{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Understanding Your Customer |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Understanding Your Customer",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/09/22/understanding-your-customer-2/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Understanding Your Customer","summary" : "How well do you know your customers? There’s a new guide out from the Excellence In Government (EIG) Fellows Program to help you do just that. Led by the Partnership for Public Service, EIG is a federal government initiative to train future leaders. This year, three hundred federal employees took the EIG journey to learn","date" : "2015-09-22T10:00:26-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"andrea-d-williamson" : "Andrea D. Williamson"},"topics" : {
        
            "customer-experience" : "Customer experience",
            "product-and-project-management" : "Product and project management"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-09-22-understanding-your-customer-2.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/09/2015-09-22-understanding-your-customer-2.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/09/2015-09-22-understanding-your-customer-2.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/09/2015-09-22-understanding-your-customer-2.md","slug" : "understanding-your-customer-2","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/09/22/understanding-your-customer-2/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/09/600-x-400-Question-Mark-Rawpixel-Ltd-iStock-Thinkstock-180823703.jpg\"\n    alt=\"A crowd of anonymous people holding up question mark signs in front of their faces.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eHow well do you know your customers? There’s a new guide out from the \u003ca href=\"http://ourpublicservice.org/issues/develop-leaders/excellence-in-government-fellows.php\"\u003eExcellence In Government (EIG) Fellows Program\u003c/a\u003e to help you do just that.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLed by the Partnership for Public Service, EIG is a federal government initiative to train future leaders. This year, three hundred federal employees took the EIG journey to learn about Values, Vision, Mission, Driving Results, Leading People, Leading Change, Building Partnership and Coalitions, Business Acumen, Synthesis and Celebration. As part of this learning, teams of EIG Fellows also take on a project that will contribute to better government.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was one of this year’s EIG Fellows. Our team was called the HCSAM (Honorable Customer Service Always Memorable) Results Team, an acronym derived from the initials of each team member (Herb Suber, USDA; Corliss McCain, DHS; Sharon Ballard, HHS; Andrea D. Williamson, HUD; MaryAnn Monroe, GSA.) We adopted a mission to “support the efforts to enhance the American public’s satisfaction with customer service across the federal government,” and determined to develop some guidance to support the \u003ca href=\"http://www.performance.gov/node/3400?view=public#apg\"\u003eCustomer Service Cross Agency Priority (CAP) Goal\u003c/a\u003e. We decided to create a guide to customer understanding, for inclusion in the CAP Goal Customer Service Toolkit.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnder the CAP goal, agencies are charged with transforming their work environment and culture to deliver world-class customer service, but where to start? Understanding what customers need is an important step in helping government build, buy and deliver better products and services to the American people.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"six-steps-to-customer-understanding\"\u003eSix Steps to Customer Understanding\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/07/600-x-480-USAgov-Personas-and-Journey-Maps.jpg\"\n    alt=\"A U.S.A. dot gov journey map\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe simple Guide to \u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/09/Understanding-Your-Customer.pdf\"\u003eUnderstanding Your Customer\u003c/a\u003e (PDF, 10.1 MB, 13 pages) developed by our team covers six key points:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGet Started\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDefine Your Customers\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDocument Your Customers and Their Experiences\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eConduct Research\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnalyze Data for Customer Insights\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShare and Take Action on Customer Insights\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe also created an \u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/09/Understanding-Your-Customer-infographic.pdf\"\u003einfographic\u003c/a\u003e (PDF, 3.7 MB, 2 pages) to accompany the guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo develop these materials, our team conducted research to determine current thinking and best practices around customer understanding. Some of our sources include:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://customerthink.com/customer-driven-transformation-via-walking-in-customers-shoes/\"\u003eCustomer-Driven Transformation via Walking in Customers’ Shoes\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/8-steps-cust-exp-gov-wp-1560471.pdf\"\u003eEight Steps to Great Customer Experience for Government Agencies\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/free-book-the-6-laws-of-customer-experience/\"\u003eThe 6 Laws Of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths That Define How Organizations Treat Customers\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce we decided to tackle Customer Experience as our Impact Project, I honed in on Driving Results, because we need to think about the impact of results. This results project is part of a larger initiative to improve the customer experience. We took the path that would leave a trail for others to follow and add to the customer experience they deliver. A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson inspired us. “Do not follow where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” I trust the trail we leave will improve government and help agencies meet customer expectations.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}