Monthly Theme: How Federal Contact Centers Deliver Great Customer Service

At the end of last year, DigitalGov posted an article predicting that 2016 would be the year of the customer. Stephanie Thum, Vice President of Customer Experience at Export-Import Bank, looked at the great strides made in federal customer service in 2014 and called it the year of “planting seeds.” She then pointed to 2015 as the year of “germination and nurturing.”

Our DigitalGov team decided to go to the root of a lot of agency customer service: contact centers. It could be argued that contact centers and their agents water the customer service seeds that bloom into satisfied customers. In January, Martha Dorris, Director of the Office of Innovative Technologies at GSA, highlighted 15 customer service trends for 2015 and noted that contact centers will continue to be an important channel to serve the public.

We’ll look at contact centers from a variety of agencies, and we’ll also see how traditional contact centers have evolved in a digital world. Check in throughout the month for articles on:

• Recent webinars and trainings organized by the Government Contact Center Council (G3C) and hosted by DigitalGov University
• Trends in the use of interactive voice response technology
• How agencies use social media to complement the work of contact centers
• The debate over FAQs and whether they drive or inhibit good customer service
• How the National Cancer Institute uses SMS to reach the public
• Lessons learned by contact centers