Enhancing Digital Experiences with Innovative Communications Tools

Enhancing Digital Experiences with Innovative Communications Tools INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

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Executive Summary You would be hard-pressed to find a service in the private sector that hasn’t become digital. From laptops to smartphones, the world is starting to get smaller and smaller as communications and services are streamlined into easy-to-use technologies.

Citizens now expect from government the same seamless, interactive services and user-centric experiences they receive from the private sector, and they want them personalized to their preferences and needs. As a result, government agencies must exceed the expectations of the citizens they serve by providing digital experiences that are compelling, personal, useful and secure at every touchpoint.

While government faces several challenges in enhancing digital services—including budget constraints, legacy technology and the need to comply with security regulation—these can be overcome.

The key is to put citizens at the center of your strategies and harness technology to improve communications.

In this report, you’ll learn how government can use innovative communications tools to deliver optimal digital citizen experiences. Discover how organizations like the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services transformed content and communications to improve their web experience. Plus, find out how a customer-centric approach and modern technology solutions enable agencies to connect, predict and personalize user interactions across web, mobile and social media platforms to create a continuous citizen experience.

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Health and Human Services Transforms Content and Communications At the Adobe Digital Government Symposium, 2017 Mark Weber, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), shared how his teams harnessed innovative communications tools to enhance digital citizen experiences.

Challenges

Solution

Weber and his teams had invested heavily in content on their website, but found they were still not appropriately addressing citizen needs. They faced challenges including:

Knowing that citizens were expecting better services that delivered instant results, Weber and his teams implemented a fourphase process of discovery, engagement, development and implementation.

Cost: The HHS Digital Communications Division incurred US$10 million in cost overruns.

Lack of understanding of citizens: “We thought we were great at building websites, but really we weren’t sure who our audience was,” Weber says.

Too much content: Despite an investment in building more content, fewer than 20 percent of visitors to HHS.gov found what they were looking for.

1. Discovery: By listening to their user community, Weber and his teams discovered that their budget was being used inefficiently on content and websites that were not helpful to citizens.

2. Engagement: By engaging with citizens as customers, Weber and his teams helped people find content through HHS websites more easily by realigning processes and advertising services in a more targeted manner.

3. Development: Rather than focusing on delivering efficiency through their solution, Weber and his teams focused on what people wanted, which was more engagement and personalized content and services.

4. Implementation: Weber and his teams took HHS.gov and started all over, incorporating a research-based and mobile-first design.

Outcome Weber and his teams consolidated 80 HHS.gov sites into 40 and ensured that content catered to citizen needs and preferences. Now, 80 percent of people visiting HHS.gov find what they’re looking for. “We’re more successful now because we know our customers better,” he concludes.

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Challenges in Citizen Digital Experiences With an explosion of touchpoints and ways to communicate, the public is more connected with government than ever. For example, the Office of Information Policy of the U.S. Department of Justice reported that the federal government received a record high of nearly 800,000 Freedom of Information Act requests in 2016 alone.

Because citizens have grown accustomed to seamless digital services from the private sector, government decision-makers are under even more pressure to provide online and mobile-friendly services. In fact, a recent survey of more than 3,000 U.S. citizens in 2016 showed that 85 percent of respondents expect the same or higher quality from government digital services as they do from commercial organizations.

Altogether, rising citizen expectations, policy changes and compliance with security regulations compound government’s connectivity challenge.

Government is doing everything it can to keep up with those expectations. Initiatives like those from the U.S. Digital Service create an impetus for departments such as Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to improve how the American people digitally interact with their government.

Additionally, the Office of Management and Budget’s M-17-06 memorandum calls for building effective and usercentric digital services.

Rising Citizen Expectations Today, citizens decide what service they want, when they want it and through which channel they would like to access it.

Increasingly, people seek to skip office visits or telephone calls altogether. But where people have myriad options to choose from to fulfill their goals in the private sector, they have far fewer government agencies to approach for their various needs. Still, they often have the option to call an agency, visit in person or access a service online. Because call centers and in-person transactions can be slow and inefficient, it is important for agencies to rise to the occasion to meet citizens’ digital expectations.

