Bridging the
digital divide:
How government can
enhance citizen engagement
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In an age defined by world-class technology, digital expectations are at an all-time high. Each day, citizens experience seamless, personalized service in nearly every aspect of their lives — retail, banking, travel, food and more. It’s no surprise they want the same ease and efficiency from their state and local governments, but unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
According to a recent survey from Adobe and Deloitte Digital, 57% of respondents indicated that they prefer to interact with government via websites, but 74% reported frustration when trying to access information and services on those sites.
Negative digital experiences can have a waterfall of potential consequences on both constituents and government, including:
Increased cost variable.
If a resident cannot find what they need online, they may have to take time off work or pay for transportation and/or childcare so they can visit an office. Meanwhile, the government also incurs additional expenses in processing paper forms and maintaining large call centers.
Wasted time.
People looking to engage with government services could spend unnecessary time navigating confusing websites or on hold waiting to speak to a representative.
Discouraged current and potential employees.
Outdated systems cause workflow inefficiencies and unnecessary administrative burdens for employees, as well as deter new recruits or prospects who seek more modern work environments.
Loss of trust
in government.
Perhaps the most significant repercussion: If people cannot access services or information in a timely manner, they might lose faith in government altogether and even stop seeking the help they need.
“The risk of not modernizing is the failed expectation,” explains Chris Lim, national practice director for Adobe Experience-Driven Government for state and local government. “The gap in service between government websites and commercial business can lead to a loss of trust in our government. Ultimately, it's about the government not being able to deliver the best outcome to constituents.”
With so much at stake, all levels of government have made digital transformation to improve citizen engagement a top priority. The 2021 Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government stated: “The Federal Government must design and deliver services in a manner that people of all abilities can navigate. We must use technology to modernize Government and implement services that are simple to use, accessible, equitable, protective, transparent, and responsive for all people of the United States.”
However, given that many state and local governments are saddled with budget constraints and legacy systems, simply implementing new technology is not necessarily the answer. Brian Chidester, head of industry strategy for public sector at Adobe, notes that to truly enhance citizen experience, chief technology officers and chief information officers must first map out a strategy that takes into account their organization’s current digital state, and find a way to reposition capabilities to focus on the constituent.
“Governments are some of the largest creators, consumers, disseminators of information and data on their citizens, and they can leverage that data to become more data-driven, more predictive in their service delivery model,” he explains. “All of that starts with a strategy, and then you can layer technology around it, but the strategy is really key to overcoming some of these hurdles.”
NEXT UP: Adobe’s Experience-Driven Government
Fortunately, public sector organizations don’t have to go it alone. Adobe is there to serve as an ally in this effort with Experience-Driven Government (EDG). EDG offers a holistic, data-driven solution designed to help government IT leaders develop an omnichannel digital experience (DX) that streamlines service delivery, enhances citizen engagement and builds trust.
“Our value proposition is that we create that singular user experience, layered over existing core systems, to deliver that engaging, personalized experience of rich content,” says Lim. “And I must emphasize that content includes graphics, images, videos, documents, PDFs, forms, applications, etc. A CIO I spoke to estimated that the amount of content needed to support the hundreds or thousands of government services for the different communities, languages, audiences etc., is easily in the millions. EDG differentiates by how we leverage the breadth of Adobe’s solutions to create, manage and deliver the vast amount of content needed to provide a tailored experience to each individual constituent and various stakeholders.”
For government, this means that automation can increase the accessibility of services for users, guide constituents to the most efficient channel (online or office visits), reduce volumes of calls to the call center, provide cross-department journeys to help users navigate the often stove-piped department structure, improve the agency brand and build public trust, help the government staff do more with less and provide more up-to-date information, etc. By leveraging digital experience solutions, government agencies can engage with constituents at scale to provide better services. These are just some of the use cases that Adobe can address to help governments achieve their mission.
Although the solution is robust, EDG employs an incremental five-step framework to implementation. Through phased investments in DX solutions, government entities can learn, adjust and evolve at their own pace to ensure organizational readiness, rather than taking on a massive, overwhelming project all at once.
Five steps to digital maturity:
Adobe’s Experience-Driven Government: Redefining public service
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Nascent: Static website, service catalog with limited digital options and no personalization or interactivity.
Basic: Navigational challenges and inconsistent user experience across websites with varying design and functionality.
Emerging: Self-service digital tools for several services with some omnichannel experiences.
Advanced: Comprehensive digital self-service with single sign-on, providing a seamless experience across multiple services.
Cutting-Edge: A unified portal offering proactive, intelligence-driven recommendations tailored to user needs.
Through close collaboration, Adobe helps determine where an organization falls on the framework and plan for progress accordingly.
“There are some governments that are more mature than others, and we focus on meeting those government entities where they are, just like they need to meet their residents where they are,” says Chidester.
Much of the assessment process is, appropriately, driven by constituents and anchored by what Lim calls the “three key pillars of delivering a modern government experience.”
Customer experience.
Adobe recruits residents of the state it’s working with to interact with available online services and provide firsthand feedback.
Website and mobile performance.
Participants rank what was easy or difficult about their interactions, the time it takes to access information, as well as how the organization’s digital presence scales across different mediums like desktop and mobile.
Digital social equity.
Adobe examines website accessibility commensurate with 508 compliance. “We want to determine, for example, if visually impaired individuals can interact with the website,” says Lim. “We look at language and readability — can users with varying levels of literacy all access the services they need?”
EDG is already making notable headway. In 2021, the company partnered with state, city and county government entities in all 50 states where it used these three pillars to rank each in the context of the-five step framework. The findings are outlined in Digital Government Index, which also compares those organizations to top commercial brands to see how they stack up.
