The term 'digital transformation' has been used frequently to describe how businesses utilize technology in new and innovative ways, but what does this term mean in the government sector? Are there factors that make some transformations more successful than others?

For government agencies and their community of contractors, getting the most mission impact out of a digital transformation requires a shift in mindset. Leaders must prioritize delivering organization-wide frictionless technology while they rethink engagement. That requires a redefinition of 'engagement' as well as a new idea of 'customer.'

The US Government is the largest service provider of the Fortune 500 with 325 million customers – governmental agencies are in the business of serving a wide swath of people.

Engagement starts with understanding your customers

Customers can be citizens, employees, and partners, anyone you define as a constituent. If those individuals interact with your department in any way, we should consider that engagement. The disconnect occurs when engagement does not meet rising customer expectations that have been set by commercial companies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where everyone is connected.

When government agencies truly understand who their customers are and what they need, they can leverage technology to create meaningful connections and provide the relevant, personalized experiences that have become the expectation. With the growing importance of intelligent connectivity, the best way to transform service delivery while operating more efficiently is through the right mix of engagement and technology.

The Salesforce Customer Success Platform places the constituent at the center of core capabilities like case management, outreach and engagement, and collaboration while applying business intelligence and artificial intelligence. By focusing on engagement, the platform helps government programs, business units, and IT teams realign, automate, scale, and personalize experiences for their customers.

That's why a successful digital transformation leverages cloud technology to help government agencies improve and scale three critical areas: customer and citizen engagement, employee engagement and experience, and IT and agency operations.

Customer and citizen engagement

There are two things that are often said about customer experience: Our customers hate to wait and our customers love modern, digital interactions. So, ask yourself, how do you speed up service? How do you translate physical experiences into digital or mobile experiences?

As an example, every citizen who submits a ticket wants their customer service issue resolved quickly. Through digital transformation, departments can offer interactive chat functionality via mobile devices. That way, citizens can communicate with the government in the same way they do with their friends.

Remember that creating a positive experience for constituents helps fulfill your agency's mission in ways that build trust, credibility, and legitimacy, as well as increases productivity and ROI.

Employee engagement and experience

According to McKinsey & Company, “Superior employee engagement and a superior customer experience reinforce each other. We’ve found that programs to improve the engagement of frontline workers can have a significant positive impact on the customer experience.”

The impact of digital transformation in the workplace significantly improves the employee experience, despite initial resistance to change. Replacing legacy systems with automated workflows takes away the burden of time-consuming administration, giving employees the time they need to focus on tasks only humans can accomplish.

To feel the positive effects of improved employee experience, it’s essential that leadership properly illustrate the potential upside of digital transformation and highlight beneficial outcomes to the people that they impact.

IT and agency operations

Government is being challenged to make decisions based on analyzing streams of data to target new interactions through digital channels. In many cases, departments are empowering “citizen developers” to create applications in new low/no-code environments to accelerate digital transformation and overcome the hurdle of a shortage in developer resources.

IDC suggests, “Some services are meant for users with minimal technology experience (often in the line of business) with a low/no-code approach, while others target professional developers offering complete control of application functionality and the choice of multiple languages.”

Make engagement central to your transformation

We rely on Trailblazers, as leaders with a growth mindset, to envision what's possible and drive change in their department. We understand the varied and diverse missions within the government and that, outreach or talent management will be different depending on the agency's mission.  And so, for every customer, we work with you to customize the Customer Success Platform. We help our customers put their customers at the center of everything they do; veterans, farmers, welfare recipients, recruits and more.

Are you ready to blaze your trail to transformation? Join us at the Salesforce World Tour DC to discover firsthand how you can modernize the citizen and employee experience while streamlining IT operations and cutting costs.