Citizen Engagement

The OPM Hack Is Bad News For Federal Customer Experience Efforts

It’s been a rough nine months for federal cybersecurity. The huge Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack is just the latest in a series of incidents that make people skeptical of Washington’s ability to protect their personal information. Since last fall, we’ve witnessed hacks of the: OPM. Last week’s cybersecurity failure at OPM wasn’t its firstRead… Read more »

When Hacking Helps

Hackers, hackers everywhere. If you’ve been following the news recently, the “hacker” label probably doesn’t give you a warm-fuzzy sensation. But hackers aren’t always bad guys. To the software development community, hacking simply means taking a piece of code and altering it. It can be used for wrongdoing, but it can also be used toRead… Read more »

How To Implement The Customer Experience Advice In The US Digital Services Playbook

A few weeks ago, I advised federal agencies to build better digital customer experiences. I enjoyed the wave of hate mail that post generated, so I’d like to return to the topic of digital customer experience (CX) again this week. Even the US Digital Service (USDS) thinks federal agencies need better digital CX. Last year,Read… Read more »

Digital Engagement Series Part 4: Send Messages That Get Read

Originally posted on the GovDelivery blog. If you have been reading our blog lately, you have noticed our focus on public engagement through digital marketing. First, we covered how to set organizational goals, then establishing target audiences, and most recently branding. Now, we will unveil step four, sending messages that get read. The proliferation of smartphones,Read… Read more »

Federal Agencies Must Treat Customer Experience As A Business Discipline

By now we all know that federal customer experience (CX) is disastrously weak, and that improving it will boost both agency operations and the health of the political system. We’ve also seen some pockets of hope popping up, as I predicted a few months ago. For instance: The Department of Education’s new portal is complete,Read… Read more »

How to Host a Successful Facebook Q&A

This post is an excerpt from our recent GovLoop guide, Government’s Guide to Using Facebook. To read the whole guide for free, download it here. Town halls and question-and-answer sessions have long been a staple of democracy in the United States. But how do you engage with your constituents in a digital world where theyRead… Read more »

How Governments Can Improve Everyone’s Customer Experience

I spend a lot of time talking about the poor quality of federal customer experience (CX) and the effects it has on the public. I’ve already talked about how federal agencies averaged the lowest score in Forrester’s CX Index. In fact, most of the worst performers in any industry were federal agencies and even theRead… Read more »