“The people they serve are looking at it from that lens, they are not looking at government as government, they're comparing them to the commercial experience they have,” Lim explains. “We welcome the opportunity to work with government entities, do that study for them and share where they fall in the framework and what could be improved.”
NEXT UP: The role of EDG
The role of EDG: Institutionalizing the importance of customer experience
EDG’s gradual process allows IT leaders to achieve small, tangible wins at each phase and demonstrate success to stakeholders. Proven results help build a stronger business case, giving organizations a better chance of increasing their budgets and moving the needle from nascent, to basic, to cutting-edge and eventually evolving into a best-in-class service delivery model.
“Adobe can build an aggregate. We can help them build out that strategy, identify their most pressing pain points, kind of become a plug-and-play model for them that works really nicely and helps establish value,” says Chidester. “We want to make sure we're showing them speed to value, especially in the form of engagement.”
When EDG is embraced and put in motion, Lim states that local organizations make the shift from government-focused to citizen-focused, with “the constituent at the center, and government services wrapped around them.” Meaning, instead of residents having to search for what they need, the system can surface relevant services for them, such as Medicaid, DMV, SNAP, and many others, creating experiences that are:
Accessible. EDG allows all residents and businesses to access information and services at any time, from any location and on their preferred medium.
Personal and proactive. The digital experience platform tailors each citizen's interaction to their individual journey.
“We all want to be known. Don't treat me as just one of many, treat me as someone that you know something about and bring services to me that I may not even be aware of, but that could really drive and improve my outcome,” says Lim.
Secure. It’s critical for constituents to know their confidential data is secure. Built-in data privacy and consent policies let constituents audit interactions and permissions so they are in full control of what data they share and who they share it with.
“What you're trying to do around EDG is to become an experience-driven government, but also a data-driven government,” says Chidester. “Leverage the data you have to the fullest and by being more proactive, you're limiting how much data is actually going out because you're able to keep it in house and process it, store it and then make the decisions.”
Cost-effective. If government can conduct the majority of services online, overhead costs significantly decrease. One state that deployed EDG, Lim recalls, reported a 20% reduction in the call center volume because residents were able to find the information they needed on the website without having to dial in.
“Every time you get a human on the line within a contact center it generally costs, on average, around $6,” says Chidester. “If you can minimize human interaction and expedite that service delivery, you're not only saving the government money, but you're also saving time.”
NEXT UP: Preparing for the Future
Preparing for the future: Building a stronger government
As technology advances and customer expectations evolve, EDG introduces a new way of government thinking that not only meets today’s mission demands, but also sets the stage for future success.
“When you're taking the steps to become an experience-driven government, you are, by definition, thinking more forwardly because you're trying to figure out how to be more citizen-focused, instead of just continuing the operations of the past,” says Chidester, noting that partnerships with trusted industry partners like Adobe are crucial to support ongoing efforts.
“Make sure you're working with an organization that is focused on building those partnerships, having those technological integrations to support whatever that future-proof state looks like for that government entity,” he explains.
Ultimately, Adobe's EDG framework establishes a roadmap to a government designed for citizens. It helps organizations strategize, modernize and deliver high-quality services that will bolster the relationship between the public sector and the public.
“EDG can help organizations by bringing the full breadth of Adobe’s commercial experience and help governments improve and prepare for the future,” says Lim, “making sure that whatever they do, they're thinking about what it means for the people they serve.”
Read the full interview here
Learn more about how Adobe can help your organization
modernize to meet citizens where they are.
INTRODUCTION
ADOBE'S EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT
THE ROLE OF EDG
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
EDG’s gradual process allows IT leaders to achieve small, tangible wins at each phase and demonstrate success to stakeholders. Proven results help build a stronger business case, giving organizations a better chance of increasing their budgets and moving the needle from nascent, to basic, to cutting-edge and eventually evolving into a best-in-class service delivery model.
“Adobe can build an aggregate. We can help them build out that strategy, identify their most pressing pain points, kind of become a plug-and-play model for them that works really nicely and helps establish value,” says Chidester. “We want to make sure we're showing them speed to value, especially in the form of engagement.”
When EDG is embraced and put in motion, Lim states that local organizations make the shift from government-focused to citizen-focused, with “the constituent at the center, and government services wrapped around them.” Meaning, instead of residents having to search for what they need, the system can surface relevant services for them, such as Medicaid, DMV, SNAP, and many others, creating experiences that are:
Accessible. EDG allows all residents and businesses to access information and services at any time, from any location and on their preferred medium.
Personal and proactive. The digital experience platform tailors each citizen's interaction to their individual journey.
“We all want to be known. Don't treat me as just one of many, treat me as someone that you know something about and bring services to me that I may not even be aware of, but that could really drive and improve my outcome,” says Lim.
Secure. It’s critical for constituents to know their confidential data is secure. Built-in data privacy and consent policies let constituents audit interactions and permissions so they are in full control of what data they share and who they share it with.
“What you're trying to do around EDG is to become an experience-driven government, but also a data-driven government,” says Chidester. “Leverage the data you have to the fullest and by being more proactive, you're limiting how much data is actually going out because you're able to keep it in house and process it, store it and then make the decisions.”
Cost-effective. If government can conduct the majority of services online, overhead costs significantly decrease. One state that deployed EDG, Lim recalls, reported a 20% reduction in the call center volume because residents were able to find the information they needed on the website without having to dial in.
“Every time you get a human on the line within a contact center it generally costs, on average, around $6,” says Chidester. “If you can minimize human interaction and expedite that service delivery, you're not only saving the government money, but you're also saving time.”