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Jason M Biggers, Division Director, Technology Engagement & Client Success, Hillsborough CountyToday’s Information Technology (IT) professionals are caught too often in reactive stancesamong leadership, the customer, vendors, and service delivery. How nice would it be to focusonthecustomer andhelp themachievetheir missionwhilebeingproactive intheprocess!
Undoubtedly, the past couples of years have been challenging across all industries and haveforced the embracement of technology solutions likely unknown to most and often thought ofas a last resort platform, especially in the government space. Today, these tools areindispensable in reaching and supporting our customers. Yet, imagine if there was time to vetsolutions rather than just grabbing the first option presented.
Therein lies, in my opinion, thekey to great customer experiences, thinking ahead of the current, here and now and lookingtoward the what if the future holds. In my capacity, I work with a team of professionals thatserve a vibrant, thriving community supported by thirty-eight County departments to includepublic safety to human services, parks and recreation to fleet and facility services. Indeed, thecustomer expectations are high, as they should be, and the opportunities to be ahead of thetechnology gambit are significant.
A successful customer experience with technology and thoseproviding the technology are greater now more than ever. It is beyond measuring the numberof calls we take, the number of tickets we close, how many applications or servers we have put into production or how many access points are available. Of course, all these things areimportant in our core service delivery, but none of them measure the customer experience,howwell didwe do ingivingthe customerwhat they wanted?
“A successful customer experience with technology and those providing the technology are greater now more than ever."
I am confident there are organizations,publicandprivatethat measurethecustomerexperience,i.e.CXasweall know about such measures, but bringing those down to the state and local government levelsholds significant potential for leaders in this area. Do the enterprise solutions we have nowmeet the needs of the department? Are we helping the departments achieve their mission orstated outcomes for the given fiscal or calendar year?
A good deal of discussion has been hadon IT being more than a cost unit but rather a business partner and having a seat at the table.Re-thinking IT beyond having a seat at the table, is critical to continue to integrate our servicesand capabilities with every department, down to the individual, while providing such within anenvironment that encourages the departments to respond positively and honestly when we askfor their experience with IT. With this in mind, we have consolidated to a single point of intakefor our County departments through our Technology Service Center. This allows the customerto have one place to go to request assistance for anything related to technology from how touse a mouse to I need a solution for managing shelter staffing during disasters.
We push thisconcept through marketing, emails, technology alerts and other forms of communication. Thesingle point of entry allows the departments to no longer wonder who they should go to foranswers or support and while the mindset is new, with internal mechanics still being refined, ithas opened new opportunities to embrace a new experience model and continue to develop ITprofessionals from entry level call taking to Tier II and III IT engineers and architects ultimatelytying the customer and their Service Delivery Manger together to ensure successfulcollaboration regarding implementation and execution of the desired technology application,service orsolution.
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