messaging to interact with citizens quickly and efficiently.


The state agency added chatbot and messaging options for citizens seeking unemployment assistance such as payment status, appeal process, website login issues, filing new claims, and eligibility questions. Instead of waiting on hold, callers received an interactive voice response prompt option to connect to a remote agent trained to answer questions via text messaging. For website visitors, an automated chatbot also connected users to a human agent.


This was the first time the state used messaging as a contact channel, and its fast ..

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