Federal agencies send an enormous volume of information to their customers — but without the right data, it’s not clear if that messaging translates into actual engagement.

Angy Peterson, vice president of Experience Services at Granicus, said more agencies are turning to data analytics to deliver a seamless, digital-first customer experience.

“Digital communications is nothing if not a data-gathering tool. The clicks, the open rates, the segmentation, the understanding of which types of people are interested in which types of information,” Peterson said. “You can bring all of that together to get a really clear picture of who’s actually receiving your benefits, and, even better, who maybe isn’t, and then build a plan for how to find them, too.”

Granicus sends 22 billion email and text messages each year on behalf of its government customers. Those agencies also see 50 billion digital interactions across Granicus solutions each year.

Through effective data management, Peterson said agencies can make evidence-based decisions on customer outreach and engagement.

“There’s opportunity in the broader government community to leverage the technology that’s in place, the data that’s there, and the investments we’re making. Having a consistent data architecture in place will help to create those customer insights and understanding, and then accelerate the personalization of how these services are delivered.”

Gathering feedback for seamless digital services

Agencies often gather customer feedback through surveys.

But customer experience teams can also collect valuable information by monitoring click-through rates on email campaigns and tracking how users interact with digital platforms.

“People are willing to write an answer in response to a question or filling out a survey, but then there’s they’re actual behavior, and what they actually do when they’re engaging on digital channels,” Peterson said.

“You really can go deeper in terms of link-tracking analysis, topic analysis, where people are spending time. Those kinds of things help inform what people might need or want more of from an agency,” she added.

Refining digital experiences through data

To refine digital experiences, agencies often rely on journey maps to understand how customers interact with websites or forms — and where they run into problems.

“What are the questions people are asking in each of these different phases? What about when they first start an application process? Often, they’re wondering, ‘Am I eligible for this? What other documents do I need? How long is this going to take?’” Peterson said. “And by anticipating those questions and proactively communicating answers, agencies can build trust and guide people through processes. Ultimately, those questions can shape a multichannel communications campaign.”

‘Closing the gap’ on trust and engagement

Agencies rely on different data sets to measure customer satisfaction, but Peterson said all CX teams see trust as a key metric.

“That’s the Holy Grail,” Peterson said. “But there are ways to build and show and demonstrate trust along the way.”

Steps to building trust include tracking how long it takes for a user to move through an application, and tracking the completion rate for forms.

To further measure successful engagement, Peterson said agencies should track the number of individuals opting into their messaging about benefits, versus the total population of people eligible to receive those benefits.

“Closing the gap there between what you think your total population is, and how many of them you can actually reach directly via communications channels is a key first metric to track,” she said.

Breaking down data silos

To make better use of the customer data agencies already have and identify the gaps in the data that could enable more insight, CX teams like to work within their agencies to break down data siloes.

“Some of our customers have really done a tremendous job of doing a lot of that internal work to build collaboration and build internal governance around communications data. But that’s rare, and most of them are still trying to figure that out,” Peterson said.

“Some of that comes down to just even understanding where do you have data. There’s certainly a lot of understanding around data that might sit in systems of record, like beneficiary data,” she added. “Starting to collect and understand what you currently have and then building a path forward from that is where we often start with our customers.”

Once agencies understand where data resides, the next step is to ensure consistency across the data sets.

“Even within a single agency, some of them might be capturing information around income, and they might have it categorized in each different office in a different way,” Peterson said. “One office might have it as categorized by low, medium and high income. Another office might have it categorized by actual dollar amounts.”

Having that consistent data architecture is critical to having the right customer experience analytics, and opens the door for greater interagency data sharing and collaboration.

“Some of the largest federal agencies are focused on getting their own shop clean, while they’re also building a path to how they integrate it with other data if necessary,” Peterson said.

Data-driven CX decisions

Peterson said these data-driven insights give agency CX teams a better understanding of how best to communicate with existing customers, and how to most effectively engage with prospective customers.

“If the data is there to show you, ‘Look, this is what people are doing,’ it’s not just based on years of experience or gut instinct, but really what are the data showing that people are preferring and doing, that’s the compelling level of insight that drives change that’s needed internally, and which presents a new picture of how they might operate differently.”

Through investments in data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, agencies are using increasingly sophisticated dashboards to track their CX performance.

“Building toward this big, single-pane-of-glass dashboard view of everything that’s happening, that’s a large portion of the investments we’ve made at Granicus,” Peterson said.

“There can be that complete view, a full picture where someone is moving through the process of accessing her small business claims after a natural disaster, for example, … all of that comes down to, ‘Are these systems connected, and then are you able to monitor that and measure it?’” she added.

Discover more about how to elevate your customer experience in the “Excellent, equitable and secure customer experience: A closer look at high-impact service providers” series. 

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