King County's Customer Experience Strategy: Personas & Journey Mapping, Schemes and Mind Maps of Business networking

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CUSTOMER

EXPERIENCE

A guide to Customer Experience Measurement

Table of Contents

• Welcome
• Purpose
• Introduction
• Roles and Responsibilities
• CX Measurement Methodology
  • Guiding Principles
  • CX Methodology Roadmap
  • Step 1. Define the CX touchpoint to be measured
  • Step 2. Create customer personas and map customer journeys
  • Step 3. Develop the survey
  • Step 4. Collect and analyze feedback................................................................................................................
  • Step 5. Develop and execute an action plan.....................................................................................................
• TEMPLATE A. Customer Empathy Mapping
• TEMPLATE B. Customer Journey Mapping
• TEMPLATE C. Survey
• TEMPLATE D. Scorecard

Purpose

This document outlines King County’s standard methodology for measuring customer experiences. This methodology establishes a comprehensive and deliberate approach to measuring CX across King County programs and services. This guidance is part of King County’s broader customer-centric culture and service delivery framework that puts customer journeys at the center and connects them to business outcomes and operational improvements. By adopting and consistently implementing the standard methodology outlined in this document, King County departments will increase their understanding of customers, be able to improve programs and services, and increase accountability to the public.

This methodology applies to both external and internal services. It is shaped by King County Executive’s True North and values and was developed based on the industry best practices with contributions from senior leadership and department representatives.

It is intended that this document will be revised periodically based on the county’s learning and experiences with CX measurement and service improvement work.

Introduction

Executive Dow Constantine’s True North – Making King County a welcoming community where every person can thrive - sets the direction for county government and gives meaning to why we want to get there. The core of this vision is the Executive Branch Values, which were defined in 2019 and elevate the importance and role of customer experience in our work. The customer experience work aligns with four cross-cutting guiding values: focusing on the customer experience, being racially just in our service delivery, using data to solve problems, and improving our services in response to customer experiences:

In addition to the county values and True North, the overarching Customer Experience Operating System is in alignment with The Executive’s Priority of Best Run Government. King County taxpayers support the work of county employees who strive to deliver an exceptional experience through easy, quality, efficient, equitable, and people-oriented interactions. That is why customer experience is at the center of our service delivery framework. Measuring customer experiences informs and drives service improvement. It allows an agency to understand what its customers’ value, how perception of value varies between different types of customers, and where the agency can take action to improve service delivery.

Equity and Social Justice in CX:

Here at King County, we strive to be Racially Just and incorporate Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) in our work. CX is no different in that we have integrated ESJ throughout our guidance. We see ESJ as necessary to the work to ensure both process equity (how we deliver) and equity in results (what we deliver). When you see this tree , it highlights a place for agencies to focus their attention to ensure intentional ESJ considerations are included during the process.

CX Measurement Methodology

Guiding Principles

The following principles should inform and guide departments’ overall plan and vision for CX measurement:

CX GUIDING PRINCIPLES

□ The ultimate goal for all customer service should be “service excellence.”

□ Whenever possible, leverage existing information about customers to develop

customer profiles or personas

□ Differences in programs, services, and customer populations may require differences

in data collection procedures, measures, and strategies for improvement.

□ CX measurement should focus on the entire customer experience, not just the final

result or decision.

□ CX data collection efforts should be adapted to and modified for diverse customer

populations.

□ CX measurement should be proximal or close in time to the time of service or

interaction. Assess customer experience when a customer’s experience is fresh.

□ Measurement should reflect the various ways (channels or methods) customers

access the service

ESJ CONSIDERATION : “CX data collection efforts should be adapted to and modified for diverse customer populations.” Offering a web-interface survey is a great opportunity and should be done. However, not everyone has access to the internet, so offering verbal comments by phone or written feedback by comment cards is helpful. Consider language access issues in the design and fielding of any of surveys. This is also true for “ Whenever possible, leverage existing information about customers to develop customer profiles or personas.” Using existing data is a great starting point, it is also important to note that if an organization has been delivering services in a biased way (English only, geographically bound, etc), using the existing data may continue to maintain the bias.

What is a customer?

In CX the word customer generally implies a transaction. However, a customer differs based on the business; an agency may be seeking to design a better experience for their customer that is not transactional. An agency may refer to a customer as a client, community member, employee, consultant, etc.

What about customers for regulatory or mandatory services? Many services provided by the county are regulatory in nature, such as getting a permit. Other services are provided only by the county and customers don’t have free choice in participating, such as paying taxes. How should CX work change to reflect these types of customer interactions?

In most cases the process should be the same as outlined. Some areas where differences might be anticipated include:

• Having questions that relate to the overall quality of the experience, including courteous treatment and timeliness.
• Expecting lower scores on select questions related to accomplishing a task (e.g., if the permit was not issued)
• Recognizing certain regulatory or mandatory county functions are not likely to generate positive feelings regardless of how well the staff perform.

CX Methodology Roadmap

The following graph summarizes King County’s methodology for measuring and improving customer experiences:

4a.

4c.^ 4b.

4d.

Step 2. Create customer personas and map customer journeys

Most organizations conduct some kind of customer research to gather information about their customers. This research could have been done through previous surveys, collection of demographic or customer information on a form, census information, etc. Understanding your customers allow you to think like them and better tailor your service to meet the needs of your customers.

