MAKING THE MOST OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE GOVERNMENT SERVICES INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE MAKING THE MOST OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE GOVERNMENT SERVICES 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY C
itizens now expect the same types of services from government agencies as they do from their banks, favorite stores and other businesses. Agencies must treat their constituents as longterm customers by keeping up with trends in communication, technology and mobile connectivity. While agencies have for years looked at different ways to increase and modernize customer service, the cost frequently outweighed the benefits, and many times distracted from the main mission. For agency employees who work with constituents as part of their job, many of these questions might sound familiar:
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In attempting to increase both citizen satisfaction and internal processes, I find it hard to link my systems. Why is it so complicated to try and achieve? If I attempt to improve customer service and satisfaction, does that come at the expense of getting through my volume of cases? Constituents complain about the lack of channels, especially digital, that we offer today, but where do I even begin to start, to offer what they might consider a modern experience?
For agency leaders, the main challenge is to be able to improve external facing service and internal processes at the same time. Making the most of knowledge management strategies and tools is essential to this effort. Not only does applying knowledge management help to improve interactions with citizens, it also empowers employees to be more productive and consistent in service delivery. When applying the term to customer service, knowledge management is an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving and sharing an enterprise’s information assets (i.e., documents, databases and procedures) surrounding customer data. Agencies can still robustly safeguard customer data even while using it with knowledge management. But how can government effectively apply knowledge management techniques to improve citizen engagement as well as employee productivity at the same time? The answer lies in agencies making the most of knowledge management, Kevin Briggs, Director of Microsoft Dynamics 365 in the Federal Public Sector Unit, and Tom Yang, Solutions Architect for Dynamics 365, said in an interview with GovLoop. With the right strategies and tools, government can improve customer service delivery while making employees more efficient. Knowledge management is also a logical place to start for most agencies, providing a strong initial foundational step in a digital transformation journey. In this industry perspective, you will learn the primary challenges for government in service delivery, how to apply knowledge management and leverage the right solutions and how California’s Department of Social Services applied knowledge management to improve customer service.
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CHALLENGES TO GOVERNMENT CUSTOMER SERVICES W
hether at the federal, state or local level, government agencies face a number of challenges in delivering better customer service. These include serving a diverse citizen base, operating a variety of communication channels, the need to gather feedback and data to better understand customers and protecting customers’ sensitive information. These challenges are compounded by the fact that constituents expect access to expedient services from anywhere, on any device, when and however they want. “Government-citizen interactions are broad in scope,” Kevin Briggs, from Microsoft, said. “You could have someone filling out a Census survey or applying for a driver’s license. The challenge is your customer engagement strategy requires proven and consistent services delivered across many channels. It encompasses the right mix of people, processes and technology.” To effectively serve its broad constituent base, government needs a variety of customer service channels, including in-person services, phone, text, email, social media platforms and other online channels. “According to a recent study by Forrester Research, people today on average go through 2.7 types of communication channels for their services,” Tom Yang, from Microsoft, said. “That means an agency must be ready for walk-ins, calls, emails, mobile inquiries or other online services, and to stitch these different channels into one, omni-channel experience.” Additionally, agencies must engage with citizens from diverse backgrounds. Customers could be anyone from service veterans, who might prefer in-person services, to the elderly, who may prefer over-the-phone services, to youth, who prefer social media or digital and mobile platforms for engagement. “Customer services have to support people engaging from different perspectives,” Briggs said. “You need multilingual capabilities as well as their preferred portals. For example, if the internet wasn’t working for certain citizens, can they still engage with you through other methods, like texting?”
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The pressure to perform at high levels while addressing as many customers as possible is added on agencies during peak seasons for certain services. For example, during tax season, revenue agencies could be receiving significantly more citizen inquiries than usual. Without the right channels, or other means to support the diverse range of constituent needs, employees would not be able to keep up during high-volume periods. Another challenge for government customer service is the difficulty in gathering input and feedback from a wide range of customer needs and personalities. The current trend is for agencies to use manual collection systems to review customer feedback and data on a weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis. But valuable data can be lost, and outcomes may be less successful. For example, placing customers’ information in paper filing cabinets makes it much easier to lose such information and almost impossible to track that customer’s previous interactions with the agency. Additionally, filling out paperwork takes more time, putting pressure on agency employees by piling on their workloads. This kind of physical medium also means that there is very little chance of immediate evaluation or review of the process, and improvements may happen infrequently. Finally, to interact with customers in a personalized way, agencies must gather or use existing personal background information of citizens. Storing citizen’s personally identifiable information (PII), however, poses a significant security concern when it comes to potential data breaches. Depending on the type of information being stored, different regulatory requirements also need to be met, such as the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA). Government agencies need strategies and solutions that can help them address these challenges while improving service delivery and easing burdens on agency employees. Effective knowledge management combined with the right tools can turn chaotic and stressful experiences into seamless interactions for both employees and citizens.
