[Music] foreign thanks for being here and thanks for being here at Federal Forum what a great opportunity to get us all together I think we're at 2 000 attendees at this uh today so fantastic for finding uh value I hope you're getting a lot of opportunity to share and to network with your peers and uh and others here at the conference so um thank you for attending this session we're uh we're excited to be here talking to you today about a um a topic that is near and dear to my heart which is really around customer experience in government and that's customer is kind of a nebulous term it can mean so many things to so many people so as we go through this here today we're going to talk about the customer and what that means so thank you for being here um executive mandates have driven huge attention on transforming customer experience in federal government and so in addition to that funding taking place to really look at how can technology and digital transformation help power some of those experiences um and so it's a good time and service now is I think uh working diligently to try to bring value to all of you in that space so to try to take what we have as a platform and build off of it to bring value to you in ways you can use this to improve customer experience ways you can use our platform the products we're building and pressure configuring to help improve customer experience so to to help address that today and really to to focus on what you're probably here to discuss is I've got three amazing panelists here with me today uh that that will be sharing with you uh Pamela Scruggs so Pamela is with the U.S fish and wildlife department uh she's a lead in their e-permit permits or part of the organization got Doug Freeman who is a chief digital experience officer at the U.S Department of Commerce and Maria Bertucci she's a lead within the USDA for their National Financial Center uh and and so great array of experiences here and our goal today is to really help you understand as these folks have gone through and are going through their digital transformation what are the Nuggets that you might be able to pick up that could help with what you're trying to accomplish in in in the same areas and so um and so that's why we're here today uh wanting to keep it relaxed thank you all for being here and taking the time uh to do this Pam I'm going to pick on you to start um because I I'm fascinated by what we're doing with U.S fish and wildlife and what you're doing with the organization can you talk about uh what your your organization is doing in that transformation around customer experience and and I think nuggets around best practices or lessons learned anything you can share there sure um thank you for the opportunity um as Ron mentioned I am work for the U.S fish and wildlife service and my project that I lead up is working across the agency across four of the major permitting programs we issue permits under Wildlife Conservation laws and so seven laws like The Endangered Species Act the migratory bird treaty act and we serve external and internal customers and we um we there are about 30 000 right now accounts we have with our external customers so to give you a sense of the volume we just started about this will be we're in may we start our third development year so we really feel like we're pretty new to the game and um and I will admit that we started with sort of our own needs in mind so you might have heard that in the key notes speaker said a lot of governments do that oh we're then we really recognize that we had like a 25 year old Legacy system that needed to meet the modern demands I mean even for security it was so old that it um you know just wasn't the upgrades and such were um had the risk ran the risk of breaking it so um we came into it from that perspective and in going into year three we're feeling pretty proud because we've managed to Pivot and now we see um a path to really starting to hear from the external customers and um and we're also gaining some um data from our internal customers to to make the platform better so I will say we're proud We went from uh um having to lick envelopes and stick stamps and fill out sign in blue ink and um write paper checks to like two and a half three years later we actually um receive all of our applications can receive all of our applications now Digi digitally we still haven't digitized all of our forms and so some sometimes the from for much of the process applicants are still um uploading PDFs so we're we're working as we go um but we do have a secure system that allows for people to pay for their processing fees online so we'll give ourselves a teeny little pat on the back for managing to do that and now we're starting to talk to our customers and learning some really um very important things so being here I wish that we may have started where they tell you to start which is with the customer but I still think we're early enough to really make the pivots we need to to meet the external customers needs and I love the idea of what I heard this morning that it can really Elevate our internal users because it's a sort of a it can be grueling work it's um you know tends to be we have more work than we can handle and so becoming more modern is really important and the idea of uplifting our internal users by helping our external users is really really exciting so we're new on our journey I think that what I'm hearing is you haven't started it might be a good idea to start with the external customer first or the people you're really trying to serve and um and I'd say maybe um I guess my other thing is to realize they call it a journey for a reason and it is not change is not easy and particularly if you're trying to change things that are really outdated and really sort of rooted in maybe 1970s 1950s 1900s thinking because that's when our laws came into effect and we've been doing a lot of the things okay for all these years so um that is working with us has also been very key like we have some challenges with working with our app with our applicants as account holders you know paper was different didn't need an account you just signed a form and mailed it in and so um servicenow has been a really great partner in helping us to evolve the way our um along with the way our businesses um do business and our individuals do do business so anyway with our surveys and our um and our customer support tool we're starting to glean some insights and I'm hoping through the other federal workers that I'm meeting here and the other contacts I can really learn how to hear the voice of the customer all the time that's what you I remember uh Pam when we were talking you were talking about the I put it in quotes it was the uh I think versus the reality or we think I mean I and we were all chatting about it you can get kind of inwardly focused on your point of view I I don't