Government agencies say they want to better serve people, but it can often seem like instead of focusing on citizens, they operate from an agency-centric perspective. One area that many people find incredibly frustrating is the lack of a personalized approach. As Bill Finnery, research director at Gartner, puts it, “Instead of tailoring websites to different users, they fail at being all things to all people by presenting large volumes of information, much of which is irrelevant to the visiting citizen.”
A knowledge management service portal is one of the best ways to improve call center agent productivity and give people the citizen experience they’re looking for.
How to Improve Government Efficiency
Many organizations in the private sector have begun to adopt new management models to gain a competitive advantage. A key component in these initiatives is a business knowledge portal, a web-based solution that creates efficiencies both inside their companies and with their customers, clients, and partners.
Government services have historically provided citizens with services via disparate or siloed departments and agencies that have a limited ability to share data. Legacy systems and an aging workforce that’s retiring out of service are making it more difficult to draw on years of shared expertise and wisdom.
Government agencies can be well-served by:
- Putting policies in place that encourage knowledge management (KM) practices; and
- Investing in the needed infrastructure for a knowledge-based environment.
Because of their sheer size, government agencies are typically slow in responding to change which makes innovation more difficult. Knowledge portals are a simple solution that can improve agent capacity and productivity.
KM to Improve Your Agent Capacity
Click on to any homepage of a government website and it’s immediately clear how crucial the public missions agencies are tasked with are. Yet successfully executing those missions is often hampered by an abundance of information that tries to answer every imaginable question.
Whether it’s to enroll in a program, get information on benefits, or check on the status of an application, most people come to a government website in search of highly specific information. KM software (KMS) allows government agencies to maximize public service efficiency and improve agent productivity by helping them:
- Learn what people think and feel about the service they receive.
- Understand what people want from an agency.
- Identify improvement areas based on feedback from users.
- Measure agent and citizen experience on one platform.
Along with improving the citizen experience, studies show that solutions like KMS can also mitigate decreased employee engagement at agencies themselves. It’s clear from the research that when public sector agencies focus on improving the engagement and experience of frontline workers like call agents, it can have a significant positive impact on the citizen experience, too.
How a Centralized Knowledge Portal Increases Efficiency
Government services are a knowledge-driven process and KM tools help manage the data that knowledge is derived from. Providing agents with the right information at the right time is paramount to a successful, satisfying citizen experience. The right tools, including a user-friendly knowledge portal, substantially improve the quality of service for people who are usually looking for knowledge that has significant implications in their lives.
Along with KMS, experts agree government agencies can become more citizen-centric by:
- Implementing website changes that enable people to quickly find information on their own.
- Create better online experiences by integrating analytics and a personalization engine into website capabilities.
- Establishing citizen advisory groups to cultivate a positive relationship with the public they serve.
- Ensuring agents and other frontline workers receive sufficient training on KMS tools and techniques.
Today, customer service and citizen service are one and the same. Using an effective KM strategy and innovative KMS tools helps agencies engage and serve citizens through both self-service and call agent solutions while at the same time empowering agents to be more productive.
