What is customer experience, and why should public sector teams care about it?
That’s the question we aimed to answer in a session last week with Tim Hudak, Public Affairs Specialist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and Bonnye Hart, GovDelivery’s Manager of Digital Engagement Services on meeting the needs of modern citizen customers. Over 200 public sector communications experts joined the conversation to learn more about why organizations are streamlining their customer experience initiatives (CX) and how rapid changes in private sector services are raising the bar for public sector transactions.
Bonnye and Tim fielded live questions on customer experience, from how to produce compelling content to how to leverage social media to improve rapport with audiences. Since our panel could not cover each of the questions that were submitted throughout the session, we’re back to answer your questions this week:
Q: One of the presenters said that each person scans 34GB of data per day. What’s the source for that interesting stat?
A: According to a 2008 report from the University of California, San Diego, Americans are consuming 34 gigabytes of content and over 100,000 words per day. Between TV, Internet, radio, text messages, print and other mediums, Americans are consuming more information than at any other point in our history.
Q: How can infographics be incorporated into a digital strategy to build a customer-centric experience?
A: With the massive influx of new content from online sources that your average customer is digesting, text may not be your best friend when you’re trying to make content that stands out for your customer. Our brains are better able to attach meaning to symbols, and images can be processed faster than text. If you want to create a more memorable, shareable piece of content that can be reused on multiple channels, try using images, video and infographics to create a more engaging experience for your customer, which in turn can help you drive additional conversions to action.
Q: How would you suggest including social media elements into a traditional press release?
A: There are many ways organizations are now making great strides in creating more engaging and shareable content. Creating a digital version of all press releases is just the beginning of making sure your audience can interact with your content on social channels – keeping content short and digestible, inserting share links, and adding hashtags to your high priority articles, events or programs are all great ways to adapt your press release content for social media audiences. Instead of adapting your press release for digital channels, consider using a digital first approach to producing content – your results will improve if you’re in step with the preferences of your digital audiences as opposed to simply moving your press releases online.
Q: When preparing for launch of a new channel, what is the best way to execute outreach to increase page likes?
A: What you should first consider before launching your channel is the activity, or conversion, that you’re hoping you will be able to drive through the new channel. Are you launching the new channel to promote a new program? To drive more attendance to events? To get more people to file their taxes online? Once you’ve defined the action you’re aiming to drive, consider cross promoting your page with your existing channels (i.e.. use your website to promote your Twitter channel, use Twitter to promote your blog, use your blog to promote Facebook, etc.). Alternatively, you should consider where your potential subscribers already are, and share or interact with the content on the network where you know those people are already engaged.
Looking for more ideas on improving your customer experience online? Join us for the State of Social Media webinar June 17th at 1PM CDT to learn how to engage with your customers on top channels to drive more meaningful action.
