{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
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    "title" : "Using Personas to Better Understand Customers: USA.gov Case Study |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Using Personas to Better Understand Customers: USA.gov Case Study",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/cm-topics-button-component/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/cm-topics-button-component/2015/04/06/using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Using Personas to Better Understand Customers: USA.gov Case Study","summary" : "Personas are fictional characters that describe an organization’s customer behaviors, emotions, attributes, motivations, and goals. They are an important tool to share customer insights and understanding across an organization. Personas also serve as a check to make sure your organization’s actions meet the needs of the majority of customers, including visitors to your website, contact","date" : "2015-04-06T11:49:07-04:00","date_modified" : "2024-04-02T09:45:13-04:00","authors" : {"michelle-chronister" : "Michelle Chronister"},"topics" : {
        
            "analytics" : "Analytics",
            "customer-experience" : "Customer experience",
            "multilingual" : "Multilingual",
            "research" : "Research",
            "search" : "Search",
            "user-experience" : "User Experience"
            },"branch" : "cm-topics-button-component",
      "filename" :"2015-04-06-using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/04/2015-04-06-using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/cm-topics-button-component/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-06-using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/cm-topics-button-component/content/news/2015/04/2015-04-06-using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study.md","slug" : "using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/cm-topics-button-component/2015/04/06/using-personas-to-better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study/","content" :"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/cm-topics-button-component/2015/01/09/personas-101/\"\u003ePersonas\u003c/a\u003e are fictional characters that describe an organization’s customer behaviors, emotions, attributes, motivations, and goals. They are an important tool to share customer insights and understanding across an organization. Personas also serve as a check to make sure your organization’s actions meet the needs of the majority of customers, including visitors to your website, contact center, in-person visits, and interactive voice response (IVR) self service customers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"why-we-updated-our-personas\"\u003eWhy We Updated our Personas\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePersonas aren’t new to \u003ca href=\"http://www.usa.gov/\"\u003eUSA.gov\u003c/a\u003e. We developed personas several years ago because we recognized the importance of understanding our customers, their behaviors and information needs. As we’re evolving USA.gov and our contact center platforms, updated personas are important.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe created \u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/USA.gov-Personas-March-2015.pdf\"\u003enew personas\u003c/a\u003e (PDF, 1.9 MB, 5 pages) of the customers who currently use USA.gov and 1-844-USA-GOV1 based on the themes and insights observed from several different data sets. We reviewed the following 2014 data:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUSA.gov Web analytics (via the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/cm-topics-button-component/guides/dap/\"\u003eDigital Analytics Program\u003c/a\u003e), including demographics, devices, common paths, popular pages, and outbound links\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOnsite search data from \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/cm-topics-button-component/services/search/\"\u003eDigitalGov Search\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUSA.gov customer satisfaction survey data\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSearches on Google that led customers to USA.gov (via \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/webmasters/\"\u003eGoogle Webmaster Tools\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1-844-USA-GOV1 contact center content usage\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWeb analytics for other government websites available through the Digital Analytics Program\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGeneral \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/trends/\"\u003esearch trends on Google\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"what-we-learned\"\u003eWhat We Learned\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur customers are diverse and come to USA.gov with a range of goals and to find a broad scope of information and services. We categorized them by type of information seeking behavior:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eComplete a transaction (or find information to prepare to complete a transaction)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFind specific information on a known topic\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBrowse information or learn more on a general topic\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFind contact information for an agency or elected official\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese categories aren’t perfect – there is overlap between the customer types. A customer may fall into multiple types, but we still think these personas are useful for thinking about how our customers look for information.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/600-x-339-USAgov-Personas-slide-2-Complete-a-Transaction.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Slide 2, Complete a transaction (or find information to prepare to complete a transaction)\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch3 id=\"complete-a-transaction-or-find-information-to-prepare-to-complete-a-transaction\"\u003eComplete a transaction (or find information to prepare to complete a transaction)\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany customers come to us to \u003cstrong\u003ecomplete a transaction\u003c/strong\u003e, such as renewing a passport or to change their address.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany government transactions involve downloading forms or finding copies of a vital document, such as a birth certificate. Due to the preparation involved in completing some transactions, we know customers come to us for help with this step.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/600-x-332-USAgov-Personas-slide-3-Find-Specific-Info.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Slide 3, Find specific information on a known topic\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch3 id=\"find-specific-information-on-a-known-topic\"\u003eFind specific information on a known topic\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese customers \u003cstrong\u003eknow what they want but need help finding it\u003c/strong\u003e. They might want to know how to get a free copy of their credit report or how to apply for Social Security benefits. We occasionally get inquiries that are very specific, such as the number of people on welfare in Kansas in 2011.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/600-x-337-USAgov-Personas-slide-4-Browse-info-Learn-more.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Slide 4, Browse information or learn more on a general topic\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch3 id=\"browse-information-or-learn-more-on-a-general-topic\"\u003eBrowse information or learn more on a general topic\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe know from survey comments that many customers want to \u003cstrong\u003ebrowse information\u003c/strong\u003e on a topic. They want to see all available health insurance options, for example.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore frequently, they may have an idea in mind about what information they want, but they do not know exactly what that information is. A popular example is financial assistance available from the government. Many customers want to know what assistance is available to them, but can’t articulate if they want a grant, loan, etc.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/600-x-337-USAgov-Personas-slide-5-Find-contact-info.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Slide 5, Find contact information for an agency or elected official\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch3 id=\"find-contact-information-for-an-agency-or-elected-official\"\u003eFind contact information for an agency or elected official\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis also falls under finding specific information on a known topic, but the \u003ca href=\"http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/index.shtml\"\u003eA-Z directory of federal agencies\u003c/a\u003e is so popular, it’s worth making a separate category. Customers are looking for \u003cstrong\u003econtact information\u003c/strong\u003e, especially hard to find information, such as the phone number for the IRS.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"steps-in-developing-usagov-personas\"\u003eSteps in Developing USA.gov Personas\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe drafted our personas in about two weeks and kept our process simple. We involved key stakeholders, such as managers, from the beginning. We also used data from multiple sources to inform our personas. To create personas for each type of customer, we picked some of the most common tasks people come to us to accomplish. We even had a little fun with data. After choosing an age in the most popular age range, we used the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/\"\u003eSocial Security Administration’s baby name data\u003c/a\u003e to pick the most popular name for that year.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile the personas are composite representations, the quotes associated with them are from real customers. Because of time and resource constraints, we used customer satisfaction survey comments as the main source of qualitative data.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"next-steps\"\u003eNext Steps\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe’re sharing the personas across our organization and creating journey maps based on these personas and the common questions/scenarios they experience. The personas may evolve as we journey map, and we plan to revisit them annually to make sure we’re in step with customer motivations, emotions, goals, needs and behaviors. In the future, we plan to conduct first-person research with current and potential customers of USA.gov to inform our customer understanding and their associated journeys.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe will continue our persona development process to include \u003ca href=\"https://www.usa.gov/espanol/\"\u003eUSAGov en Español\u003c/a\u003e (\u003cem\u003eformerly known as GobiernoUSA.gov\u003c/em\u003e) and future customers. This will ensure that we understand and meet ever changing needs. The \u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/04/USA.gov-Personas-March-2015.pdf\"\u003ecomplete list of our four personas is available\u003c/a\u003e (PDF, 1.9 MB, 5 pages).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a future post, we will share examples of the customer journey maps associated with our personas.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}