The Secret? Implement an Organization-wide Department Customer Experience Officers (DCXO) Program
When trying to implement a customer experience transformational strategy across an organization, you can expect many hurdles to arise which could slow down its implementation at various levels within the organization. Some examples of these hurdles are departmental processes, individual leaders or a change-averse culture. Thus, for a strategy to be completely adopted, you need to elicit key stakeholders to drive it forward.
Government leaders should consider creating an innovative Department Customer Experience Officers (DCXO) program within the organization to help drive customer experience management strategies and activities. The program should be centralized, managed, and budgeted out of the Administration’s Customer Experience Office (CXO).
The Department Customer Experience Officer (DCXO) program should align perfectly with the Administrative Customer Experience Office, led by the Chief Customer Experience Officer, based on their managerial responsibilities and oversight since the primary duties of the Chief Customer Experience Officer role are to:
Provide a single vision and a consistent customer experience across all methods of access is required by customers
Design and support key activities and projects to support the customer experience throughout the organization
Launching a departmental Customer Experience Officers (DCXO) program as a customer-focused strategic initiative allows a Department Head to select and appoint the employee to act as a liaison between the Chief Customer Experience Officer and the Department Heads. Over time, participation in the program will provide each Department Head with a trained “customer experience expert” to work directly with their staff on customer and employee engagement activities, such as the development and validation of key performance indicators, implementation of customer journey mapped process re-engineering projects, or enhancement of the employee engagement programs.
During the Department Customer Experience Officers Training Program, the Department Customer Experience Officers (DCXO) will learn, research, and create documentations which are unique to their department or function:
Customer Experience Vision and Mission Statements
“Voice of the Customer Program” Process to Identify and Prioritize Customers’ Needs and Wants to Improve Service Quality
Customer Experience & Customer Service Training Program
Customer Feedback and Engagement
With this model, each trained Department Customer Experience Officer (DCXO) can provide department-specific customer/employee insights and articulate evidence-based recommendations to help the Administration’s customer experience transformation strategy survive and succeed throughout the organization.
While it might seem that this approach might create a fragmented customer experience initiative across the organization, it is the responsibility of the Chief Customer Experience Officer to make sure their deliverables are consistent and aligns with the Administrative strategic level plan.
What’s noteworthy are the Department Customer Experience Officers (DCXO) can be involved in the yearly Customer Experience Office customer experience strategic plan review and give valued feedback throughout the customer experience transformation implementation journey.
What programs do you currently have in place to ensure the organization is executing your customer experience plans and initiatives?
Taxpayers often turn to the government when they are overwhelmed and stressed out by personal circumstances. A fragmented experience across government websites compounds their distress both increasing the burden on call center staff and the cost of meeting taxpayers needs. A consistent, thoughtfully designed experience (starting with websites and contact centers) will make a tremendous difference in the lives of taxpayers and government employees.
The government agency will better serve all stakeholders by establishing a focus to oversee the design and implementation of a human-centered design centric strategy that:
identifies and responds to key touchpoints in a stakeholder’s journey
streamlines, integrates, and scales websites and call centers consistently over time
takes a holistic, iterative approach to prioritizing improvements across channels
maintains a mobile experience first philosophy (people seeking information often
use mobile devices first because they want information immediately, or rely on mobile exclusively because it is what they can afford)
uses clear, concise, and consistent language and messaging across all channels
establishes a feeling of trust by providing consistent experiences across channels to different stakeholders firmly focuses on the future by laying the groundwork to
integrate social media and emerging technologies in later phases of the project
Leading a human-centered design change initiative requires vision and broad oversight to bring stakeholders, products, technical processes, and communication into alignment.
Picture Jane, a retiree who needs help. She goes to one website on her phone to get information fast, but it doesn’t help. Later she visits another site on her laptop and can see it better, but finds additional information, organized in a new way, and described with different language.
