Whatever the future holds, it’s clear that expectations of service delivery to citizens, residents or temporary visitors by federal agencies are converging with those of customer interactions in private industry. Meaning, speed, efficiency, and a focus for value addition are becoming non-negotiable.
Take the recent inability of state unemployment offices to process benefit applications in the midst of the pandemic. It prompted a number of questions, and rightly so.
“Why isn’t the entire process digital yet?”
“Don’t employers already file most of the information necessary to auto-recommend or even pre-approve people for unemployment benefits?”
“And, while we’re on the topic, doesn’t the IRS already have a baseline understanding of what most people earn, to at least simplify the tax return process?”
Meeting private sector-level expectations in the public sector is a big charge when you consider legislation, politics (no pun intended), technology constraints, resource constraints, and more. But that shouldn’t stop government technology leaders in the long-term. For those looking to start chipping away at change, below are three actionable key steps that public sector technology leaders can take to catalyze digital transformation.
Prioritize Important Problems by Asking Simple Questions
While a number of agencies invest in collecting "customer" satisfaction data, it can feel difficult to prioritize what the first steps ought to be when making changes in the public sector takes so much energy. It sounds basic, but asking some of these simple questions may help:
“Do our interactions make sense for the customer?”
“Are we taking up the customer’s time in an efficient way?”
“Are we leaving an opportunity on the table to add value?”
A good example of an agency that did this is the Agriculture De ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