know if you experience that or or how how you would advise others to kind of shift that frame of thought a little bit sure I mean I'll say that we um we did we thought we thought we knew it our applicants would want which would be a quick answer from the government right they wanted efficient efficiency and we were not particularly efficient a very complex nuanced rules we have to follow and um so we we came into this thinking that we um we're going to become efficient in our customers we'll appreciate that and which may be true um I can't say we've achieved achieved perfect efficiency yet though but we've through our survey found that um we have a I'm proud of it like 65 satisfaction rate in our first couple of months and that's so that they need more than they're looking for more than efficiency and that is an important lesson to learn and there's probably some other ones there there's probably ways we can ease their pain as we gain efficiency and streamline our back end not just the technology part but the process part can align more across those stove pipes and silos within our organization so um yeah we we definitely started from that we think this and now it's super exciting to hear what they think I mean there's all kind of nuggets there some of it's actionable some of it's painful some of it's really um it's it's really surprisingly positive so that's all good I don't know it's a little good trending yeah I um I don't know if either of you want to comment there I I I'll say uh Maria I uh I hear Pam talk about like that definition of customer and with uh the USDA you've got customers that are uh external citizens potentially you've got government agencies businesses um you've got your employees as customers so I'm I'm how do you tackle uh providing each of those audiences with what they need to facilitate this great experience right Ron and um at USDA the National Finance Center where a shared services provider so we have not only inter-agency agreements but we have intra agency agreements so we have to meet certain Mission areas requirements as far as payroll HR concern and so um from our perspective all of our customers are primarily all HR specialists or payroll Specialists and so we they provide us the feedback that we need to give them better service as far as their relationships with their employees and so some of their employees do have a significant amount of information they want to share with their HR departments and so we try to find ways to transition or streamline that information and so as as Pam had stated earlier you know the external experience from our customers is very important to all of us and what we do is we take measurements of what's being reported as far as service requests whether we're meeting the demands of our customers or if there's incidents that are occurring with their payrolls and things like that then that's where our service desk managers provide us more feedback and so one of the many things that we do is we have quarterly customer board meetings and we get the feedback from all these directors HR directors payroll directors and get their information and say you know we need to get this information to our employees faster and better and so those are some of the things that we're looking at we're engaging in and and what we try to do with our servicenow product is make it more fluid and easier for them to transition and to submit whatever their cases are and with that information then we use that trending data to and is what we're using to build out our customer service model which we were trying we're trying to get out um it's going to be in phases so we're going to go intra agency first and then we'll go to the external customers and just make that experience a lot more seamless and easier for them to transition to and do all their reporting that the other item was documents signing documents things like that so it's it's there's a lot of things in the hopper if you will but we're trying to make it the transition as seamless as possible and get all the feedback from all of our customers as well so those are just some of the things in uh the other item that we've uh that's been a challenge is transitioning the historical data into our systems and so those are some of the things that we're working on right now I'm going to Spring this one on you because I don't know that you are expecting this but so um we've talked a little bit about the idea of interagency operability so the ability to work across agencies where needed to connect the dots for that experience because ever so many agencies deliver a different piece of the puzzle so I think we talked in the past a little bit about that and that you're actually engaging um peers internationally to to talk about the way they do that because their structures are a little different Etc so I don't know if you you could elaborate on that a little bit I found that fascinating It's a combination of several things um there's definitely some items that we have to take into account um security wise there are packages that we receive from those external customers that we definitely have to secure and we've um we've provided a a good encryption package using the servicenow product and now we can receive them seamlessly and the transition are the execution of that request is run a lot faster and better for our customers um one of the biggest challenges that we had during covid was retirement packages we we had you know they were being couriered everybody's paperwork was being sent to um NFC and deliveries were limited so we had to come up with a way to use the itsm product to transition all that paperwork in electronically and into our retirement processing system and we've got it to work we got ahead in agreement with OPM to receive those packages and now our retirement processing uh deliveries are being processed within those the 30 to 35 45 days so that's a good thing so we don't have those delays so those were some of the things that were challenging and so with those packages that were brought on site or electronically we had to encrypt them and get them across and then we used an integration Hub to do the printing so that we can send it to OPM with our Courier Service so it's a it's a lot of things that you have to take into account securing the data protecting the data who could see the data that type of stuff so those are those were the definitely the challenges that we had but it did prove to be a good methodical project process how about collaboration between peers of yours and other organizations or you mentioned International groups so how do you how do you gain best practices and collaborate across across these different groups well there are several requirements that we are required to as far as interagency Agreements are concerned I think everybody's aware of them interagency agreements and those type of things so