March 21, 2022

By Troy K.

ActionNet was excited to attend the Salesforce webinar in December where the VP of Digital Transformation, Chris Radich, and Director of Customer Success, Michael Hornsby, discussed the current trends in Salesforce government customer experience (CX). Salesforce covered topics on the government’s perception on customer experience and the top five Salesforce use cases for government agencies. It has been demonstrated over the last 20 months that government organizations really value speed as a priority for digital transformation, sometimes in as little as four to eight weeks. They value personalized content and digital experience with the capability to quickly produce a mobile ready user interface. To deliver this level of personalization and reduce the time to market, the implementation must leverage Salesforce out of the box capabilities. The less we custom code and solve for multi-year challenges…the better the outcomes.

The takeaway from the initial discussion was the “new normal” of CX.

  • Make speed a priority: Don’t spend too much time designing gold plated technology solutions
  • Rally around new ways of engaging: Focus on digital support and case resolution
  • Don’t be paralyzed by legacy: Instead, focus on 8-week use case deployments

All of the user stories discussed were from a citizen perspective and the use cases below touch on those topics. We’ll start with #5 first.

#5 – Receive program updates via emails & SMS. (Correspondence Management System)

It may be a complaint system, web form, upcoming event, or even a social media inquiry, but citizens are looking for better correspondence with government agencies. If you think about receiving program updates or outreach, this example can apply to every single government organization at all levels.

Over the past 8 years, this has been ActioNet’s #1 use case with government agencies. We implemented over 47 Salesforce Communities to enable the customer to connect directly with citizens through multiple communication channels. In addition to Salesforce Communities, we completed over 90 applications for online forms and complaint systems.

#4 – Get agency support via phone. (Service Console w/ CTA & IVR Integration)

More and more, citizens are looking to speak directly to agents or at a minimum be routed to the right agent. They want to discuss their recent web submission and expect their case details to be available to the agent. Many government agencies are looking for solutions to upgrade their phone support and build towards multi-channel citizen service.

#3 – Get agency support online via self-service. (Self Service Portal / Chatbots)

As government agencies build up large knowledge bases of information, citizens are looking for ways to get answers to their questions by providing them direct access to the knowledge or better yet, receive answers via chatbots. Self service portals give agencies the opportunity to connect with the citizen via online forms or applications.

ActioNet provides this low cost, fast implementation solution to over 50% of our Salesforce customers. Our experienced staff leveraged out of the box self service portal capabilities and proactively managed our customer’s social media, knowledge base, and mission campaign initiative responses directly from the Salesforce platform.

#2 – Ensure personal health and safety. (Vaccine Administration System)

Over the past year, US federal agencies had challenges with COVID policies and welfare services changes and as a result they had an influx of requests for information. They needed to comply with the new policies and request for service, so they applied this precise use case to modernize their Correspondence Management System. Ultimately it was the only way to drive compliance with a whole new wave of requests. Salesforce Vaccine Cloud is the digital solution to this use case and provides agencies or health authorities an end-to-end vaccine management platform with the capability to collect data, manage sites, staffing, and have a holistic view of their vaccination campaigns.

#1 – Apply for agency financial assistance or benefits. (Financial Assistance Portal / website)

With the latest funding figures stating that the federal government Has
pumped $4 Trillion into the US economy since the pandemic began in March of 2020, this use case is trending across all levels of government. There’s a real need to apply for agency financial assistance or benefits like unemployment, rental assistance, and small business loans. The challenge for government agencies is to have the ability to stand up a grants, loans, or benefits portal to provide digital access to services as quickly as possible. A financial assistance portal or website gives the citizens the ability to setup accounts, apply for benefits online, view application status online, receive email and SMS status notifications and approval. This takes the citizen through application intake in a digital form, through approval and then ultimately integration with the financial payment system.

ActioNet agrees that this is the “new” #1 use case, as several current customers rely on ActioNet to recommend solutions related to grants management. It is very important for agencies to have the ability to launch program initiatives, follow the grant life cycle, and maintaining visibility across all programs. The capabilities of a grants management solution is important, but is only effective if it can be implemented in weeks, not years!