Customer service has long been a part of government agency culture — focus on direct customer interactions and giving customers the best possible service. While customer service is still part of what agencies do, it’s an organization-centric approach. Today, measure success by customer experience. This means the customer’s perception of all interactions, including the moments before and after every touchpoint. This modern customer relationship goes beyond simple transactions to encompass the entire customer journey and how they feel about your agency throughout it.

In Part 3 of this blog series on the Genesys Tour for Government in Washington, D.C., featured speaker, Rick Parrish, VP, Principal Analyst at Forrester, shares research on what it takes to create a great customer experience. He also explores how agencies can jumpstart their efforts to deliver on those expectations.

Drivers of Great Customer Experience

Government agencies show stagnation when it comes to improving customer experience but it’s not for lack of trying. A recent Forrester CX Index looked at the quality of experience based on the three major determinants of it:

  • Effectiveness: Customers get value from you because they’re able to complete the task they came to do.
  • Ease: Customers want an easy experience – not too complicated, confusing or loaded with too many steps.
  • Emotion: Customers come away with the positive feeling they expect.

Like many other studies, this research shows that we primarily rate agencies and brands based on personal feelings and experiences—not information.

It’s Time to Work on Emotion

Government agencies traditionally have focused on efficiency, effectiveness and making interactions simple for customers — with most improvements going into digital. Yet, when measured, those improvements remain flat. What agencies haven’t done is address the emotional aspect of customer experience, the most important determinant in customers coming away feeling great.

Although there are many different emotions and parts of an emotion, feelings are usually considered the defining part. And while customers want to feel positive about their experiences with your agency, there are different emotional expectations when gathering information about a national park (e.g., delight), and resolving a tax refund issue (e.g., satisfaction or relief). You need to decide which emotion to focus on, based on your customers’ intent and the mission of your agency.

Overcome the Stagnation With a Shift in Mindset

The “three Es of customer experience” should be closely tied to the key behaviors that you want the experience to drive. This is true whether it’s to sign up for a service, improve compliance or become an advocate for your agency. But great customer experience equals more than the sum of its parts; it makes everything work better as it reduces overall costs. Learn how you can bring emotion into your customer experience strategy.

Watch the full, recorded event, “Genesys Tour for Government,” co-hosted by our partner, Carahsoft.