It’s no secret that local governments are trailing behind consumer brands when it comes to service delivery. Citizens want to access the services they need, on whichever channel they choose, at any time. But until recently, this hasn’t been possible for the public sector to achieve.
With self-service high on the agenda for governments, new opportunities are opening with the chance to put the user at the heart of everything it does. They are entering the era of human-centred design. The benefits of this approach are clear. Better public services, that are easier to navigate and use, and smaller requirements for contact centre staff to solve problems when things go wrong.
This user-centred approach to digital transformation prioritises people’s needs and what's most convenient for them. It will allow agencies to design services and experiences to put all brand interactions – including employees – first.
Legacy technology is holding back transformation
With evolving expectations, technological developments, and demographic changes, it’s time for local governments to adapt to consumer expectations. However, this is easier said than done, especially with legacy operating models.
These often clunky, and expensive systems were a product of limited technology, structural constraints within the organisation itself, and manual paper processes. They were built to serve a function rather than a user, resulting in slow and complex operations.
But when it comes to transforming these services, it’s not uncommon for public agencies to focus on the operational and organisational requirements – such as moving to self-service models – rather than engaging with the end-user. This risks stakeholder frustration and confusion, leading to a lack of internal adoption and dissatisfaction.
This also links to a lack of audience awareness, which can be detrimental to the service reach. When striving for a ‘digital first’ approach, the focus can sometimes be too heavily on digital users, not those with more complex needs. This risks excluding specific audiences altogether, especially when you consider that over five million UK citizens have either never used the internet or have not used it in the last three months.
All users matter
It’s a common misconception that user experience only relates to customer experience (CX). But when transforming services, employee experience (EX) must be an equal factor.
There is an undeniable link between CX and EX. When employees are happy and motivated, they provide better service for citizens. Organisations can go wrong by treating them separately rather than connected.
Instead, local governments need to adopt a Total Experience (TX) approach. This strategy encompasses all company experience – including EX and CX – to enable transformational change with the user at its core.
Agencies can identify and address the main pain points for both employees and citizens, develop themes that connect many of the issues, and then use this analysis to build a better, more streamlined service for all stakeholders.
Due to its unified nature, TX requires alignment and focus across all areas of the organisation. Therefore strong C-suite leadership is needed to push the project forward and ensure the user needs are being met at every step of the employee and citizen journey.
TX strategy works best when it starts with the end in mind – the outcome for the end-user, and this should form a key metric to measure success. Real-time data from user testing helps to determine whether a service has fallen short, met, or exceeded expectations and will help to improve the service.
To avoid costly changes each time a service needs to adapt, it is crucial to invest in flexible platforms. This is already being seen across the public sector, with local governments implementing low code/no code applications to make changes quickly, increasing speed to value. Low code also enables organisations to gain more value from existing systems by knitting them together. This is preferable to investing in new expensive technology and facing the added problem of gaining employee buy-in for unfamiliar user interfaces. The key here is to do more, and deliver more with what you already have, guided by a much deeper understanding of everyone’s needs.
TX is the future of government work
Due to its effectiveness, this approach has been recognised as one of the strategic technology trends for 2022, and Gartner even predicts that by 2023, at least 85% of governments without a TX strategy in place will fail to transform service delivery successfully. If executed correctly, TX will allow public bodies to create superior shared experiences, resulting in better outcomes. It will remove costly back-office interactions and drive huge cost and time efficiencies by redirecting staff away from manual efforts to higher-value tasks.
If embraced, TX will empower public sector organisations to shift towards experience-led processes and services – rather than function-led ones – and will play a significant part in the future of local government. TX will transform public services for years to come, for everyone.
Lisa Arnold is head of public sector at CDS