In fact, as of 2015, more than 95 percent of people are interacting with government agencies as much as or more than they have in the past. Citizens choose federal websites more than any other channel to access services, but their perceptions of these websites got worse between 2016 and 2017.

Policy Changes New rules and mandates also drive improvements in the management and promotion of electronic government services and processes. For example, the E-Government Act of 2002 establishes a broad framework of measures that require using internet-based information technology to enhance citizen access to government information and services.

Similarly, the 2012 Digital Government Strategy aims to help agencies maximize technology to enhance efficiency and services for citizens at lower costs.

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Global trends reflect that governments struggle with keeping up with these policy changes. In fact, one survey found that 70 percent of government officials said their organizations are lagging behind the private sector in digital capabilities.

Chief information officers and other leaders at the state and local levels are facing even more pressure with policy changes and demand from the public because of the services they provide. Workers at the departments of motor vehicles, welfare and tax collection interact with the public daily, but still struggle to bring their legacy IT systems into the digital era.

Security and Compliance Finally, cyberthreats are rapidly evolving, making it critical for government to strengthen its security posture.

Government recognizes the need to secure personal information. Consider the General Data Protection Regulation that will take effect throughout the EU in 2018, making organizations accountable for personal data protection. Even more important, the Trump administration’s Executive Order on Cybersecurity focuses on strengthening cybersecurity of federal networks and critical infrastructure.

To comply with national and international standards, it’s imperative that agencies seek new strategies to secure data and content.

They must look beyond traditional network security methods and legacy systems.

The Next Generation of Digital Experiences To address these challenges, agencies must adopt a more customercentric approach to digital experiences.

The White House is proposing a budget of nearly $95.7 billion the use of information technology to help make next-generation digital experiences a reality. According to the Government Publishing Office and Office of Management and Budget of the FY 2018 budget, “Americans expect and deserve their interactions with the federal government to be simple, fast and helpful.”

Being customer-centric means standing in the citizens’ shoes to understand how they proceed through a digital government journey. To become more customer-centric, agencies must deliver experiences that are compelling, personal, useful and available at every touchpoint. These qualities will help agencies create a real connection with citizens, fostering greater transparency and trust.

Compelling

Personal

Useful

Citizens who communicate online expect relevant, personalized content from websites—even as their needs evolve. Although there is no single definition of compelling content, agencies should ensure that content is relevant, inspiring, accessible, trustworthy and intriguing.

To engage citizens along every step of their journey, agencies need to know exactly how customers are interacting with their content. That means collecting and analyzing data.

With these insights, agencies can test and fine-tune content so it is always personalized and relevant.

Content must be the exact information citizens are looking for at the time and place they need it. Additionally, it must be information that can help them achieve whatever goal they had when they started interacting with an agency’s digital platform.

Once agencies better understand their audience, they can deliver targeted content based on common characteristics such as age or frequency of visits.

If a citizen approaches an agency site looking for a specific service or form and leaves without it—even while seeing lots of other content—that interaction is not useful. Content and navigation features should help citizens easily find what they are looking for without having to continually approach the agency.

One way to tell if an agency’s content is truly compelling to citizens is if they are motivated to share it with others. This can be estimated with bounce rates, time spent on webpages, shares on social media, and other metrics. Even armed with this knowledge through website tracking and testing, agencies should continually evolve their web presence and target the appropriate content to different audiences.

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Available at every touchpoint As citizens interact with a government entity, it is up to agency employees to track relevant changes at every step.

This will help give the agency more context surrounding individual citizens. Analytics can help here, since citizens’ digital actions can be analyzed and translated into behavior patterns.

More importantly, single transactions must be accessible across all channels available to citizens. For instance, a citizen might start a transaction on a phone, continue it on a tablet and finish it on a desktop. It is up to agencies to make sure all channels work.

5 Steps to Redefining Your Citizen Experience Applying a strategic methodology can help your agency become more customer-centric. Additionally, applying the right strategy will help your agency better use innovative communications tools to improve digital citizen experiences. The steps to transform citizen digital experiences include recognizing the value of creativity, transforming constituent service experiences, becoming a mobile champion, getting more efficient and securing content.

