USA.gov Conducts Journey Mapping Sessions to Understand Customer Experiences With Gov’t Services

USA.gov has carried out journey mapping sessions in an effort to understand customers’ experiences with government programs and services, DigitalGov reported Aug. 12.

Michelle Chronister, user experience team lead for USA.gov at the General Services Administration, and Mary Ann Monroe, director of customer experience at GSA, write that USA.gov created journey maps through updates to the website’s personas or fictional characters that depict the behavior, goals and motivation of a government agency’s customer.

USA.gov personnel planned the journey mapping sessions with data from the CX Journey Mapping Toolkit and developed the behavior line of a USA.gov persona, according to Monroe and Chronister.

During the mapping sessions, managers and other participants identified the device, channel and content gaps in the customer’s experience.

“While the process of journey mapping is enlightening, it doesn’t end with a map,” Chronister and Monroe noted.

“Follow-up and planning for improvement are key.”

Monroe and Chronister also listed USA.gov’s customer experience improvement priorities, such as plans to enhance the interactive voice response menu of call centers, data sharing improvement efforts and creation of a customer advisory council.