um it's we work with our Ocio Partners to get all this information secured and sent um so it's just um meeting what their requirements are and incorporating them into collaborating them into our packages that we have yeah so it's it's there's a lot of checks and balance a lot of tricks and balances and our HR departments definitely have to sign off on all of them so those are some of the things that we these initiatives can uh I can be daunting you're tackling pieces you're you know here here and here have to have the whole picture in mind um Doug I guess I'm interested from your perspective what are your thoughts on it you know these these big transformational initiatives to summon an organization can seem like never-ending initiatives so um how do you how do you manage change in your organization as you're thinking about that how are you thinking about um working through that in a way to minimize disruption I guess yeah thanks John good question good morning everyone um you used uh two interesting words I think when we talk about customer experience uh which is the words never ending and I think that's a Hallmark actually of the best most customer-centric organizations is they understand that it's never ending the pursuit of customer experience is never ending they're obsessive about it and so I think for the government when we have this vision and we challenge ourselves and we say you know we want to provide excellent and Equitable Service uh to all of our customers in every situation then we have to be equally obsessive right we have to become that kind of customer-centric organization so say great so how do we get there right and I think it's you know a lot of it is just reinforcing what probably everybody in this room already knows which is if you're going to go on this journey right you got to start first and foremost with your situational assessment right where truthfully where am I at right with my people with my resources who in the organization is already sort of has expertise in customer experience in human centered design and user experience design you know what kind of resources do I have from a people perspective what kinds of platforms and tools do I have how am I doing today what are my numbers telling me about how my interactions are today and get a good situational assessment and be honest with yourself about where are you at today so then you can be very methodical but then about mapping out your journey right about then what do I need to do about gaining more people resources uh you know using the good basic blocking and tackling tools that you have at your disposal about training people putting it into their performance plans right this is you know I like to tell people all the time you know uh CX and hcd and these things are not a group of people that you go to to talk to it should not be that everyone in the organization should be as should con should raise their hand and say I'm a CX person right I'm a human-centered design person everyone in the organization because everyone can contribute to it so they you've got to prepare your people the second thing of course again then is platforms and tools you know we talked about voice of the customer well in order to hear the voice of the customer you have to have a way and a methodology in which to hear that right then you know I certainly have been in rooms where people have presented survey you know great survey information but in some cases that survey information might be 12 months old you know I come from the private sector world originally and I spent most of my career there and you know we lived in environments where you know our finger was on the pulse of the client 24 and customers 24x7 so we had tools and platforms that had a way of us a quantitative and qualitative information that we could look at every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month and so that gives you the data to sort of say because guess what you know as I always like to say I think most customers are probably like me they're they can be a bit emotional they can be a bit fickle right needs may change the uh change day to day and so you got to know that right you got to go away and I don't talk to you again for six months or 12 months right it's got to be an ongoing dialogue and that's by the way is external internal right internal I mean when we talk about customers we're not we're talking about external customers but we're equally talking about the employee experience right you've got to be aggressive and obsessive about both of them I think and so you know I think so you've got to kind of take these steps towards that maturity and understand that it is a journey but um and of course along that Journey there's some other things you got to be conscious of I think we all know right along that way you've got to have some short-term wins and you know we're seeing that you know we all know the federal government has 35 high impact identified high impact service providers that are doing some fantastic work right addressing key projects that each of them have and and we're seeing the results right I think I I just recently a lot of you may have seen of the American customer satisfaction index came out and showed that satisfaction government services surged by 4.6 percent last year that's a good sign right directionally that's good it's going up not down or not flat right that's that's a really good sign but again we've got to be obsessive so you know you got to keep looking for those quick wins and certainly you've got to bring your senior leadership along right keep them excited they they along with everyone else has to be a part of celebrating the wins as you go along but it is a long journey and you have to become obsessive but just to share a little anecdotal story when I think when you reach that as said I came from the private sector and was fortunate enough to lead an organization where he built a rather large e-commerce business and you know that organization got so obsessive about customer experience they sort of took it upon themselves they took all of our different customer personas and they would literally make life-size cutouts of them and these people would bring them they would literally celebrate birthday parties I would come into the cafeteria and I'd be like oh whose birthday is it right and they'd be like it's Jennifer's and I'd be like Jennifer and literally they'd be like they'd have the stand right whoever it was right like pick whatever you know sort of standing they'd celebrate their birthdays like you know talk about them set they bring them into meetings right set them in the meeting room cut out right what they were turning was just some really old watch right and you know they didn't have to this is an organization that had to be told you know this is your next project this is your next priority this is your next because