U.S. General Services Administration
CX Day in Government: How GSA uses data to improve customer experience
A recent Customer Experience (CX) industry report illustrates a continued shift in what the public expects from its government. As more and more private sector companies are leveraging technology and analytics to rapidly respond to customer needs, citizens expect the same level of responsiveness from federal agencies.
GSA is no exception. Our agency partners expect us to make it easy to find high-value acquisition and technology solutions and to provide a prompt response to building-related requests. In GSA’s Office of Customer Experience, we strive to improve the end-to-end experience of GSA customers by aligning operations to customer needs.
Building Better CX across GSA
To gain a more complete understanding of our customers’ experiences, we’ve begun incorporating an emotional measurement into our government-wide surveying, which industry research suggests is one of the most important for improving customer experience and encouraging repeat business. We’ve seen this in our data. Compared to the operational elements that we measure, the emotional element is one of the strongest influencers of customer loyalty and satisfaction. This metric also helps us get at the “trust factor.” Do our customers trust that we are implementing policies and processes in their or their agency’s best interest?
This is a new concept with the potential for wide application that is just beginning to be implemented in the private sector. We’re also applying it internally to better understand the employee experience with staff offices at GSA.
Improving Problem-Solving for GSA and Our Customers
Additionally, the Office of Customer Experience has partnered with OPM’s Innovation Lab to develop a Human-Centered Design Field Guide [PDF - 1 MB], which shows teams how to put the people who use a system, process, or website at the center of their work. Human-Centered Design (HCD) is just what it sounds like: a creative way to solve problems that focuses on end users and their needs in addition to budget, policy, or other factors.
This means that we can design processes and systems that work better for everyone. At GSA, we’ve used HCD to improve our websites, involve customers in the redesign of a contract vehicle, and explore how we can streamline procurement.
For National Customer Service Week, and CX Day today, we’re excited to talk about the work our organization and other customer-centric offices across GSA are doing in these areas. We’re looking forward to continuing to innovate in the ways we provide excellent service and positive experiences for our GSA customers.