No one wants to hunt for the right answer when the clock is ticking. Yet too often, government employees and their customers do just that.
Now, many agencies are realizing that their constituents and workers cannot find actionable insights quickly and easily. When tackling challenges such as severe weather, delays in discovering crucial information can affect everyone involved.
The stage is set for modernizing agencies’ search capabilities. By adopting cloud-based search tools, agencies can get useful data rapidly and effortlessly. Even better, this knowledge can keep agencies’ constituents and talent on the same page.
“It is about understanding the moments that matter and where government is needed most,” said Suzzanna Martinez, Senior Marketing Manager, Public Sector at Elastic, a cloud-based enterprise search solutions provider.
Martinez shared three ways that cloud-based enterprise search tools can improve agencies’ internal and external customer experience (CX).
Prime search tools for success
Before launching search tools, agencies must understand how their employees and constituents will use them.
The idea is to tailor tools so that they meet all users’ needs, and everyone can get the facts they want without wading through irrelevant content.
“Citizens can find the information that they need, get back to their lives and be prosperous,” Martinez said of quality search tools. “But we don’t want to lose sight of the personnel. They need information at their fingertips too.”
Before adopting new search tools, agencies should consider consumer journeys. Consumer journeys map the steps people take to obtain or deliver products and services. Using consumer journeys, agencies can improve search tools for their customers and workforces.
Embrace data analytics
Once agencies have search tools, their leaders and employees can use them to continuously enhance the decisions.
“That’s a trend we’re seeing – reviewing analytics to continually improve website performance and ultimately customer experience,” Martinez said. “Every click can tell you what people are looking for on your website.”
Wilson, North Carolina recently leveraged data analytics while preparing for a hurricane. Before the storm hit, city officials analyzed searches on Wilson’s website. Most users sought information about flood prevention and roadway hazards, so Wilson’s government was able to plan for the optimal resources required based on customers’ search behavior.
Make data accessible everywhere
Today, more agencies have hybrid workforces combining on site and remote employees than before. To operate effectively, these agencies need search tools that can unearth advantages wherever data resides and enable role-based data sharing.
Cloud computing can facilitate this outcome by letting agencies collect, analyze and share data across any distance. Cloud-based search tools like those Elastic provides can give agencies enlightening, timely and secure data whenever it is needed most.
“It is making agencies’ jobs that much easier to do,” Martinez said. “The data should be on the same sheet of music where it is normalized.”
This article is an excerpt from GovLoop’s guide “Customer Experience Beyond Memos: A How-To Guide.” Download the full guide here.
