Government should deliver consistent customer experience

multichannel-intergration
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Peter Williams argues that government should ensure that end users receive a consistent experience across all channels.

Making digital by default work – integration is key

Integration across different digital channels is key – whether that’s FAQs, web chat or virtual agents.

The rapid proliferation of digital channels has made it difficult for organisations across all industries to provide effective, cost-efficient customer care. In their struggle to find the right way to handle new digital channels, many have just added each channel in a siloed approach. And because reporting is also done in silos, it makes it difficult for management to get insight into the overall customer experience, understand issues, and have the agility and knowledge to solve them.

But end users don’t think in channels – they want to be able to ask a query on web chat and pick the conversation up a day later without having to repeat information.

Taking inspiration from the commercial sector

And this is the same across other industries, such as retail and banking. It is the same consumers which are contacting retailers via mobile and social customer service channels who are contacting the various government departments about their student finance or visa applications, and they must take note of this.

Government at the highest level are certainly aware of this. A statement from the Cabinet Office recently said: “This is the start of a transformation that will mean people can interact with Government in the same way they do with their bank or with retailers.”

In order to achieve the same integrated approach as is found in other industries, government departments must apply an integrated customer service approach to meet end-user expectations.

Don’t forget the voice of the people

And we mustn’t forget voice. According to Forrester’s ‘Navigate the Future of Customer Service’ report, voice is still the primary communication channel used by all demographics, with 73% of respondents using this channel to speak to an agent.

It remains a valuable way to connect with end users and must be integrated into the full customer service strategy. If an end user is forced to call in with a query, all previous interaction history must be available to hand, to avoid repeating information and increasing customer frustration.

But how can we ensure a seamless customer experience? The back office is key

Peter Williams

Peter Williams

Solutions are available which assist back-office workers in determining actionability, allocating work items to the most suitable agent and ensuring highest priority work is completed first. By taking the effort out of the customer service experience with such an automated system, it’s possible to ensure that the right person actions the right task at the right time, in order to meet customer expectations.

Actioning work in a timely manner also avoids unnecessary contact from the customer, chasing progress when agent service levels have been missed. Through proactive contact via channels such as SMS, email or voice, the customer can also be kept informed of progress on their request, further reducing inbound contact to the agent and improving productivity levels.

We’ve seen that when work is validated prior to assignment and tasks are pushed towards agents rather than pulled, significant cost and productivity benefits are achieved. For example, for a large bank, work that previously required 1,000 workers is now being completed by 560 employees, nearly doubling productivity. Likewise, a communication service provider increased productivity by 16%-32% across provisioning and support teams by implementing such technology.

Digital by default – with a human touch

Digital channels open up many more possibilities for growing deeper and more valuable relationships with end users. Understanding the best ways to interact with customers on digital channels can provide great experiences most of the time. But for those instances where a human touch can make the difference, digital customer service needs to be able to feed into an intelligent interaction management system – whether that’s across voice, web chat, SMS or real-time video.

The Government’s Digital by Default strategy will ensure that departments are more present in the channel of choice throughout the customer conversation, but it is key that popular channels such as voice are not forgotten about. Remember, when customers do not get answers on digital channels, 75% of them (Forrester Research) will actively seek out the human touch themselves by calling the call centre or visiting a store in person.

Activity must be managed and measured effectively across multiple channels and devices to enable proactive engagement with end users at the moment of need, in order to fulfil the promise of digital service.

With thanks to Peter Williams, Account Director at Genesys

Author: Megan Jones

Published On: 30th Oct 2013 - Last modified: 12th Dec 2018
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1 Comment
  • Former gov. staffer here. You seem to be assuming things here. First, WHY should government serve on the “customer’s preferred channel”? I see that statement made all over the place, but I have yet to see any convincing evidence that it’s important to the mission of the commercial company, or for government.

    Robert Bacal 1 Nov at 13:47