How Digital Services Can Optimize the Constituent Experience

H O W D I G I TA L SERVICES CAN OPTIMIZE THE CONSTITUENT EXPERIENCE RESEARCH BRIEF

How Digital Services Can Optimize the Constituent Experience 1

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Research Brief

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Government faces a number of customer service challenges. Agencies at the state and local levels continue to struggle with underfunding and staffing reductions. At the same time, citizens are demanding new ways to connect and transact with government. They want a streamlined experience, transparency and better quality of service to match the consumer experience they get when searching, shopping and communicating online. Agencies need better solutions to serve an increasingly tech-reliant public as well as an easier and more efficient way to work internally.

That’s why digital services, fueled by new technologies and cloud computing, can transform the way government engages constituents and provides programs. Such services can help a citizen do everything from transfer a car title to obtain a business permit or license. By delivering services through digital channels, state and local governments can improve the overall customer process and experience, both for the agency employee and the constituent.

To understand how digital services can help state and local agencies optimize the constituent experience, GovLoop partnered with Infor, a leading software provider with solutions dedicated to improving constituent engagement through digital services, to survey state and local government employees. Over 70 percent of the respondents interact frequently or at least once a week with constituents as part of their job.

The survey aimed to understand government employees’ views about digital services and their impact on constituent services. Bob Benstead, Vice President of Business Development, Public Sector at Infor helped highlight the important findings of the survey.

This research brief gives insight into the importance of constituent engagement and how online engagement platforms can improve the delivery of citizen services. Additionally, this brief discusses best practices and strategies for successfully implementing digital services at your agency.

Readers will also learn how going digital can improve internal processes while providing constituents the high-quality experiences they expect.

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T H E I M P O R TA N C E O F D I G I TA L S E R V I C E S TO S TAT E A N D LO C A L G O V E R N M E N T When trying to interact with any organization, people can sometimes get confused, annoyed and frustrated by delays, inconsistent information and altogether poor customer service. Citizens have to deal with multiple government agencies, often without understanding the structure and who does what.

But citizen expectations for government are no different than expectations for the private sector. In order to better engage citizens and help them feel empowered through information and services as well as gain their trust, government can’t afford to remain static in regard to customer service.

“Government agencies, by their very nature, are service industries. Customer expectations are just as high for interacting with the government, regardless of whether agencies have limited resources,” Benstead said.

Employees need to be equipped to handle a variety of requests from constituents. These interactions can range from handling a complaint for an abandoned vehicle to documenting a lengthy enforcement action that could invoke a court challenge.

But in order to deliver those high-quality services that meet customer expectations, agencies need to make the customer service process easier internally (for staff) and externally (for constituents).

Better services can be achieved by streamlining processes. That can improve transparency to constituents while easing staff workloads. Additionally, agencies need to make it easier for constituents to do critical business, like applying for licenses.

Effective, constituent-centric government can then better help communities thrive and make local businesses more competitive.

That’s a tall order. But digital services can help agencies accomplish all of these objectives. Digital services are the delivery of government services through digital channels such as websites, emails and mobile applications. Government can better meet its missions through such channels that enable employees to access the necessary constituent data quickly and in one place. Rather than manually combing through files to understand individual constituent or cohort needs, digital services can enable

FIGURE 1: On a scale of 1-5 how important do you

think digital services are in enhancing constituent service delivery?

Yet while public servants recognize the need for better constituent services through digital solutions, they also report not having the resources to go digital. When asked if they felt empowered by their agency’s current digital technologies to create a good customer experience, almost 60 percent of respondents said they didn’t feel empowered or were unsure how to do so effectively. (Figure 2).

But making sure these digital services are deployed in state and local governments is of increasing importance to constituent services and meeting agency missions. The National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) recently released its State CIO Top 10 Priorities for 2017. Among these top 10 priorities are customer service technologies and solutions. This seems obvious when people expect their state and local governments to provide essential and high-quality services like police protection, education, highway building and maintenance, welfare programs and healthcare.