1. Recognize the Value of Creativity

3. Become a Mobile Champion

Most government employees know that creativity and innovation are integral to agency missions. But public servants may feel restricted by outdated IT policies, lengthy approval processes and a greater emphasis on efficiency rather than creativity.

As of 2016, 77 percent of American adults owned a smartphone, and that number is growing rapidly. That is why it’s essential that government adopts mobile-friendly technology.

The key to enhancing creativity in government is to turn these constraints into opportunities. To do this, it is important to celebrate creativity as much as possible at all levels of government.

Simply recognizing valuable team members with an award or congratulatory message can fuel the fire for future innovation at your agency.

2. Transform Constituent Service Experiences Citizens know exactly what content and channel is best for them at any given moment, and they expect services to suit those preferences.

Agencies can transform their constituent service experiences by making personalization a top priority. With all the digital touchpoints available to individuals, there should be little need for citizens to search for relevant content. Instead, when citizens access websites and other digital media, they should get prompts with content that is relevant to their user profile based on a set of historical attributes and data that your agency has captured.

Adobe can help your agency transform its constituent experiences by prioritizing personalization through modernizing forms, automating systems and providing video management.

Mobile technology benefits citizens and allows government employees to collaborate, create content anywhere and capture inspiration in real time, fueling on-the-go creativity and faster citizen services. At the same time, mobilefriendly websites allow citizens to access personalized government services with the swipe of a finger.

Solutions such as Adobe Experience Manager help government quickly and easily maintain public-facing websites and applications tailored to citizens’ needs in addition to providing seamless mobile experiences.

4. Get Efficient Next-generation communications tools create personal and rich content and deliver it across any channel. Government can then transform the user experience by making transactions more engaging and efficient.

Cloud-based solutions help by enabling agencies to streamline processes and stay connected with real-time tracking and interaction. Additionally, they allow for continuous innovation, ensuring that agencies stay at the cutting edge while minimizing costs and reducing the burden on IT staff.

Tools like Adobe Sign can be used on mobile devices and cut down on the costs Industry Perspective 6

and hassle of manual signature processes, speeding transactions and approvals. Such cloud-based solutions also allow more control over the entire citizen experience process by tracking tasks and services in digital formats.

5. Secure the Content For government, information security is a mandate, not an option. However, simply protecting networks is not enough to guard your information. Securing personal information in the digital age requires a multilayered approach that addresses content management, digital rights management and continuous monitoring.

At the highest level, agencies need a comprehensive content management solution that includes strong authentication and authorization so administrators can manage users and access. Once a document is shared, digital rights management comes into play by providing control features that restrict access and use of content. Lastly, continuous monitoring helps agencies watch for unusual behavior within the organization to identify any suspicious activity and prevent insider threats.

Adobe can help government lead in the digital era with innovative communications tools, a customer-centric approach and cloud-based tools such as Adobe Experience Manager, which make citizen experiences more personalized and easy to use for both government employees and constituents.

Conclusion

Additional Resources

The digital era is here and citizens are demanding services they can access anytime, anywhere and on any device. It is up to government to stay ahead by ensuring that digital experiences are optimal and personalized for each and every citizen.

By leveraging a strategic methodology to content creation, a customer-centric approach and innovative communications tools, your agency, like HHS, can take digital services to the next level.

With solutions like Adobe’s, your agency can make digital experiences more compelling, useful and personalized, meeting the mission needs of your agency and expectations of citizens.

Customer-Centric Digital Transformation: Breaking Down What You Need to Know The County of San Diego: Digital Government Experience Digital Foundation for Government Gov Communication Done Right

About GovLoop

About Adobe

GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public-sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 250,000 members, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common problems and advancing government careers. GovLoop is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government.

Adobe’s trusted and proven enterprise solutions enable next-generation digital government. We help government agencies modernize service delivery while reducing cost to serve, and processing time all while delivering remarkable digital experiences.

For more information about this report, please reach out to info@govloop.com.

To learn more visit www.adobe.com/government.

Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

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