Citizen Engagement

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 »

Transforming Government Like Disney?

Should the federal government be more like Disney when delivering its customer service experiences? Greg Godbout, the chief technology officer at the Environmental Protection Agency, suggests as much when he keynoted an AFCEA roundtable in Bethesda a couple weeks ago.  According to Federal Times, he told the audience how Walt Disney World delivers a seamlessRead… Read more »

Turn It Up: How Government Uses Music Videos to Engage Citizens

Music videos are fun, attention-grabbing tools for delivering messages that can inspire citizen engagement, educate people, spur them to action, and change minds and hearts. Videos are currently one of the most desirable pieces of content because of how shareable they are on social media. Social videos in particular are also a great way to reach younger audiences, whoRead… Read more »

How To Best Leverage Facebook Ads

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. From sharing weight loss tips to encouraging public safety initiatives, Facebook is a great place for organizations to encourage healthy lifestyles — and many state health departments are looking toRead… Read more »

Build a Better Online Form

Filling out a form is hardly a pleasant experience, but a clear and simple form can go a long way in easing the pain. Everyone wins: respondents complete it without any issues, and you, in turn, avoid chasing down missing data from incomplete forms. You get exactly the information you need.

New Zealand’s Govt.nz: What We Did Right

In earlier blog posts, I mentioned Govt.nz, which is the New Zealand Government’s flagship website. The new website was launched in July 2014 but things didn’t actually stop there. That requires a little explanation: we launched a minimal viable product or MVP. If you Google that term, you’ll get either a definition that includes return-on-investmentRead… Read more »

Why Every Federal Agency Should Have A Chief Customer Officer

Chief Customer Officers (CCO) are becoming commonplace in the private sector, with more than 2,000 of these C-level execs in the US alone. Should federal agencies follow suit? The answer is unequivocally yes. As the only senior exec whose primary goal is to represent the interests of the customer, a CCO can help a federalRead… Read more »