Finding the Best Mobile Moment Is the First Stepping Stone to Anytime, Anywhere Government

Mobile-friendliness is a must for government. But mobilizing the whole digital enchilada takes time due to various challenges, as experiences from the Department of Education and National Park Service have illustrated.

Many agencies are thinking big things for 2015, but if your agency is struggling with that first mobile implementation, you will be asking yourself where to start. Think mobile moments!

The mobile moments concept has been popularized by Forrester analysts Julie Ask and Ted Schadler. They argue that organizations can best serve their customers in specific anytime, anywhere scenarios. Agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have applied this concept well.

How To Discover and Win Your Mobile Moment

Mobile moments are your agency’s chance to shine. The key is getting to know your user; analytics can help you find the moment. However, Ask and her Forrester colleagues suggest plotting the customer journey very specifically. This includes knowing every detail about their context and needs. You should chart the various scenarios that users may encounter when interacting with your office; below is an example chart that Ask created for an airline company.

Once you find a mobile moment, you should build for mobile and not adapt existing processes. You should think like a mobile designer and prototype for the mobile user. USA.gov and the Department of Veterans Affairs both paper prototyped for their mobile users. There are also digital tools that allow you to prototype for mobile.

After you have implemented the mobile moment, promote it and pay attention to how your users engage with the product. Are there opportunities for enhancing or adding new features?

Federal Agencies are Winning Their Mobile Moments: TSA and Can I Bring…?

There are many examples of agencies who are winning their mobile moments. See IRS2Go, NOAA’s Dolphin and Whale 911, and OSHA’s Heat Safety App. However, the TSA is winning big.

TSA offers the MyTSA iOS app, Google Play app, and a mobile website that are all tied to helping the user get to their plane at the airport as quickly as possible. The app includes information on airport delays, security line wait times, and other useful information. However, the mobile moment that TSA is winning the most is the Can I Bring…? moment.

The Can I Bring…? tool was designed to answer the most commonly asked questions fielded by TSA’s contact center about items that passengers want to bring on a plane.

When the tool was created in 2010, these questions made up about 70% of the calls and emails to the TSA contact center; by pushing this information out and making it available 24/7, the goal was to reduce the time and energy for people to get the information they need and to save TSA resources.

Once they released the tool, they watched the feedback. TSA crowdsourced the questions people ask to create content that users need. At the time of launch, the Can I Bring…? database had roughly 800 items. Now, there are over 3,800 items available. You’ll also notice the Can I Bring…? tool featured prominently on their homepage because TSA knows that’s what their users want.

By focusing on the specific moment of user need as well as listening and using the feedback they received, TSA has created a shining mobile moment in customer service.

Government can find success with mobile moments, so start journey mapping your agency users’ mobile moments, right THIS moment!