When it comes to state and local governments providing public goods and essential services for their constituents, the importance of good customer service is clear: Citizens expect seamless services where they can interact with agencies from anywhere on any device. At the same time, public employees need to be more efficient in service delivery. Digital services can help state and local agencies achieve all of these goals.

FIGURE 2: Do you feel empowered with the digital

technologies your agency uses now to create a good customer experience & meet constituent needs?

Yes (41%)

2- Somewhat important (2%)

No (34%)

3 - Fairly important (17%)

I’m not sure (25%)

5 - Extremely important (48%)

Research Brief

Our survey respondents understood the connection between digital and improved services. In fact, over 80 percent of respondents thought digital services were important or extremely important in enhancing constituent service delivery (Figure 1).

1 - Not important at all (N/A)

4 - Very important (33%)

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employees to quickly pull up a constituent’s information from a single portal or platform.

BENEFITS OF IMPROVED D I G I TA L S E R V I C E S Clearly, digital services are increasingly important to state and local governments to support basic missions and meet citizen needs. But digital services provide a host of other notable benefits too, including internal benefits for public employees delivering the services, and external benefits for constituents on the receiving end.

FIGURE 3: What is the primary internal benefit you see for improved digital services at your agency?

FIGURE 4: What is the primary external benefit you see

Improve employee efficiency & productivity (35%)

Ease of constituent-government engagement (33%)

Increase responsiveness & compliance rates for constituents & businesses (28%)

Satisfaction of citizens (30%)

for improved digital services at your agency?

Improve public perception of service (17%)

Better enables businesses to interact with agency (15%)

Improve interdepartmental communication (12%)

Increased transparency (12%)

Lower agency costs (8%)

Exceptional constituent user experience (10%)

INTERNAL BENEFITS State and local governments have a clear obligation to deliver better services to their constituents. Agencies also have a legal obligation to be accountable to constituents and provide consistent answers.

For example, if a constituent asks about the legal requirements to apply for a business license, personnel need to be equipped to direct that constituent to the one right answer or risk misleading them. “If someone wants to open up a business, the last thing they want is five different answers for legal avenues,” Benstead said. “They need a single source of veritable information.”

Digital services can help employees provide consistent response rates by giving citizens more self-services and offloading work on overburdened staffs.

According to survey results, respondents agreed. They felt the primary internal benefit for improved digital services was employee efficiency and productivity (35 percent), followed closely by increased responsiveness and compliance rates for constituents and businesses (28 percent) (Figure 3).

“Any avenue that will offload information tasks for employees will definitely be a benefit,” Benstead said. “Also, if you provide the ability to intelligently interact with the government [like selfservices], it takes the burden off of employees and allows them to be more productive.”

EXTERNAL BENEFITS When thinking of the benefits to improving the customer experience for constituents, it almost always comes down to

improved citizen engagement. Citizens are likely to trust their government representatives and leaders more when they are easily able to attain the information they seek and interact with their state and local counterparts. If harnessed the right way, digital services can help build that trust.

Survey respondents also felt that ease of constituent-government engagement is a primary external benefit of digital services (33 percent), followed closely by citizen satisfaction (30 percent) (Figure 4).

“What digital services can do, if done right, goes beyond a single process. You allow citizens to gather information to do something, like ask questions (i.e., what kind of crime is in the neighborhood). They can gain better awareness with access to information,” Benstead said.

Benstead also stressed the importance of making engagement simple for the constituent as well as familiar. They shouldn’t have to hunt around on an agency’s website to know how to renew a permit or speak to multiple agency representatives to complete a single transaction. Additionally, agencies should be able to meet constituents where they are in terms of offering social apps and platforms that are familiar.

With simpler and quicker processes through digital services, constituents can actually enjoy the services their state and local governments provide. More importantly, they can trust their agencies enough to stay engaged in their communities.

“Digital services help employees gain confidence that they’re providing the right answers,” Benstead said. “Additionally, customers don’t have to spend hours in line. Instead, you have a business-friendly environment that constituents can work with.”

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CHALLENGES TO ACQUIRING D I G I TA L S E R V I C E S Despite the number of benefits that digital services can provide, there are also multiple hurdles in acquiring digital services. Such challenges include budgetary constraints, a lack of skillsets to manage digital services, misalignment with agency missions and a deficit of user-friendly portals.

