Timely and actionable data can tell us a lot about our government, the citizens it serves and whether federal programs are effectively meeting their needs. Not only that, but data can also capture the sentiments of rank-and-file employees who fuel those services and programs.
The ability to capitalize on those valuable insights has been an uphill battle for agencies. They face a pervasive lack of real-time information, which means that knowledge isn’t readily available for decision-makers, who are tasked with improving citizen services.
To break this cycle, agencies must shift their focus from simply gathering large amounts of raw data to collecting actionable data, from the right person, at the time, and most importantly on the channel they are engaged in, otherwise known as fast data. That means moving beyond just compiling months’ and years’ worth of data to instead collecting just enough data that is needed to enable timely action and to tell a complete story about the overall improvement of the citizen experience.
“It’s not a race to see how much information you can collect, which is oftentimes what big data turns into,” said Dr. Kyle Groff, Principal Research Scientist – VoC (Voice of the Citizen) at Qualtrics.
Government agencies know how important feedback is to improving services. The roadblock? There has not been a systemic and consistent approach to gathering and acting on that feedback in an efficient and scalable manner across government programs.
The biggest hurdle for agencies isn’t so much collecting data, but rather ensuring that data is quickly gathered, expeditiously analyzed and used to drive improvements to citizen services.
That’s why GovLoop joined forces with experts at Qualtrics, a rapidly growing Software-as-a-Service company and a leader in customer insights, to produce this report. In this industry perspective we address some of the current constraints to improving citizen services, such as data and organizational siloes, as well as steps agencies can take to better meet citizens’ needs.
