With industries around the globe raising the bar on innovations that drive personalized experiences, many government organizations also feel pressure to deliver better customer service in order to maintain public trust and credibility. As a result, they are seeking ways to leverage disruptive technologies to drive program impact, even as priorities and needs change.

Rising customer expectations are disrupting every industry. In a global study of consumers conducted by management consultancy PwC, survey respondents overwhelmingly agree their business has been impacted in the past five years by a greater need for customer centricity, with nearly half (49%) of all business leaders surveyed describing this impact as “significant.”

This shift poses quite a challenge for the public sector. Government does not have customers in the commercial sense, but nonetheless serves citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders as “customers.” And government has unique constraints. It’s highly regulated, with layers of oversight and scrutiny on budgets and priorities. Governments are risk-averse because they deliver critical public services; however, this can leave them hesitant to make needed changes. But even with these intricacies, a real shift in mindset has started to emerge globally.

Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of working with officials all over the world — from Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and more. And teams across government are starting to look at digital transformation from the customer perspective.

I’ve seen successful public sector teams make this customer-first shift with two strategies: empower employees to do their best work, and then build a customer-centric culture. Together these strategies form a powerful combination to deliver modern customer service, fulfill the mission more effectively, and safeguard the public trust.

Empower employees to do their best work

Great customer experiences actually start by taking care of employees. Employees who are highly engaged and committed to their mission are those equipped with the right skills, with technology that makes it easier for them to do their jobs, and supportive leadership.

Often this means breaking down silos, connecting interactions and touchpoints across the customer journey. Technology is key to uniting teams around the customer. Bringing the front-line program teams together with the IT department as systems are integrated and new apps are rolled out helps everyone focus on service delivery and the customer.

Employees no longer spend their time working around cumbersome tools to get the job done. Instead, they use a 360-degree customer view, as well as data-driven insights to form the right set of actions needed for each unique outcome.

Build a customer-centric culture

The second piece of the equation is understanding your customers.

According to Integrated Transformation, an Economist Intelligence Unit report found “respondents overwhelmingly agree that businesses that do not include customers in innovation processes—not just frontline customer service—will fall behind.”

The natural tendency in government has been to go “inside-out.” Programs and services are delivered according to how bureaucracies are structured, and how siloed technologies and processes reinforce the organizational chart.

To go “outside-in” means understanding what your customers value and need, first, and then seeing where programs, processes, and technology need to change to meet customers where they are.

It’s all about creating engaging employee and customer experiences, like a case management system that unifies efforts internally and externally by providing a centralized view of all relevant case information.