FIGURE 5: What challenges does your agency face in improving constituent services?

Budgetary constraints prevent acquisition of necessary IT tools (47%) Lack of skilled professionals to create and/or manage digital services (24%) Too many different channels to track constituent requests (16%)

FIGURE 6: How important are digital services to the

mission of your agency?

It’s not a priority (8%) Important but not central focus of agency’s mission (54%) Extremely important (top priority of agency’s mission) (38%)

No support from leadership to focus on customer experience (13%)

CHALLENGE 1: BUDGET CONSTRAINTS Even when agencies want to transform their operations with digital services, budgets often fall short. In fact, 47 percent of respondents saw budgetary constraints as the primary challenge in acquiring the necessary IT tools to improve digital services (Figure 5).

Why? The financial consequences of the recession from 2007 to 2009 continue to plague the financial health of state and local governments. State and local tax revenues declined, expenditures climbed and debt increased. And with increased public scrutiny on government, every last tax dollar must count.

Even when state and local agencies do have the budget, they often don’t get substantial allocations for digital services.

Benstead attributed that to the fact that state and local agencies have yet to measure the benefits such services can yield, making digital more difficult to invest in.

CHALLENGE 2: LACK OF SKILLSETS TO M A N A G E D I G I TA L S E R V I C E S Even if they acquire the necessary digital tools, many agencies don’t have staff members who know how to properly use those tools. The second most-cited challenge by respondents (24 percent) was lack of skilled professionals to create and/or manage digital services (Figure 5).

State and local governments not only face significant deficits in budget, but also in available technology experts. Benstead explained that the lack of skillsets for going digital can be 6

Research Brief

attributed to both talent recruitment and retention factors.

Often, states can’t afford to compete with what the corporate world offers in compensation. Additionally, addressing current workforce skill gaps becomes challenging when agency leaders don’t have the knowledge or background to properly train staff members in managing new digital tools.

CHALLENGE 3: LACK OF ALIGNMENT WITH AGENC Y MISSIONS As cited earlier, a vast majority of survey respondents thought digital services were important in enhancing constituent service delivery. Yet when asked to relate digital services to the mission of their agencies, 54 percent of respondents thought digital services were important but not central to the focus of the agency’s mission. And only 38 percent thought digital services should be a top priority (Figure 6).

Benstead said that response is not all that surprising. He attributed the disconnect to the fact that agency leaders and employees are overwhelmed by day-to-day workloads. Many agencies also lack the data to justify the benefits of digital services. “A lot of these agencies don’t take measurement data as to why they do things the way they do,” he said.

Without knowing how digital services can benefit customer services and save costs, many leaders would be reluctant to dive into what would seem like a costly project or venture for their agency. But digital services are not just a way to keep up with the latest technology trends, they are essential to improving constituent experiences and enabling staffs to deliver better results.

FIGURE 7: On a scale of 1-5 how well do you think your department fares in offering digital, user-friendly portals (i.e. websites) for constituents to navigate your services?

1 - Not user-friendly at all (13%) 2 - (15%) 3 - User-friendly but needs improvement (40%) 4 - (22%) 5. - Very user-friendly (10%)

CHALLENGE 4: L A C K O F U S E R - F R I E N D LY P O R TA L S One feature that is critical to digital services and improved customer service is user-friendly portals. Traditionally a digital portal would be an initial starting point for customer interactions in the form of a search engine on the web. But being user-friendly means a lot more than that in the digital world.

A user-friendly portal should now be able to collect information from different sources of an agency, including its website, and create a single point of access to all that information. At the same time, the portal must be personalized according to a constituent’s needs and the way they interact with an agency.

For example, if a constituent browses an agency’s website, a user-friendly portal would be able to recognize that type of constituent based on the services they are seeking and direct them to the information they need. User-friendly portals thereby enhance the experience of constituents through personalized services while taking the burden off agency staff.

