Supporting the Evolving Customer Experience

An intense focus on the customer experience (CX) is not a new priority for most private sector organizations ( just look at Amazon’s cx improvement efforts) , but that hasn’t always been the case for the federal government. My colleague Tim Rund noted customer experience has recently become a key focus for federal leaders, and this post will dig a bit deeper into how we address customer experience improvements.

Why is the government’s focus on customer experience changing?

There are several reasons federal leaders are focused on customer experience; however, the biggest (in our opinion) is the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) and Presidential Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. The EO’s title states plainly that rebuilding faith in America’s citizen-serving organizations is a priority.

Here’s Priority 2 from the PMA:

“Delivering excellent, equitable, and secure Federal services and customer experience.”

The Clearing has worked with federal customers to develop people-first customer experience strategies for years. And now the President is on the same page, stating “People are at the center of everything the government does.” It’s also clear this is a top-to-bottom approach, covering “pivotal life experiences” to “routine service interactions,” and a change to the way government does business, as the President speaks to in the Executive Order:

“FURTHER, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S MANAGEMENT OF ITS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND SERVICE DELIVERY SHOULD BE DRIVEN FUNDAMENTALLY BY THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER THROUGH HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN METHODOLOGIES; EMPIRICAL CUSTOMER RESEARCH; AN UNDERSTANDING OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE AND USER TESTING, ESPECIALLY FOR DIGITAL SERVICES; AND OTHER MECHANISMS OF ENGAGEMENT.”

The perfect storm of opportunity for customer experience-focused leaders

Organizations today exist in a state of permanent “white water,” experiencing continuous change. That continuous change means survival instincts kick-in, but when you’re just trying to survive, it’s easy to lose track of your WHY. In the case of federal agencies, that WHY is to serve their customers – the American public.

Compounding matters (mostly for the better), today’s customers have more ways to voice their opinion on experience than ever before. That means leaders hear more frequently, and more loudly, when things go wrong.

Combine those elements with the PMA and recent Executive Order and you’ve got a perfect storm of opportunity for the government’s customer-focused leaders.

“ORGANIZATIONS TODAY ARE IN A STATE OF PERMANENT WHITE WATER, EXPERIENCING CONTINUOUS CHANGE. THAT MAKES IT EASY TO LOSE CUSTOMER FOCUS.”

Breaking down the customer experience into bite-sized pieces

We believe it’s easier to hit your CX targets and goals by putting the voice of the customer at the center of everything that you do. For large agencies, however, that can be daunting. To make it a little easier, we break customer experience down into the following bite-size pieces:

Functionality: Is your organization giving your customer what they need?
Accessibility: Did your organization make it easy for that customer to achieve their desired outcome?
Enjoyment: Did your organization make the interaction an enjoyable experience?

The answers to those simple questions dictate how we work with our clients to deliver the most impactful customer experience solution for their organization. It’s also where our additional Solution Areas come into the picture.

Customer Experience in a Nutshell

Customer experience as part of the organizational whole

Customer experience is not a single checkbox. In fact, I sometimes think of our CX Solution Areas as a cycle where one type often morphs into another.

Here’s an example:
Our CX team may begin an engagement to assess the customer experience and employee experience (EX) (which go hand-in-hand – a topic for another day). That work often bleeds into culture. Why? Because an organization needs the right culture in place to allow the customer experience mindset, principles, and customer-first posture to thrive. As we’ve discussed before, leadership drives culture. That means we need to work with organizational leaders to ensure the right customer experience behaviors are being modeled starting at the top of the organization.

Our Solution Area consulting model provides the flexibility to begin an engagement in any area and shift as needed to best meet any organization’s needs. To ensure that happens, I meet with my fellow Solution Designers weekly to discuss observations and needs from across The Clearing’s full portfolio of client engagements.

How The Clearing approaches customer experience consultations

The Clearing’s biggest differentiator is our ability to combine expertise in the full spectrum of customer experience with effective evaluation of the change management elements needed to implement required changes.

To do this, we embrace Agile principles and utilize prototyping via the Amperian Cycle, our rapid prototyping process. The Amperian Cycle allows us to approach the customer experience through a quick, iterative lens, which means our clients don’t have to invest a ton of dollars or time to get started.

An organization can start with that iterative pilot and test into the right solution vs. going all-in without exploring options. We find this hugely beneficial. As my colleague Sharon said in her recent blog post on prototyping, “It’s better to fail fast and cheap than slow and expensive.” In other words, our process gives you more opportunities to get it right for your organization.

Most importantly, we approach all our work with a people-first mindset. It’s not just lip service – we do it because it works. We truly listen to the people at the center of a change effort, which often indicates what an organization and its customers really need.

“TODAY’S CUSTOMER HAS MORE WAYS TO VOICE THEIR OPINION ON EXPERIENCE THAN EVER BEFORE. THAT MEANS LEADERS HEAR MORE FREQUENTLY, AND MORE LOUDLY, WHEN THINGS GO WRONG.”

Where is Customer Experience heading?

I kind of gave it away at the beginning, but the future of the customer experience is what’s in the PMA and Executive Order. It’s more organizations operating with a customer experience mindset and using it for good. Not just to improve service, but in service of equity, social impact, and social justice. Additionally, as organizations face an increasingly uncertain economic climate, they are gearing up to spend more on customer experience. In Forrester’s 2024 Planning Guide, they note that 64% of US customer experience leaders expect larger budgets to help them face a turbulent economic and business environment. This all adds up to what we talked about earlier: there’s a perfect storm of opportunity for leaders to dive into customer experience and improve the experience for customers and employees alike.

What’s next?

Keep an eye out for my fellow Solution Designers’ deep dives into their respective Solution Areas: Jason Miller on Culture and Sonya Patel on Strategy and Leadership. And if you want to chat about customer experience in the federal space, reach out to me at yasmeen.burns@theclearing.com.