USAGov is committed to providing an excellent omnichannel customer experience (CX) for users. One way we do this is by using the content on our websites to power the USAGov Contact Center’s knowledge base. This allows our contact center agents and website visitors to read and rely on the same information to find answers to questions about government benefits and services.
When beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español replace the current USA.gov and USAGov en Español, our contact center agents will depend on this new content to answer questions. As the people who communicate directly with the public, it’s critical that they can successfully use the new information to provide accurate referrals quickly. So before this transition happens, we wanted to get some preliminary insight into these super users’ ability to navigate the new content. Specifically, we wanted to assess how well agents could digest the new content and then refer a customer to the correct agency or course of action.
How we did it
We held focus sessions with our 25 English and bilingual (Spanish-speaking) agents, presenting them with four scenarios. Each scenario ended with a question similar to the kind they answer on calls and chats. The scenarios also included links to the new content that would be most relevant to the situation. Based on the question and the content, we asked the agents:
- What information they would provide to the customer
- How they would rate the efficiency of the new content (1 = not efficient 10 = very efficient)
- What their rationale was for the rating
What we learned
In all four scenarios, the new information helped agents provide accurate answers to customers. They consistently provided the correct information and performed with 100% accuracy on two scenarios. In addition, they rated the new content as highly efficient, with a mean rating of 9.5 out of 10. Here are factors that contributed to their ratings:
- Findability: Speed is a key factor for efficiency, especially when a customer is waiting for an immediate response. When comparing the beta content with the current content, agents commented that the new website is easier to navigate to find answers.
- Content structure: Agents mentioned that our new content page structure was easier for them to understand and explain. With new page elements like bullets, checklists, and filtering, it was easier to provide answers to customers.
- Specificity: According to agents’ comments, the beta sites’ content includes high-quality links that go directly to the resources that a customer would need. They also indicated that the writing was straightforward and focused on getting customers where they need to go.
Creating omnichannel government experiences like this supports our CX goal of giving people dependably consistent information, regardless of the USAGov channels they use. We’ll continue to monitor our contact center agents’ feedback so we can keep making it easier to serve the people who get in touch with them, and who use our websites.
About the Building Beta Series
The “Building Beta” series highlights our approach to work in creating beta.USA.gov and beta.USA.gov en Español. Follow along to learn how the USAGov team worked to create the new iteration of our bilingual sites. For more information about the beta websites, check out this post.
