To provide a better CX – MeriTalk, the federation uses emerging technology

Three officials from the federal agency’s high-impact service providers discussed new and innovative ways their agencies are re-evaluating customer experience (CX). .

At an Oct. 13 Federal News Network event, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is leading the fight for better customer service, and the federal departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) explained how they are using emerging technologies. Technologies – such as machine learning and artificial intelligence – to ensure travelers, farmers and everyone in between can access more efficient and safer services.

The TSA has launched a facial recognition pilot program at major international airports in Atlanta and Detroit, according to Nikki French, the agency’s customer service branch manager.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the TSA has been looking for ways to limit contact between screeners and the public, so the agency is testing the effectiveness of using AI to verify travelers’ identities. But, French said, having a TSA agent to help with the process is still critical to ensuring citizens have a positive experience.

“If I didn’t take that step to say hello and walk through the process, it could have been more frustrating. But those machines are also very helpful,” French said. “Improve our security — that’s TSA’s number one mission. We have to do that by incorporating technological advances, but also by improving the soft skills of our officers. So we have to take an integrated approach.”

According to USDA Chief Customer Experience Officer Simchah Suveik Bogin, good CX doesn’t always have to take a digital approach. At a large agency like the USDA, she said, there are different groups of people who require and want to use different levels of technology.

She said her office continues to conduct temperature checks through paper-based mail, phone or in-person calls. USDA gets the customer where they are, Suveyke-Bogin said. The agency will continue to collect customer information and calculate how to continue to provide effective and safe service.

“Technological progress does not always have to be the result. It starts with research, understanding what the problems are and sometimes we can synthesize the results,” she said. “It can be a combination of technology [or] It could be a combination of process improvement,” he said.

Part of that mix is ​​having good employees who can provide a good customer experience.

HUD is focused on ensuring that their employees have the best experience internally, so they can also provide the best experience possible to their external customers.

“Do they have the IT tools they need to do their jobs? We’re actively looking at all solutions . . . to find out where we can make the employee’s HR experience a little easier,” said Amber Chaudhry, HUD’s lead customer experience.

We went from tens of thousands of calls to tens of millions of calls during the pandemic, and sometimes the solutions seem simple. [customer relationship management] Tools to get customer inquiries to the right queue for staff so they can fully focus on answering customer inquiries as quickly as possible,” she says.

The discussion at the October 13 event concluded with the idea that everything is connected – the agency’s mission, the individual client and the staff all come together to achieve a common goal.

“[We’re] It shows the relationship between [the employees] And the customers and how they can help that journey happen or how they can help that person achieve their goals with the service, says Suveike-Bogin. “Everything we do has a purpose, and everything we do matters to our employees and our customers.”