This blog is an excerpt from GovLoop’s recent industry perspective, “Creating an End-to-End Citizen Experience.” Download the full report here.
Today, customers expect more than a one-size-fits-all experience. They don’t want to navigate an unfamiliar website or scour the internet looking for relevant information. Instead, they want the right information delivered to them. They expect personal and consistent experiences across multiple platforms, including websites, social media, mobile apps and multiple devices.
But oftentimes different solutions are used to manage separate channels, making it difficult to deliver experiences that are tailored to the unique needs and expectations of each citizen. To deliver this level of service, your organization needs an integrated system that lets you create personalized experiences across any channel. The solution should also provide an accurate measure of the impact or reach of your digital efforts.
A customer journey map can help you understand the end-to-end citizen experience. Amtrak is beginning to use customer journey mapping to provide a customized digital experience for its passengers. To better engage with customers, Amtrak charted each customer interaction, including before they arrive at their departure station, the onboarding procedure, departure from the station, arrival at a new station, and transit to their final destination plus their post-trip experience.
At each of those touchpoints, Amtrak sought to discover its customers’ painpoints. For example, customers may not know their way around a train station, or they may not be properly informed about delays. By actively listening to customers, Amtrak now creates dynamic profiles based on interactions that customers have with their content and services.
Jason Werther, Amtrak’s senior director, IT systems of interaction, spoke about customer journey mapping during the 2017 Adobe Digital Government Symposium.
Werther noted that Amtrak is partnering with Adobe to better understand and make use of customer data. For example, Amtrak is making a concerted effort to better understand passenger preferences, such as the train stations they visit most, preferred seating accommodations and more.
“We also created the mobile app Rider, which allows our customers to buy a ticket anytime, anywhere, and all they have to do is bring their phone with them,” Werther said. “We have the urgency, the passion and the teamwork to make a better digital user experience for our customers.”
Amtrak wants to go beyond e-ticketing and is looking at applications that allow for automatic ticket scanning using small Bluetooth devices. This evolution in e-ticketing saves both time and money — benefiting conductors and Amtrak overall.
In the past, conductors had to carry several heavy manuals on a range of topics, including how to respond to an emergency. Today that information is readily accessible on a tablet. Conductors also use mobile devices to access important information about passengers, such as disabilities, seating needs and other preferences. These features help organizations provide a personalized experience for customers at each touchpoint.
Ultimately, journey mapping can create better experiences for citizens and a better customer-agency relationship that can evolve over time as agencies gather feedback and refine their journey maps.
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