honestly they knew it before I did right they were much much more and and so really what we created was that Obsession that never-ending Quest gave them the tools and the processes and the freedom to go chasing and they were the ones right the people that were closest to the employees people closest to the external customers that were saying this is what they want this is what they desire this is what we can deliver and we're gonna go do it we're not going to wait for you you know they turn to me and they're not going to wait for you as the CEO we're just gonna go do it I was like perfect that's the kind of obsessive and so I think that's why sorry I wanted to sort of pick up on those two words because I think that's a really when you can mature your organization and change that mindset right and get everybody involved in it that's when you can sort of then it becomes that never ending goes from a negative quite honestly to a positive no that's great and it should be so fantastic all I'm come I can't get it out of my mind but I think I'm gonna I have to start a business where you send in a photograph and I'll make the paper the cutouts you can use for your meetings that's going to be a booming business um oh excellent story so um and and kind of what you're experiencing um going back kind of circling back to this concept of empowering employees so so how uh and Pam maybe maybe you can comment how are you how do you think about how is your organization thinking about the tools and resources they're putting in the hands of employees to really Empower experiences they're able to deliver is it is that a huge part of what you're thinking about or I guess anybody would like to comment yeah I can say that um really we we um we have feedback loops for our internal users our our um our employees I think that we have not done as much as we could or should have to um to to help them with the change like the some of like I said the processes are old and the behaviors to follow the processes um you know and are are are rooted there and so um what I really appreciate about like thinking of the customers I know these this employee group and we care very much about the people we work with and I will tell you I started my career 27 years ago in a permit processing office and I still have like cards that people sent me like we care about these people we want to deliver a good service it's very frustrating when we can't it hurts it's like not why you get into government is to not be able to deliver as quickly or as effectively or as efficiently whatever the measure of your and so um I think that we are working now to to spend more time with our processors and really sort of uplift the community and thinking of the customer is very empowering and like how we can do this together to serve the public and the people in the mission that we came to these jobs for is really where we need to we need to spend more time and like Anyway the path feels very open to me right now on how we could achieve that being here as I've learned more um in my role it I really think that that we could spend some time doing that and it would be so well well worth the effort and it'll also help us understand our Customer because these people who know them they're talking to them on the phone they're they're emailing them every day and they know the needs that when you sit at the national level it's harder to unfully understand we were talking um before we arrived and the idea of how um so early adopters of service now were building capabilities to really arm their employees to provide customer service and these are things that service now is trying to catch up on building I lead a team that's focused on customer workflows so it's all the external services for Citizens patients agencies businesses and all of those experience tools but it's it's equally important and we take a lot of feedback what's that the experience of that a person's ability to provide good service because if they can't it's frustration it's turnover it's it's poor customer service because they're angry and frustrated that they can't provide that service so um I'm sure you're experiencing it as well right um one of the key elements that we definitely focus on is um where where our customers having the most problems and that we Supply our agents with more knowledge articles um how to resolve those issues quickly how to address them and then you know because our Mantra is always the customer is always right so we we have to address whatever those issues are and so some of those experiences are you know like I we said before you know performance analytics you know the trending where are the areas that we're having the most and then one of these issues that are occurring how can we address them early on say for instance when we're in the seasonal time you know Open Season that type of stuff but can we take care of in advance before it actually starts you know so those are some of the things that we look at trending data is really critical and then eventually once we get the mobile piece out and available you know it has to go through all its certifications and controls and so those are some of the things that we want to make easier accessible and um get the self-servicing portion available to all of our not only our employees but some of our external customers because OPM is one of our biggest customers we help with the clearinghouses with the um carriers and so forth so they need some help as well to address some issues that they're having with certain agencies that they need some support with so those are some of the things that we have to look at the trending data is very critical and important and again we talk about how we're evolving well so do rules and regulations everything changes and then you have to make those quick changes and do a quick turnaround to address those needs yeah that agility is is key because you I think you mentioned it somewhere along the way and again just now changing legislation Administration Etc you all in government more than ever has you know has also the complexity of agility that you have to address so um and and I I think that when you talk about surveys data as a way to inform that's that's the most efficient and factual way to determine what changes should make I think you were talking about it in your business so yeah sure I mean one thing I always like to say when I'm talking about customer experience is one of the most dangerous words around customer experience is the word I mean right um when I sit in rooms and you know I and and by the way I I you know there's some personal no but I think it's just human nature I think we tend to look at the world of things through our own lens and so you know when we have an idea about what we think the customer wants or what we think a product ought to be or what design we think we might want to it's easy to