“According to a recent study by Forrester Research, people today on average go through 2.7 types of communication channels for their services. That means an agency must be ready for walk-ins, calls, emails, mobile inquiries or other online services, and to stitch these different channels into one, omni-channel experience.” TOM YANG , SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT FOR DYNAMICS 365, MICROSOFT MAKING THE MOST OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE GOVERNMENT SERVICES 3
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE B
y applying strategies and best practices like omni-channel engagement, self-service, single user interfaces, knowledge bases, digital intelligence and mobile solutions, agencies can turn knowledge management into a comprehensive customer service strategy. “With knowledge management, you need the right enterprise and customer-centric approach,” Yang said. “It needs to be one set of resources that can span multiple departments to address the silo effect, and it has to help employees share information and crowdsource.” Effective knowledge management can make an agency’s data and information available to only relevant internal employees using a content management system. Rather than employees having to worry about paperwork with PII scattered across different offices, knowledge management helps centralize citizen information and files into one easily accessible platform and portal. Agencies can choose to personalize experiences using this data if allowed, such as to provide a portal where citizens can log in and see their services, benefits or resources. From a security perspective, there can be separate layers used where generic resources never touch citizen information. “Knowledge management technologies allow you to collect and store customer data,” Yang said. “Authentication and the storage service provides security. To additionally lower the risk, there may be services you provide that don’t touch PII. For example, you could build a chatbot on your website to answer frequently asked public questions based on data that doesn’t necessarily tie back to the citizen. This allows you to understand your constituent needs better and customize accordingly without ever touching or jeopardizing their PII.” For knowledge management to improve citizen services and employee productivity, a comprehensive strategy must address cultural agency siloes, self-services for citizens, multiple channels for engagement and personalization.
To take advantage of all the customer service benefits that knowledge management can offer, agencies should provide: OMNI-CHANNEL ENGAGEMENT: Give citizens what they need, on any channel, whether it’s through a call center, on an agency’s website, via walk-in or on social media. Use a unified platform that makes information available across a variety of types of engagement channels. That way, agencies can also offer the consistency and personalization customers expect. SELF-SERVICE: Make it easy for citizens to find answers on their own. Self-service portals provide a searchable knowledge base and an online community space, as well as the ability to immediately find answers. Technologies like bots can help to make the interaction more natural, by providing more conversational interactions than just a list of FAQ’s. SINGLE USER INTERFACE WITH MOBILITY AND SECURITY: Equip agency employees to handle service interactions from their desktop or mobile device, while adhering to needed security and compliance requirements. This single interface should provide a single view into all citizen information and enable employees to provide personalized service quickly and securely. SEARCHABLE KNOWLEDGE BASE: Give employees and customers the answers they need on the spot. The knowledge base provides consistent answers across all engagement channels. Periodic reviews from customers help keep employee responses current and relevant. Additionally, agencies can get indepth analytics to measure the impact and quality of responses. BUILT-IN DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE: Using data analytics, be more predictive and proactive in customer service. Digital intelligence should incorporate interactive dashboards and data visualizations to help agencies pull insights from customer service metrics, making it easier to identify trends and anticipate opportunities.
These capabilities will not only enable agencies to break down knowledge barriers and siloes; they will also empower employees to keep track of their constituents’ needs, FAQs and most frequently used services.
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE 4
IMPROVING EVERY ASPECT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE W
hile improving tools and strategies is critical to customer service, agencies also need to empower employees who use and promote those services. Knowledge management can help by improving employee efficiency, consistency and productivity. With the right knowledge management solutions, agencies can turn complex and stressful experiences into success stories of seamless interactions. Solutions like Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 apply knowledge management to improve every aspect of customer service, including employee productivity and response consistency. Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based customer relationship management enterprise system that offers employees the digital capacity to quickly and seamlessly deliver services. At the same time, employees can take advantage of the mobility such tools offer by being able to work from anywhere, on any device. If additional security, privacy, and compliance needs are identified, Dynamics 365 Government is a cloud-based offering available to qualified government and private entities in the United States. “Agencies need to reinvent productivity and the business processes for customer services,” Briggs said. “We aim to help organizations get more out of every moment and engagement.” That means disabling cultural and structural siloes that limit employees’ views of the overall customer interaction with the agency. By using a single enterprise system or platform, employees get a much more comprehensive view of the engagement process with a citizen and can ensure more consistency in response and service delivery. “Think about a traditional agency that doesn’t have many channels, lacks the technology and is very siloed,” Yang said. “For example, as a caseworker, I might do my piece, such as the intake of a case and then I pass it on. But I never see the overall encompassing view of the service provided to the citizen, what the effect is, what the outcome might be. That’s why you need a single platform that allows for that visibility.”
“Agencies need to reinvent productivity and the business processes for customer services. We aim to help organizations get more out of every moment and engagement.”
Tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365 incorporate knowledge management to address all the important aspects of customer service – not just the services themselves, but also the employees behind those services. Additionally, Dynamics 365 offers agencies the ability to: CREATE CONSISTENCY AND LOYALTY Provide seamless service to customers by meeting them where they are – whether on mobile devices, social media, on the phone or in person – with the information they need. Additionally, employees can: ɧɧ Improve services through personalization. ɧɧ Proactively address issues for customers by detecting their intent and social sentiment ahead of time. MAKE EMPLOYEES’ JOBS EASIER Give employees complete information in a single customer service solution to help them make smarter decisions and provide better services. Additionally, employees can: ɧɧ Reveal customers’ case histories, preferences and feedback. ɧɧ Assign customers to employees based on specific jobs and skillsets. APPLY AN ADAPTIVE ENGINE Respond quickly to customer and technological changes within an agile, cloud-based environment that has digital intelligence built in. Additionally, employees can: ɧɧ Adapt and customize easily using point-and-click configuration rather than code. ɧɧ Safeguard customer PII and other sensitive data through advanced analytics and a secure cloud platform.
By empowering workers with more efficient and collaborative tools, citizen satisfaction is increased and long-term relationships are solidified. The right tools leverage knowledge management allowing agencies to provide greater transparency, improve accuracy and deliver faster resolution times.
KEVIN BRIGGS, DIRECTOR OF MICROSOFT DYNAMICS 365 IN THE FEDERAL PUBLIC SECTOR UNIT MAKING THE MOST OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE GOVERNMENT SERVICES 5
HOW CALIFORNIA SERVES ITS MOST VULNERABLE CITIZENS Here’s an example of how one agency reaped the benefits of knowledge management by applying these strategies and tools.
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hen your day revolves around caring for the most vulnerable citizens of your community – like the poor and the elderly – it’s sometimes difficult as an employee to feel efficient and maintain a healthy sense of optimism. At the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), 4,200 people are tasked with aiding and protecting nearly 3 million residents of the Golden State – including welfare recipients and 1.5 million children, adults and seniors receiving out-of-home care. Available foster homes in the state have declined by over 21 percent since 2012. When government caseworkers have 5,600 licensed homes to serve over 62,000 children, maximizing resources becomes imperative. Many individual caseworkers become stretched thin with aging equipment that ties the employees to main offices and manual tedious processes, like entering data, that take time away from serving residents. With lives at stake, the CDSS needed to operate as efficiently as possible by limiting redundancy, improving efficiency and saving money, all while aligning their citizen service offerings with other state departments. For the department, that meant moving away from paper processes, files and memos and improving the communication process, as well as increasing employee mobility and connectivity. Using knowledge management through Microsoft’s Dynamics 365, the CDSS was able to redefine the entire citizen experience by empowering employees to better engage with citizens and optimize operations. The department’s move from paper to
digital services gives employees mobile and instant access to case files and shortens processing time for service requests. Additionally, citizens can better access critical services through streamlined communication portals and interfaces. Now, when a citizen needs a service from CDSS, like finding a county office, applying for welfare, requesting a hearing or even reporting abuse, they can go straight to the CDSS’s home page and easily choose the service they need. Additionally, family members of seniors can easily access and address stateoperated facilities, review their staff and amenities and provide direct feedback related to the care of their loved ones. Within the department, caseworkers gain instant access to clients’ files regardless of the employee’s location. That way, whether they’re in the office or out serving in the field, they can easily process requests, take important notes and add any necessary documents to a client’s profile. They can monitor user activity and make any necessary adjustments on the fly, which has been especially impactful when reviewing citizen engagement at senior care facilities. With knowledge management and tools like Dynamics 365 to help improve communication, collaboration and services, the CDSS empowered its caseworkers to better serve the needs of its citizen base. Not only does this help ease the difficult job of employees working with tough cases, but, most importantly, it helps change the lives of the state’s most vulnerable population for the better.
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CONCLUSION With the increased visibility and emphasis on customer service, especially by government agencies, using an effective knowledge management strategy and tool can help engage and serve citizens through self-service channels and at the same time empower employees to be more productive and consistent. By empowering workers with more efficient and collaborative tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365, government can increase citizen satisfaction and solidify long-term, trusted relationships. The right tools provide greater transparency, allow for improved accuracy, personalization and faster resolution time. Lastly, leaders can equip their agencies to allow for more efficient and effective communication across a wide variety of channels. With the insights from informed data, government leaders and employees can also extract deeper understandings to make more informed decisions in order to better serve their communities.
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Microsoft is enabling digital transformation across government priorities, while helping to ensure that government organizations have the trust, security and compliance they need for sensitive data. We’re innovating around personal computing, the intelligent cloud, and the reinvention of productivity and business process. This innovation, supported by a vast partner network, enables governments to do more and achieve more for the citizens they serve.
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.
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