Governments from all over the world are still in their recovery phase after COVID-19. The unprecedented crisis brought about by the pandemic called for digital transformation in the public sector, with many citizens requiring urgent assistance, care, and support during challenging times.
In a study by the National Library of Medicine, it was concluded that trust played a key role in the control of COVID-19. However, obtaining the public’s trust became especially difficult when facing a common – yet invisible – enemy.
Building trust means being reliable, responsive, transparent, and fair. Now, as the world slowly regains its rhythm after disruption, governments can seize many opportunities to rebuild trust among its citizens by redefining citizen support strategies that are driven by digital transformation.
Driving Digital Transformation in the Public Sector
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, new government support services were established to make service accessible. Technology played a role in bridging citizens to their governments. Public servants can be reached through citizen helplines to provide medical assistance, important government updates became accessible through apps, track-and-trace technology became essential in quarantine management, and patient management became doable thanks to the use of data.
And it’s only pivotal for governments to keep on moving forward by implementing digital transformation in the public sector.
The public sector’s outlook on digital transformation has shifted – and as citizens expect to receive a higher level of support in a post-pandemic environment, governments have the opportunity to increase public trust and to better serve the public by elevating the citizen experience.
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach for governments to accelerate their digital transformation, here are a few key points to consider:
- Set realistic objectives: Having clearly defined digital transformation objectives can truly help in setting the pace in starting a digital transformation journey, as well as aid in finding the right digital solution. Do you want to increase efficiency? Are you targeting to improve citizen experience and build transparency? Do you want to elevate your communications strategy? Do you want to transform or optimize processes?
- Give citizens more choices: In other industries, brands and companies often present customers with choices to make them feel in control over what they buy. In the world of customer service, letting the customer choose how they want to contact customer support often paves way for better customer satisfaction levels. There’s no reason why the public sector should not follow suit. Presenting – not overwhelming – citizens with simplified choices can lead to a world of difference. It could start by creating more digital channels or platforms to choose from in order to reach public servants better, or by offering citizens more ways to receive service (in-person vs. online applications, self-service vs. face-to-face, etc.)
- Get to know your citizens better through data and technology: Insights gathered from analytics and data are integral in identifying citizens, as well as in personalizing service. Emerging technologies such as machine learning and AI can also track inefficiencies or issues that affect operations or processes.
- Automation is a friend: Government services are often associated with huge piles of paperwork – but the good news is, automation and AI-powered bots can lend a hand in collecting and keeping records or files organized. Intelligent automation can also impact citizen experience positively, as well as government workers tasked to handle daily tasks.
Let Teleperformance’s digitally integrated business services help you achieve more in the public sector.
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