Why Experts Believe that Automation and Analytics Should Improve the Customer Experience.

When it comes to effective government service delivery, contact center professionals are encouraging organizations to use data-driven automation and  analytics  to put customer needs  first.

This is MeriTalk and MeriTalk's November 18 virtual event  Contact Center Success: Improving  Customer Experience in Government where federal and industry leaders discuss the importance of teams creating omnichannel digital experiences using automation and analytics to improve customer service. It was the headline news of the Government's Customer Experience Improvement hosted by ServiceNow.

This important discussion follows the Biden Harris administration's recent Presidential Management Agenda (PMA) Statement, prioritizing improving customer service. PMA's vision is "to provide superior, fair and secure federal and customer service." During the event, John Ball, General Manager of Customer Service at ServiceNow, said, "Automation is absolutely vital for a number of reasons not only to improve efficiency, but also to improve the customer experience."

"You want to [use automation]  as much as possible so that serious problems that cannot be automated, moments that matter to citizens, get extra help from people," said Ball. "This is my general design philosophy. Automate simple tasks so you can waste time on  complex tasks later." Ball also noted that automation can be used to proactively access government services. For example, a bot can start the  process of accepting a request by automating a few simple data collection tasks. “So when a human agent starts interacting with a client or  citizen, it becomes a lot more efficient,” he said. Russell O'Neill, Director of Transportation and Channel Operations for USAGov's General Services Office, agrees that automation is an important tool for improving customer service. O'Neill also stressed  the importance of giving customers choices through a multi-channel approach, just as it is using data-driven analytics to better understand customer needs.

O'Neill said, "The analytics  you generate across all channels is critical to driving conversations about what your  customers are looking for, how they support them, and how they don't."

“Don't think of it as a contact center,” he continued. “Don't think of it as  a website. Think of it as a shared experience for every channel you offer as an organization. You will find  that all questions are the same. It's all  about your preferences, how your customers  interact with you. It is very important to actually see and work with this data.” R. Scott Ward, director of organizational change management at the  Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veteran Experience Office, said customer experience is embedded in what VA does, putting the voice of veterans first. "We want to make sure that some of the data we're seeing is an experience measured by the experiences veterans, their families, and caregivers have  with VA," Ward said. “Always listen to  your customers. For us, the veteran's voice  is one of the most important signs we will have and it helps us every day."

Ball is of the same mind that managing data and listening to customers should guide an organization's plans and priorities. “We all know it's hard to do in practice, but conceptually it's simple,” said Ball.