Connecting Customer Experience and Communications
Dawn Jakutowicz, Senior Consultant specializing in communications and stakeholder engagement
Washington, DC
In the first quarter of FY22, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14058 entitled “Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in the Government.” Many people associate customer experience with private corporate strategies to drive sales growth and may not readily translate the concept to the government service environment. A key factor of customer experience is that, similar to corporate brand perception, customer experience is defined by the customer and not the company. The continually advancing technology offered by private corporations in consumer purchasing and entertainment has heightened Americans’ expectations about engaging with service organizations – the Federal government included.
The executive order outlined 36 commitments for 17 Federal agencies to place end-users at the center of service delivery. To provide a quality customer experience, it is imperative for government organizations to understand what their customers, or stakeholders, need and how to deliver it in a way that makes sense to them. Since our founding 14 years ago, Corner Alliance prioritizes the commitment to begin every solution by engaging stakeholders. Corner Alliance’s compelling reputation is built on engaging and collaborating with government stakeholders to develop solutions that enhance service delivery, grow trusting relationships, and improve quality of life.
Maximize Effectiveness for Your Customers and Your Teams
Our consulting approach is designed to engage stakeholders at every opportunity and maximize effectiveness to advance organizational goals. By gathering and incorporating feedback from internal and external stakeholders, our consultants are able to develop a strategic customer experience strategy and communications plan that is reflective of diverse perspectives while aligning with the mission, values, and goals of the sponsoring organization. The Corner Alliance team leverages a comprehensive strategic planning framework to conduct a holistic program assessment. Our framework examines program goals, audits communications channels, identifies customer touchpoints that may previously not have been considered in traditional communications and outreach plans, and analyzes stakeholder perceptions. This data is analyzed to articulate imperatives key to achieving customer experience objectives and create tools for mapping the customer journey and documenting engagement touchpoints. This process not only identifies ways to ensure your customers receive positive and seamless service, but uncovers improvements in collaboration that realize efficiencies for previously disjointed organizational functions. These economies create space for teams to conduct more meaningful engagements with customers.
Strategic Communications Strengthens Customer Experience
And while understanding stakeholders is necessary to deliver a positive customer experience, crafting the right message for stakeholders with varying needs across multiple touchpoints is also important. Defining customer personas to draft and deliver relevant communications in a consistent voice and tone supports strategic goals and objectives, clarifies your organization’s identity, and strengthens your customer experience. Being deliberate about where and how each stakeholder group interacts with the organization calls for robust engagement and data gathering activities to get the message right.
Strategic communications, outreach, and engagement activities help to establish a foundation for messaging and feedback loops with government stakeholders across multiple products, services, and systems in a clear and consistent manner. Corner Alliance partners with our Federal clients to design a comprehensive strategic communications program and service delivery that leverages emerging trends while being practical and measurable to place end-users at the center of service delivery.
Want to learn more? Watch out for additional Corner Alliance blogs being released this summer or reach out to our sales team at bd@corneralliance.com to discuss how we can help you with your targeted program goals.
Author
Dawn Jakutowicz, Senior Consultant supporting the high-speed internet programs of the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has a mission to make information and engagements meaningful. Her background is in project management, strategic communications, and meeting planning. She is passionate about health and wellbeing.