look at and say well I prefer this or I prefer that or I like this or I don't like that um and I think uh getting that sort of out of the Lexicon and and the best way to get that out of course is to bring in the data then right is to say great I may think this but let me look at the data and it may confirm what I think or it may not confirm what I think right but uh it's it's really about Gathering that data you know we had an interesting uh example recently um I I recently came from the international trade Administration I moved over a doctors in the last few months but we worked on a project to uh to look at improving sort of our digital presence in terms of trying to recruit Talent into the international trade Administration right so what would appeal to them you know people that are out looking for a job then considering that organization and so we did a pretty thorough human-centered design project to go out and sort of ask them about what attributes are most important to them what are they looking for what's hot you know what influences them most in their decision about where they might apply and want to come work and then of course bake that into a series of different designs sculpted that down into a final design kept testing it and saw the numbers sort of Skyrocket in terms of how customers are responding but one of the interesting things that came out of that was that you can understand if you're a senior leadership one things we asked them about was executive biographies right something you find often right when you go to an HR page or you go to look for an organization right is it might be plaster with executive bios unfortunately guess what customers said I don't care right it's not part of my decision making it's not going to influence me it's not going well if you're a senior leader and you say like wait a second they don't care about seeing my picture or reading my bio or you know you you can understand it might be an immediate sort of emotional or kind of a visceral reaction but I think that's a it's an example of saying like well maybe maybe that stings me a little bit when I first hear it but if you can get moved past that and say okay but that's not the goal here right the goal is to attract them and help them understand that this is a great place to work and so you know we were able to do that with the data right so despite some tough some kind of conversations along the way right the data and the voice of the customer that we had in front of us is really what carried the day and I think kept us on track so that's why I think it's so important it helps get that eye out of the room if you can bring that voice in in measurable quantitative and qualitative data I love that um kept us on track because you can steer away through emotion oh but if you're revisiting you know looking at the facts that's that's uh so thanks thanks for sharing that um we have so um as much as we can um Pam and Maria and Doug will try to stick around after if you have questions or just want to exchange contact um uh but we'll probably probably get the hook if there's another session coming up right behind us not sure um with a few minutes we have left I just think um you know what what are what's the one nugget that each of you would leave this audience with if they're going through um any any digital transformation for customer experience themselves or if they're trying to help as partners organizations do that what's the one nugget that you would leave them with from each of you like this is the session so they're doing phenomenally well I'm just riffing it so anyway I would say that really um if I could reel it back and start over I would start with the external customers and talk to them and really be able to get to know them better I would also say that like really the idea of a journey I mean to give some Grace like this some of the things we're trying to transform are long-rooted in old ways and it's going to take a little while to move you know move into the future present for the future so don't give up too soon it's really super important and I think I heard it this morning but like it's part of trust and government and believing in our system super important sorry that was more than one no you got three nuggets for the price of one that's awesome yeah I I mean I guess I would just maybe you missed it here but I think I would say again if we want to deliver excellent and Equitable service then uh we all need to be excellent and Equitable in our approach to CX so I would just encourage I think my encouragement is uh obviously you came into this room you're interested in I again I think it's a it's an effort that everybody needs to be involved in and all voices need to be a part of it so I would just say if you're interested in it if you're not already part of a formal training uh program in your organization take it upon yourself um there are so many resources out there and I'd be happy to share if anybody wants to hit me up afterwards I've got a whole series of links and avenues you could go to pursue this for yourself and so I would just say get trained up in it get something you have something to contribute I promise you that every single voice and every single voice needs to be heard that that's the way to get to a truly customer-centric organization so uh I would just say pursue it be passionate about it be persistent about it it as we said it is a journey it is never ending um be obsessive about it but also be vocal about it and be heard because uh I can tell you I've just I've seen it over and over and over so many great contributions so be vocal get trained participate don't don't wait for some CX or hcd group to do it right and don't don't go interact with them go see you know some that have been doing it for a long time engage with them learn and you are a sea expert that's fantastic yeah and the only other nugget that I would like to share is um let's keep it simple because the external your customers the end users just want something that is easy to use Simple doesn't have to go through so many clicks and so forth so those are just some of the things and those are primarily one of their biggest demands or requirements this is complex you know how can you make it easier for me so those are some of the things that you know think uh and and you can basically get most of that information from your Trend data as well you know where they filled out something incorrectly so what can I do to make that form better or fill it out or extract the information from their profile and put it in there that's what makes it seamless and simpler for them so those are just some of the Nuggets fantastic fantastic I want to thank you all right thank you so much uh obviously thank you all for attending have a great rest of your forum and uh we look forward to you uh learning uh hear more on your journey have a great day