By offering constituent-centered solutions, state and local governments can improve their relationship with residents and accelerate development.
Key takeaways:
- Residents expect government agencies to provide better experiences and workflows.
- Government agencies that prioritize high-quality user-experiences record higher resident participation.
- Constituent satisfaction is fundamental to the success of government efforts.
Residents have growing digital government expectations
Per a study by McKinsey, residents are less satisfied with state services than with private-sector services. As the private sector evolves with solutions such as self-checkout in grocery stores, digital travel passes and banking transactions over mobile apps, constituents’ expectations of public services rise. Residents want speed, simplicity and efficiency in their government interactions.
While public institutions prioritize better online experiences, the focus should be on constituents’ end-to-end journey rather than a single touchpoint. For example, in obtaining a license, government agencies need to consider journey mapping — how they can improve the entire license registration and collection process — rather than optimizing one digital service such as the data upload process.
In addition, government institutions must innovate consistently, embrace digital technology, build forward-thinking teams and leverage data to improve digital transformation efforts.
According to a NASCIO State CIO Survey in 2021, providing better experiences for residents has driven government digital expansion efforts by 74%. Residents no longer want to navigate multiple separate payment channels to transact with local, state and federal governments for various services. A mobile solution that enables constituents to perform various transactions with their government brings convenience.
User-friendly experiences can inspire new government digital transformation initiatives
Deloitte finds that focusing on constituent experiences improves overall government performance. User-friendly solutions, which are easy for average residents to operate, are the basis of excellent front-end experiences.
According to Gartner, 85% of governments that don’t have a comprehensive experience strategy, including user and resident experience improvements, will be unable to transform services totally by 2023.
Governments need to develop experience strategies to kickstart a chain of digital transformation activities and increase resident engagement. These strategies make public service delivery efficient and facilitate processes such as the replacement of legacy infrastructure with modern government technology.
By adopting PayIt’s GovTech solution, local and state government agencies can quickly scale their online payment platform, rapidly deploy new services and enjoy ongoing product updates at no additional cost. PayIt’s flexible government platform encourages institutions to improve customer experiences, fostering digital transformation. Leaders can customize solutions to fit the communities they serve and offer multiple services such as license and vehicle registration, property tax collection and utility bill payments on a single platform.
Customer-centric solutions result in grassroots participation
Customer-centric solutions aim to enhance service delivery to increase resident satisfaction. Modern public institutions prioritize fast and efficient customer service, maintenance requests and improved government customer experiences.
Grassroots initiatives address localized problems and directly impact community members. Civic engagement at the local level gives agencies the momentum to innovate faster. As such, local government institutions should aim to provide customer-centric solutions to encourage resident engagement.
Here are some ways a user-friendly front-end experience improves resident engagement:
- Compliance rates in performing civic duties. An accessible front-end experience based on customer feedback improves the overall service delivery of government institutions. Constituents are more likely to perform obligations such as payment of taxes when convenient options are available.
- Digital inclusion. Customer-centric solutions aim to meet residents wherever they are — regardless of status, location or time constraints. This objective fosters digital inclusion and promotes interest in government activities such as town hall meetings.
- Transparency. Government agencies that provide customer-centric solutions proactively share information with constituents, which enhances transparency, accountability and resident satisfaction with services.
- Trust. In addition to convenience, user-friendly experiences boost trust in government as they reflect the ability of federal agencies to identify and provide solutions to constituents’ needs. Residents’ confidence in their leaders encourages participation in government activities.
User-friendly front-end experiences begin with open integrations and workflow automation. Find out how you can build a modern government experience with customer-centric solutions for your constituents.
Read more about building a modern government experience with PayIt.
Since partnering with PayIt, the city has expanded its online payment capabilities to include marriage licensing, earnings, utility and municipal citation payments and online ACH payments, to mention a few.
See how you can combine improved government customer experiences with real-time system updates
As they await much-needed funding, agencies often have to decide between updating back-office systems and improving user experiences. Integrating new interfaces with existing systems of record or vice versa can be difficult if both technologies are incompatible.
PayIt’s software sits on top of government databases and communicates changes to back-office systems while providing a simple and accessible interface with a great user experience. The GovTech solution adopts a conversational approach in acquiring necessary resident information and uses open integrations to update systems of record. This process helps to improve user experience as legacy systems don’t slow down front-end interfaces.
Ready to see how our GovTech solution can improve your internal workflows and constituent satisfaction? Request your PayIt demo today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does PayIt address legacy back office system problems?
Legacy technology emphasizes on-premise data storage and security with no provision for smart data collection. These features result in constituents performing repetitive tasks such as inputting personal information.
PayIt’s conversational approach to data collection includes an easy-to-understand Q&A chat-like format with configurable business rules that allow data gathering in a recognizable structure. In addition, PayIt’s layer of simplification enables agencies to provide reference data in digestible formats.
What will mobile-friendly government interactions look like?
Mobile-friendly solutions have clear navigation, optimal page-load speed and touch-first designs, where users can complete all actions with their fingers and keypad without needing a mouse. Mobile-friendly interactions also have simple menus, website usability, less intrusive news and updates sections. In addition, these solutions securely save resident information to simplify subsequent interactions.
How can agencies decouple front-end experiences from back office systems?
Many legacy record systems have front-end experiences that attract negative sentiments from constituents. Agencies can decouple experiences and systems by adopting an overarching technology such as PayIt, which optimizes the end-user experience and communicates updates to back-office systems.
