From Customer to Digital Citizen Experience
The digital transformation from the global pandemic has profoundly changed our lives from A to Z -including the public sector. The switch from customer to digital citizen experience has affected customer expectations and social behavior for the public sector. Today, customer/citizens are looking for valuable experiences across multiple channels. Eventually, local authorities seek to improve the citizen experience by taking advantage of digital technologies.
‘’Today, citizens look for the same level of transparency, responsiveness, and accessibility from government services as they do from commercial brands. Accustomed to connected and seamless experiences in the private sphere, they expect experiences with public services to also be as frictionless as possible.’’
In 2019, KPMG released a detailed report on customer experience through different sectors. The data showed that the public sector made tremendous progress in citizen experience and had second-place among ten sector rankings. KPMG developed six pillars to analyze the progress in customer experience.
A New Kind of Public Service: Luxembourg
Luxembourg stands as one of the most successful examples in the digitalization of the public sector. Luxembourgian digital adoption relies on four fundamental principles:
- Digital by default: All the administrative process is 100% digital.
- Once-only: Citizens do not need to provide their personal information or data each time on the state online networks.
- Transparency of the data collected
- Single access: All the administrative formalities are under a single roof.
All the initiatives aimed to enhance citizens’ public service experience. For instance, the state gathered all the administrative formalities under a single roof on the Bierger-Center (Citizen Service Center). Thus, current and future residents can complete all the administrative paperwork online while having personalized services. The digital experience is designed to require minimal time and effort. Recently, they developed a new feature on the website: Citizens can see the estimated time for each process and service.
In 2018, the Bierger-Center collaborated with guichet.lu (Government website) to collect citizens’ online postal vote requests. So, citizens could submit their demands online. More than half of postal vote requests were submitted online through guichet.lu.
“A major part of the activities of the ministry for digitalization is to make people’s life easier.” announced by Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.
The Worlds’ Most Advanced Digital Society
The Estonian dream lies on the little state as possible, but as much as necessary. Therefore, they created a digital ecosystem called e-Estonia. In other words, it is a fully digital state. They aimed at three key pillars: Transparency, trust, and efficiency. The ecosystem is based on e-solutions that deliver safe services to its citizens. The communication between the state and citizens became accessible, fast, and eventually effective through this trendsetting digital layer. Their success relies on making citizen experience more relevant, connected, and secure through 99% of public services available 24/7 online. Today, all the administrative work -except marriage, divorce, and real estate- can be done through some clicks in seconds. Their seamless services reduce bureaucracy and provide a natural relationship with the state.
In 2001, they built a data exchange and sharing platform called x-road. It allows uniting public and private sector information systems. In 2002, the government launched electronic ID with a digital signature which made digital identification possible across different services online. 35% of Estonian residents use Smart-ID by 2019. Transparency is the key concept for e-Estonia. Citizens can visualize all the interactions and transactions of their data with their single ID. In 2005, they made a great initiative towards online voting to increase transparency and accessibility to elections. 34% of the votes are cast online. They also adopted blockchain technology to tackle cyber-attacks by 2007. Recently, the government has started working on an AI strategy to become a pioneer of this technology application in the public and private sectors. Many other various digital initiatives such as e-health, e-residency, e-prescription pursue these epochal developments. All these digital initiatives build the relationship of trust between the state and citizens.
A New Generation Municipality: Istanbul
Istanbul is the most crowded city with 16 million people in Turkey. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, 38% of the Istanbul population is between 0–29 years old. 15% of this young population will vote by 2023 in the general and local elections. Consequently, the young generation plays a crucial role in the next elections. Generation Z is most likely inventing social media marketing: As long as the young audiences show unique online behavior, the public and private sectors should embed new acquisition channels into their communication strategies. Therefore, the digital transformation also determines the local authorities’ communication strategies.
Currently, Istanbul Municipality manages Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts with more than two million followers. Without a doubt, video content is evolving on social networks to engage better. It is an interactive way to enhance conversation and reach. The municipality’s content strategy consists of videos and live streaming sessions.
Moreover, the mayor of Istanbul has his own Youtube channel with 555K subscribers and more than 174K views on average. He does interviews and Q&A sessions with well-known artists, young YouTubers, celebrities, and citizens on his Youtube channel. His Instagram account has reached almost seven million followers. He is like a public authority influencer for the Turkish population. Direct and better communication between public figures and citizens empowers transparency and builds trust.
Leverage Data As an Asset
There are many ways of gathering data for the public sector. However, it depends on the digital infrastructure of the nation. The most crucial issue is the accuracy of the data collected. In big cities with crowded populations, linking up the information from different sources remains difficult for the authorities. For that reason, Istanbul Municipality developed a strategy within the public transportation payment system (Istanbulkart). There are 20 million annual active users on the payment system database. Besides its usage in public transportation, Istanbulkart can be used as a debit card within a mobile application. The scope of the card is extended by several collaborations with retailers, restaurants, museums, etc. Additionally, citizens can do their grocery shopping, order food, and pay for taxis within the card. Lately, QR code system integration is completed that allows purchases without any card just through smartphones.
‘’Datacenter of the Municipality is a very important digital investment and its main objective is to provide better service through appropriate management of huge data generated by Istanbul.’’ Erol Ozguner, Head of Information Technologies Department in the Municipality.
We are experiencing a new digital era as customers but also as citizens. The digital transformation shapes our expectations. In other words, the digital experience leaders put pressure on the public sector through the adoption of new technologies. Today, citizens ask for transparency, responsiveness, and accessibility from state services as they do from brands. Ultimately, digital transformation allows brands/policymakers to create value for customers/citizens regardless of the sector by engaging better and providing seamless services.
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