Nevertheless, when asked to rank how well departments fare in offering user-friendly portals, almost 68 percent of respondents said their portals were either not user-friendly at all or were userfriendly but needed improvement (Figure 7)

Digital services are worth nothing if customers, or users, don’t know how to access them.

Constituents don’t want to spend time figuring out how to use an agency’s services. It’s up to the service providers to guide customers through their processes quickly and effortlessly.

Without user-friendly portals, constituents would have a difficult time understanding how to navigate crucial services offered by their state and local governments.

N AV I G AT I N G THE CHALLENGES For agencies to align digital services with their core missions, make portals more user-friendly and overcome budgetary and resource constraints, they need to be more strategic. That means focusing on how agencies can individually use digital services to better achieve their customer service goals and missions.

Benstead recommends organizations measure their current customer services to determine how they can improve and where digital services would fit their needs. “They need key performance indicator (KPI) information to make a digital strategy,” he said.

“Without this, they can’t understand the real benefits.”

While it requires some initial legwork upfront, agency leadership should utilize KPIs to create measurable value that demonstrates how effectively an organization is achieving key business objectives. “For example, go into a department’s websites and find how many tabs you need to click to perform the services you want to do. Engage your community and find out what social apps they use,” Benstead said. “With KPIs, they’d be able to better understand what they could save, as well as how to make employees more efficient.”

In another situation, an agency may wish to evaluate its current process times and use digital services to reduce the time it takes for staff to process incoming requests. Even cutting in-person lines in half is a good way to cut costs. This saves time to process requests, transportation costs for constituents and employees and helps staff address more service needs.

To address the lack of skillsets, agencies can draw from nearby academic communities. “Tap into the talent around you,” Benstead said. “Work with colleges and universities to get more skillsets into your agencies. Use student interns or create pathway programs to be more competitive with the private sector.”

Navigating the challenges to acquiring needed digital services will take serious time and evaluation for agencies. But by evaluating current processes, using KPIs to set goals and tapping into local communities, state and local governments can effectively and affordably navigate the challenges to acquiring and implementing digital services. Then you can focus on selecting the right digital platform to achieve your agency goals.

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SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE D I G I TA L S E R V I C E S Because there are so many ways to improve digital services at the state and local levels, many agencies often don’t know where to start. That’s why, when evaluating customer services, it can help to assess how digital services can improve the experience both for the employee and the constituent.

Digital services should be able to give employees holistic visibility over requests, so staff members provide one consistent answer.

Equally important is being able to meet constituents where they are, whether through user-friendly self-service portals or through delivering services right to their mobile devices and preferred social media channels.

When asked, “What ways do you think the digital constituent experience could be improved at your organization?” the top responses were “improved tracking of constituent requests,” “mobile and social engagement platforms to engage with constituents from any device” and “increasing self-service portals to reduce customer service lines” (Figure 8).

FIGURE 8: What ways do you think the digital constituent experience couldbe improved at your organization?

(Check all that apply)

Improved tracking of constituent requests (63%) Mobile and social engagement platforms to engage with constituents from any device (61%) Increase of self-service portals to reduce customer service lines (60%) Personalization in customer services (49%)

In order for agencies to improve in these three key areas, Benstead suggested:

1. IMPROVED TRACKING: Get customer feedback across the board to understand exactly what they want to address. Once you have compiled feedback, improve the tracking of requests with automation to better process and keep track of constituent interactions and requests with an agency.

2. MOBILE & SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT PLATFORMS: Use metrics to establish the platforms your agency should use. For example, if your agency offers permits, you may set a goal of moving 20 percent of permit services online or to shorten processing time for permits to two weeks instead of six. Then decide which platforms to use to meet those goals.

3. SELF-SERVICE PORTALS: Have a “lead me capability.” This means your agency’s website can direct constituents to the service they need through a series of questions. Constituents never have to call or drive to the agency to find what they’re looking for. This, in effect, allows the breakdown of government silos and barriers.

Solutions like Infor’s Rhythm for Civics and community development and regulatory (CDR) platforms can help by addressing all three of these key areas. Such solutions can help agencies achieve their customer service goals through digital services.

