The power of clear communication in customer experience
Nudging people toward a desired outcome might seem like a nuanced approach but it is one that can have great long-term impact.
Translating customer awareness and trust into a measurable outcome requires that people be engaged in and understand the steps of the process. Creating a clear, frequent, and informative flow of communication is the crux of a successful customer experience (CX).
Whether your agency’s goal is to influence customers to complete a registration or enroll in a program, there must be a well-defined and informative pathway for them to follow. A confusing or under-communicated plan creates mistrust and leads to enrollees abandoning the process without completing the transaction.
Identifying the four communications stages
Granicus Experience Group (GXG) has identified four critical stages that best enable government to communicate with customers and accelerate progress. These stages build upon each other to form a communications funnel that creates a singular pathway for agencies to reach, inform, and engage with customers. These four stages are:
- Awareness & opt-in
- Trust & consideration
- Decision & action
- Management & engagement
Learn more with our guide: 4 Stages of Communications for a Successful Government Customer Experience
Decision & action: Managing expectations toward a common goal
Government agencies must take the critical step to communicate with people and manage expectations during each part of the process. The upfront work to create awareness and establish trust for your program goes for naught when the customer is left in limbo. If the customer does not hear from your agency after the early-stage communications, they are unlikely to finalize the process.
People often get to the point where they have decided to move forward toward a goal but feel they do not have enough information to act. They take the initial steps to opt in to the process, but they become “trapped” in the communications funnel when the information path is not clear. They give up when it is time to act because they do not know the next step to take.
Enter “the art of the nudge” to change the course for customers.
Without communication between all stages, customers feel abandoned in the process and become frustrated. Some turn to call centers for assistance — the federal government spends more than $20 billion a year on contact centers — but lack of staff creates soaring wait times and frustrates customers. Trust erodes when a customer doesn’t hear from you for weeks (or months in the most egregious cases). Without trust, applicant responses are left missing or incorrect, and they are more likely to bail on the process altogether and take no action.
Digital solutions help streamline decision-making & action
There is no established best practice when it comes to government communications. So, what can we do to proactively engage people who have already decided to act? Maintaining connections with customers is critical and should be done using a multi-channel approach. This builds upon the awareness and trust stages of government communications, where an agency needs to reach people where they are and instill confidence in the process.
Whether a text or email, messages should be clear, concise, and accessible. Be transparent in communications about timing and expectations and ensure that messages are reaching the right audience by demonstrating the pillars of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Analyzing pain points and identifying areas of drop off will help your agency ease customer burdens and deliver a positive CX. Building awareness and trust allows for a clear path to decision making, ultimately leading to successful customer engagement. Granicus’ expertise and human-centered communications approach, coupled with a customizable platform and digital tools like Engagement Cloud featuring govDelivery, help agencies achieve this goal.
Granicus webinar series: Learn more about the digital transformation
A comprehensive communications strategy that incorporates digital components can make all the difference in reaching, growing, and educating customers. As government agencies look to new and innovative ways to improve the customer experience, the importance of digital solutions will continue to grow.
Learn more about how Granicus is driving digital transformation and paving the way for government to adapt to changing customer communications expectations in this webinar, “Manage Better Government Experiences: Trust and Consideration,” the second in a four-part series.
