Trust is one of the most important currencies in the public sector. A citizen’s ability to trust the public sector agencies they work with has a direct impact on the performance of that organisation. Unfortunately, trust in the public sector has been waning for some time.
Since the pandemic, communities have become increasingly wary of the public sector entities they utilise every day, and many citizens report being dissatisfied with customer service.
While public sector agencies might not face the same competition as commercial companies investing in CX, they’re still under significant pressure to improve experiences at scale.
With CX solutions, public sector organisations can fix the significant problems with citizen relationships and pave the way for long-term growth. Here are some of the use cases worth considering for CX in the public sector.
1. Rebuilding Citizen Trust with Personalised Support
According to McKinsey, satisfied customers are half as likely to contact agency hotlines, placing less pressure on resources and budgets. They’re also nine times more likely to trust the public sector and two times less likely to express their unhappiness through calls to public representatives.
Unfortunately, in the past, public sector groups have struggled to maintain high levels of satisfaction, thanks to a unique set of challenges, from limited budgets to absent analytical skills. With CX solutions, it’s possible to start regaining customer trust through a commitment to higher levels of support and service.
For instance, one of the best ways to build trust in any community is to treat each citizen as an individual. Unlike private sector groups, government agencies need to serve everyone included within their mandated mission, which has led to a common trend of delivering a one-size-fits-all service.
However, with CX solutions like CRM technology, for collecting customer data, and CCaaS systems for tracking sentiment and developing insights into each user, it’s possible to start delivering a more personalised, meaningful level of support.
2. Prepare for Constant Change
When faced with sudden changes, public sector organisations can’t afford to shut down or go silent. Users still need to be able to access public sector services when disaster strikes, whether it’s a global pandemic or a local weather event. Often, during these events, the demand for support and service is greater than usual, creating a need for teams to scale rapidly.
Fortunately, the right CX solutions provide public sector groups with the tools they need to adapt and adjust quickly to the needs of their people. The right CCaaS system makes it easy to outsource extra support from CX professionals worldwide when a team needs to deal with a peak in demand. It’s also possible to support teams working remotely or in hybrid environments.
The right CX ecosystem prepares public sector teams to provide a consistent experience no matter what’s happening in the wider environment, whether this means bringing on remote members of staff, or simply accessing new tools (like self-service apps), instantly.
3. Augment and Support Teams
Speaking of supporting your teams in any situation, the right CX solutions can also support public sector employees in achieving the best possible results. Workforce optimisation tools make it easy to keep track of team members wherever they are, while CCaaS solutions ensure hybrid employees working in various environments can still connect and collaborate with colleagues.
The right CX solutions can also help businesses to automate repetitive tasks which would otherwise consume too much of a user’s time. For instance, intelligent automation in the contact centre can help with routing calls to the correct agent first-time around. An effective routing system can detect keywords in a user’s query and match the caller to the agent with the right skills.
Automation systems can also collect and record information automatically, removing any dangerous or personally identifiable information before storing the data for analytical purposes. It’s even possible to automate certain customer interactions with chatbots and virtual agents.
According to Accenture, AI and automation may impact around 30% of the average federal worker’s time in the office by the time we reach 2028.
4. Deliver Omnichannel service
Customers have grown accustomed to omnichannel experiences in the private sector; now they’re expecting the same level of flexibility in the private sector too. In an environment where agencies need to be able to communicate with a wide variety of people as quickly and efficiently as possible, the right CX solution can be beneficial.
An omnichannel contact centre in the CCaaS environment makes it possible to send instant alerts to citizens through SMS or instant messaging app based on important defining factors like location or demographics. The same solution also means public sector groups can offer their users more ways to get in touch, ask questions, and address common problems.
Agencies in the public sector have been finding new ways to respond to customers faster and deliver a more convenient level of service for a few years now. Many groups began embracing SMS and chat tools during the pandemic, and there’s a good chance this shift into the omnichannel environment will continue in the years ahead.
5. Access Meaningful Insights
For many organisations, private and public, data is often the key to making intelligent decisions and facilitating long-term growth. In the public sector, collecting and utilizing information at scale about a specific segment of people in a community or a certain event can lead to faster problem resolution and better overall service.
CX solutions, from CRM systems to survey tools, and even CCaaS technology, can provide team members with more meaningful insights into the data most likely to guide crucial decision making. The right tools will align information about people, processes, and performance in a convenient environment so that leaders can make decisions faster.
With the rise of AI tools for analysing large amounts of data at speed, public sector organisations will even be able to leverage solutions like predictive analytics and intelligent insights without compromising data security and compliance.
