This article is part of a comprehensive report published by the International Foundation for Customer Experience in Government, which aims to enhance the global dialogue on Customer Experience (CX) in the public sector. Drawing on innovative practices from around the world, the report establishes benchmarks for governments to improve their CX initiatives.
CASE STUDY: NEW SOUTH WALES CUSTOMER STRATEGY
INTRODUCTION
The implementation of a Customer Framework as part of New South Wales’ (NSW) Customer Strategy marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the NSW government’s service delivery approach. In response to an ever-changing landscape of citizen expectations and technological advancements, the NSW government recognized the pressing need to shift towards a more customer-centric model.
The strategy aims to meet the NSW government vision to become the world’s most customer-centric government by 2030, directly impacting the delivery of services with a focus on service uptake, service effectiveness, as well as budget efficiency and productivity. The published Customer Commitments give a clear picture of what customers should expect when receiving government services.20
DESCRIPTION OF THE INITIATIVE
The Customer Framework NSW seeks to empower citizens by providing them with streamlined, accessible, and responsive services, fostering a sense of trust and engagement between the government and its diverse population. The Customer Framework is composed of 5 key areas of work, outlined below:
- Understanding: developing an understanding of customer needs based on data and insights.
- Prioritize: making customer impact a priority.
- Delivery: ensure seamless and high-quality experience are delivered to customers.
- Engage: making sure customers engage with future priorities meaningfully.
- Embed: integrate a culture of customer service across the public service.
As the basis for all areas of work, the NSW government takes a pertinent focus on understanding the customer. This is done by gathering, analyzing, and publishing large-scale customer feedback based on its Customer Experience (CX) Survey launched in December 2021 to measure how easy, effective, and trustworthy the various services are. The CX Survey provides insights into the experience of over 24,000 individuals and 6,000 businesses annually, covering 550 different transactions across 37 government services.
The NSW Government’s vision of becoming the world’s leader in customer-centricity requires comparison to other governments. Therefore, once a year, the same survey is conducted by an independent marketing agency in two other regional governments in Australia and six international jurisdictions (New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, and Denmark).
The Customer Experience Unit, within the Customer Service Department, undertakes the task of translating survey insights into actionable inputs for service enhancements. Utilizing the Double Diamond Design Thinking methodology, the unit first focuses on understanding customer issues deeply, then passes this knowledge to development and delivery teams in entities that design and implement solutions. Priority is given to high-volume transactions and essential services that cater to numerous individuals, with an additional emphasis on addressing the needs of marginalized members of the community who require substantial government support.
SUCCESS FACTORS
Several key success factors contributed to the effectiveness of the program:
- Vision and Full Support During Implementation: Clear vision and strong leadership support elevate customer centricity, bringing tangible changes in practice.
- Role of “Change Agents” in Agencies: Change agents share design thinking tools, improving CX and implementing customer feedback for continuous improvement.
- Positive Feedback Driving Change: Positive feedback and customer orientations foster a willingness to provide customer-oriented solutions among citizens and public servants.
MAIN CHALLENGES
While the program achieved significant success, it also encountered some challenges:
- Utilizing Comprehensive Customer Feedback Data: Delving deeper into specific data for services and customers poses challenges, requiring careful consideration of privacy and data protection. Surveying is also only one of the many techniques that can be used to collect insights.
- Information Sharing Among Agencies: Although agreeing on information sharing for customer research is challenging, access to aggregated datasets is crucial for understanding customer behavior.
- Transitioning From Start-Up to Maturity: Moving towards a scalable model requires constant communication of success stories and building competencies for working with key tools such as customer journey mapping.responsibility for service improvement leads to slower progress if it is not managed adequately.
TAKEAWAYS
The program offers valuable takeaways for successful government initiatives:
- Leveraging Structured Data for Service Improvements: Structured customer feedback data serves as actionable input for enhancing services.
- A Unified Service Design Method: A unified service design method helps define responsibility within public organizations for improved service delivery and provides a common language for public servants and service designers.
- When Upskilling and Storytelling for Effective Implementation: Constant upskilling of the workforce and storytelling to create a narrative around planned improvements drive routine customer-centric practices.
In conclusion, the NSW Customer Framework represents a significant milestone in the NSW government’s commitment to shift towards a customer-centric service delivery approach. By prioritizing customer impact, leveraging comprehensive feedback data, implementing a unified design method and cultivating change agents, the government has successfully embraced a culture of customer service, paving the way for continuous improvement and a vision to become the world’s leader in customer-centricity
In our next article, we will explore how Singapore is pioneering life-event service design through its “Moments of Life” initiative and the LifeSG platform, setting a global benchmark for seamless, citizen-centric digital services.