Published on September 6, 2022 | Reading Time: 3 mins
In most public sector organizations, the Customer Experience (CX) team is usually a small team (anywhere from 2 to 10 people). Nowadays, many public sector organizations are investing time and resources into figuring out the right CX org structure and operating model to boost their CX practices given the unmatched, growing interest in CX in government.
It is important however to reiterate here that the issue of CX hierarchies can’t adopt a one size fits all approach. Each governmental agency has its own unique conditions, opportunities and constraints that should be fully understood first before jumping into recommending how CX is governed and by who. Choosing between centralized and decentralized models or creating a hybrid between them is dependent on so many internal and external factors that surround governmental agencies and the machinery they operate within.
The right CX team can operate successfully, no matter what hierarchy it operates under, given that people are selected correctly, are assuming the right roles and responsibilities and are provided with the right conditions to bring their best abilities to the workplace. Nonetheless, the CX team for a large agency is unlikely to look the same as the CX team for a smaller one. Similarly, the CX team for a more mature agency in its CX capabilities is unlikely to look the same as the CX team for a less mature agency.
Primary roles of CX teams in the public sector
At their core, CX teams in the public sector are usually responsible for leading CX transformation efforts. Their roles however vary depending on the size of the team and the hierarchy they belong to. According to the Direction Dimension of the 4Ds model, CX teams in the public sector should play the following primary roles:
- Leading the maturity review exercise periodically as well as channel assessment efforts for both digital and non-digital channels, based on the agency’s service and product quality standards.
- Setting up the CX transformation priorities and developing the CX strategy for the governmental agency.
- Orchestrating the CX design efforts and facilitating problem framing and ideation workshops.
- Managing the service catalogue and ensuring service information is up to date for both customer-facing employees and customers.
- Managing customer feedback programs and ensuring voice of customer (VOC) is affecting strategic decision making at the organizational level.
- Managing CX measurement programs and monitoring service and customer metrics.
- Leading the culture of positive transformation efforts through meaningful programs and initiatives.
Composition of your CX team
Regardless of the nature and size of your agency you may want to consider the following roles:
1- Customer experience lead:
This is usually the person in charge of your CX team; could be called a CX lead, a chief experience officer (CXO) or director, a chief customer officer (CCO) or director. They usually report to top leadership and liaise with the leadership team. The CX lead is usually responsible for developing the CX strategy and identifying the CX transformation priorities, and is usually leading the efforts of instilling a customer-centric culture within the agency and among the CX team members.
2- The CX team:
Whether your team is decentralized or centralized, you will want to consider the following team composition:
- The customer advocate. It is recommended that your team includes members who have direct access to the voice of customers. They review and study results of qualitative and quantitative feedback, using data analytics, and analyse customer trends and patterns. They generate and share intelligence about customers with team members. They also improve your research method tools based on accumulated learning and help improve the CX strategy and design outcomes.
- The experience designers. Consist of human-centred design thinkers who usually carry out journey mapping for as-is and future states, engage in extensive problem framing and facilitate ideation sessions. This team usually includes or works closely with UX and UI designers from the digital teams.
- The measurement nerds. Improving CX is an art and science. Making sense of qualitative and quantitative service performance data is extremely important to ensure success and sustainability of CX initiatives.
If a governmental agency is fully centred around the customer and is taking its CX agenda seriously, theoretically, every public servant in that organization should be considered as part of the CX team. Hiring the right CX team is possible and is important but should not be your only goal. Making CX improvement everyone’s responsibility is a much more optimal and effective way of doing things.