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Research Brief

INFOR RHYTHM FOR CIVICS

I N FO R’S P U B L I C S EC TO R C D R

Using an online engagement platform can simplify the way government informs constituents, conducts business and garners collective feedback. Infor’s Rhythm for Civics is an online cloud platform that uses a self-learning recommendation engine to personalize constituent engagement. It can help agencies improve services digitally through:

Local governments need efficient CDR processes in both good economic times and bad. When development activity declines, agencies are pressured to increase efficiency, improve cost recovery and increase revenue from every service to meet financial targets. That’s why agencies need tools that can keep pace with an increase in services like permit applications, license requests and code enforcement activities – even when facing low budgets and staffing levels.

▷▷ A SINGLE PLATFORM to break down internal silos and provide constituents with a complete view of relevant and related information to their requests ▷▷ MOBILE AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS enabled to generate collaboration internally between departments and externally with constituents on any device – tablet, mobile or desktop ▷▷ SEAMLESS INTEGRATION via an easily updateable engagement platform that incorporates security hosted in the cloud ▷▷ PERSONALIZATION with built-in-business intelligence to drive targeted content at log-in ▷▷ ACCESSIBILITY to allow full and unrestricted constituent participation in online government portals

Solutions like Infor’s Rhythm for Civics and Public Sector CDR help agencies improve the tracking of constituent requests, deliver services through mobile platforms and improve selfservice capabilities for constituents. State and local agencies can apply such solutions so that agency employees can feel confident they’re providing the best customer services, and constituents can feel confident they’re getting the best from their government.

Infor’s Public CDR is an advanced software solution designed to help local governments transform their CDR processes to meet financial and customer-service targets. It’s intended to provide everyone in an agency with the tools and information needed to increase service levels for local community development and regulation processes. By streamlining processes using advanced software solutions, agencies can meet their digital service challenges to better manage their customer services and do more with less.

Solutions like Infor’s Public Sector CDR allow agencies to improve services, including: ▷▷ LICENSING: Manage all user-defined licenses for businesses and individuals. Track non-trade-related licenses and activities, such as commercial, animal and premises licensing. Test, issue, renew and collect fees easily through online portals. ▷▷ PERMITS: Manage all aspects of any regulatory processes, including applications, reviews, hearings, inspections and fees. ▷▷ BILLING: Process payments, send notices and invoices to customers and manage rates, delinquencies and licenses electronically. ▷▷ WEB-BASED SERVICES: Provide customers with automated web-based capabilities for reporting problems, filing complaints, paying bills, submitting permit applications, requesting inspections and submitting license applications.

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CONCLUSION Better digital services can improve customer service by increasing government productivity and efficiencies with more online self-services and targeted, relevant content. Due to budgetary constraints, lack of skillsets to manage digital services, misalignment with agency missions and lack of userfriendly portals, however, state and local agencies may have a harder time acquiring the relevant IT tools and delivering efficient citizen services.

But there are ways to navigate such challenges, and state and local governments stand to gain a number of benefits with improved digital services. Citizens can get easier access to government information and services that they can engage anywhere, from any device. With online engagement platforms and community development and regulatory (CDR) tools, digital services can enhance the relationship between government and constituents with 24/7, easy-to-access services and better communication methods. Equally important, if implemented correctly, digital services can greatly increase government’s transparency and accountability to the public.

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Research Brief

ABOUT INFOR

ABOUT GOVLOOP

Infor builds beautiful business applications with last mile functionality and scientific insights for select industries delivered as a cloud service, on premises, or both. With 15,000 employees and over 90,000 customers in more than 170 countries, Infor is a leading provider of software applications. Infor delivers a comprehensive suite of integrated, industry-specific solutions, including purpose-built for the public sector. Infor solutions increase operational efficiency, citizen satisfaction, government accountability, and process transparency and are transforming how governments provide services to citizens. infor.com/ publicsector.

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 crossgovernment 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.

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

Learn more about how Infor can help you transform your digital services, infor.com/solutions/rhythm; download brochure.

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1152 15th St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 407-7421 | F: (202) 407-7501 www.govloop.com @govloop

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Research Brief