Jane doesn’t know what to do or trust, so she tries a call center looking for a person to talk to instead. The wait times are long because so many others are having the same problems. When she finally gets through, the call center staff wants to help but they talk about services and options in yet another way.
Jane is distressed by her experience across siloed channels. She encounters disconnected technologies, has to translate between different language use, and finds that information is inconsistently organized or even offered — leaving her frustrated and miserable. The call center staff who takes her call can hear that misery as it overflows into their conversation making the staffer’s job harder, the call longer, and both the financial and emotional costs higher for both.
Each time Jane’s journey plays out for another taxpayer or call center staffer, taxpayers lose confidence in the government agency and increase the costs of call center operations.
A single focus and oversight for government Contact Centers and the internet presence is a logical first step towards an improved Customer experience. Needed research must be conducted across channels and changes prioritized coherently across all platforms to maximize results. If the system is not treated as a whole, customer experience will continue to be fragmented and frustrating no matter how many isolated improvements are made over time.
A seamless experience requires a consistent approach to technological solutions, human needs, and organizational responses. The goal is to inspire taxpayer confidence and government efficiency by making it easy to start with a website, reach out to a call center if needed, and then complete tasks on the web when they are ready. In the future, integrating social media will increase responsiveness and better serve millennials and future generations.
A robust online database of Frequently Asked Questions can enhance customer experience based on insights from web analytics and call center topics. Web analytics and the call center knowledge management technology can be used to identify frequently accessed data, searches that come up empty, and how often users access particular information. In depth interviews with call center personnel can shape resource allocation and better prepare them to address complex situations since the basics are covered in a searchable database.
Starting with aggregated website and call center data creates a solid foundation for human-centered research to address persistent pain points across channels then effectively design and deliver satisfying stakeholder experiences.
What if Jane went to a central website and found the basic information she needed quickly and easily? If she still wasn’t sure what to do in her situation, she could reach out to a call center. When she did, her wait time would be shorter since more people were finding what they needed on a streamlined easily searchable site that highlights frequently asked questions. Jane wouldn’t be so upset when she connected with a staff member, her questions could be answered more quickly, costs would go down, and Jane would regain confidence in the government agency. Later when it worked for her schedule, she could fill out any required forms on the website and get immediate confirmation that they were submitted. Now when Jane talks about the government agency she shares her experience — I get help when I need it, I get things done on my schedule, and I trust that the government agency has my back.
Integrating processes, products, services, and content in an organization like a government agency takes time, vision, and leadership. Consolidating oversight with the right vision offers the best possible chance to successfully transition the taxpayers to a coherent seamless experience.
I was very excited to learn a NYC311 executive recently landed a critical role to lead the customer experience for the Governor of New York Andrew M. Cuomo. This cabinet level appointment continues to solidify the movement across all levels of government to engage, connect, and continue to improve the customer experience interactions.
Let’s give Saadia a big round of applause. Best wishes and much success in your new role.
As government continues to drive towards becoming customer-centric and collaborative organizations, recruitment of senior leadership with customer experience expertise will be in demand. According to author Jeanne Bliss, the goals of the Customer Experience Officer are to:
Engage the organization in managing customer relationships.
Create a persistent focus on the customer in the actions the company takes.
Drive the organization to work together for optimum customer experience delivery.
Support leaders in their role as cultural leaders in the transformation journey.
I look forward to seeing more cabinet level (C-suite) customer experience leadership appointment announcements in government.
Saadia Chaudhry has been appointed Director of Customer Experience for the Executive Chamber. In this role, she will help drive a range of high-priority projects to improve customer service for citizens and businesses. Previously, she held a number of positions at New York City’s 311 Contact Center, most recently as Customer Strategy Director, overseeing all aspects of customer experience and quality across multi-channel platforms, and, prior, as Contact Center Director and Director of Training & Quality. Ms. Chaudhry has a B.S. from Binghamton University.
The Secret? Implement an Organization-wide Department Customer Experience Officers (DCXO) Program
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