To start understanding your customers, agencies will want to develop customer profiles based on the data they have on their customers. Whether or not data is available, the agency should create a customer empathy map (see below). A full map and activity are provided as Template A.

Identify engagements Analyze the customer journey from start to finish and map the entire customer experience from the customer point of view (Template B). The agency will want to follow the path of the customer as they experience the service the agency provides. If possible, bring in an actual customer to help map the process. Until the map is validated by a customer, it is only an assumption of the journey. Pick a touchpoint that are “moments of truth” for the customer. A Moment of truth for the customer is a critical point in the engagement that a customer experiences when interacting with your agency. If a customer completing an online transaction to obtain a vehicle permit, a moment of truth in that journey could be the ability to pay for that transaction. If they do not understand how to pay, they cannot receive their permit leading to an inability to address their need.

Agencies will want to measure the customer experience focusing on this touchpoint. Think of each touchpoint as an opportunity to improve the experience. Once you have mapped the journey, identify a natural opportunity to request feedback from the customer.

ESJ CONSIDERATION : When mapping the customer journey consider questions such as:

• How would a customer with limited English proficiency navigate this journey?
• Are these services accessible to a person with a wheelchair?
• Do we only offer this service online or is it available in other capacities as well?
• Would someone who has a hard time getting time off from standard work hours, or needs to use transit, or needs to travel a significant distance to get to the facility where the service if provided be able to get the service they need easily?

Ask your customers for feedback Once the agency has identified touchpoints and moments of truth for the customer, they should then implement a system to collect feedback from the customer at the point of a transaction. All forms of measurement that help departments better understand and serve their customers are encouraged, including post card mailers; comment cards; and surveys that are done by phone, mail, in person, or electronically. The latter is the most common method used at King County. Low and no-cost methods are encouraged, where possible, if they meet both informational and programmatic needs.

ESJ CONSIDERATION: When asking customers for feedback, agencies need to develop plans that include the various channels by which customers access the service (Phone, web, in-person, etc). Not everyone has access to broadband therefore, an agency should develop plans for capturing feedback that does not require internet access (phone survey, a kiosk on site, compensated focus group, etc).

Step 3. Develop the survey

The following table lists five standard topics (or domains) that King County seeks to measure with every customer survey:

STANDARD TOPIC (DOMAIN) QUESTIONS FOR INCLUSION IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE

**- Questions in these domains should be included with minimal-to-no changes to allow comparison -

1. OVERALL SATISFACTION** I am satisfied with the service I received from (insert touchpoint name)

2. CONFIDENCE/ TRUST

Choose one based on internal or external type of customers: a. This interaction increased my confidence in King County (External customers) b. This interaction increased my confidence in the King County value, “we are one team”. (Internal customers)

**- Questions in these domains are customizable to reflect the services of the agency -

3. SERVICE QUALITY** My need was addressed

PSB and Agency agree on the methodology (survey timeline, survey channel, roles)

Agency provides the contacts for the target audience

PSB sets up the questionnaire in the County application

PSB reviews the questions and gives feedback

Agency develops questions (see 5 standard domains)

Ideally, the CX data should be presented and if you have anecdotes or comments, choose them carefully to parallel the scoring observed by customers. For example, a service with low CX scores is not well served by pairing it with a glowing review about how much someone appreciated the service. Qualitative data should match the quantitative results and is used to provide some additional richness and detail that a single CX measure cannot.

ESJ CONSIDERATION: When viewing the data, agencies need to analyze and visualize the aggregated data through race and place. Using the mandatory demographics collected to understand how variation in experience will fluctuate dependent on demographic category. It is important to highlight these variations as you work towards equitable action planning.

Step 5. Develop and execute an action plan

An important part of the CX measurement methodology is acting on the feedback collected through steps 1- of the methodology. Now that you have data and a better picture of actual customer satisfaction, the customer journey, interactions that matter most to the customers, and what drives customer satisfaction and trust, your team can identify specific opportunities for process improvement. An action plan could include, developing a CX Vision and mission to align to, implementing ongoing customer metrics (as described below) designing a dashboard to visualize and track your metrics, or creating a plan to monitor and respond to customer needs in a timely manner.

Work on process improvements Once the touchpoints have been identified and data is being collected, the agency will want to identify key problem areas and start working on them. For example, if the responses indicate that the lobby is hard to find, the agency will want to begin working on a way to help customers locate the lobby.

Choose the right metrics and measure them At this point, agencies have taken the time to know their customers, identify key touchpoints, measure CX, and identified process improvement opportunities. Now it’s time to start measuring the results of your efforts and identifying the right metrics to analyze. A key objective of CX metrics is to check whether the solutions you proposed to address problems are working or not and how they can be further improved.

Here are some customer experience metrics that you can focus on

• First response time – the amount of time it takes for a case to be acknowledged upon initial customer inquiry
• Issue resolution time - the time it takes for an issue to be resolved (minutes, days, hours, etc.).
• Customer Satisfaction score (CSAT ) – CSAT is the average score from multiple questions based on a survey, for example the average of Satisfaction and Confidence scores.
• Customer Effort Score – the amount of effort customers have to put to complete or execute or particular task.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) - the likelihood of a customer to recommend your services. This question should only be used when a customer truly has a choice in service or manner of service (i.e. how likely

Agency develops a CX Vision

Agency continues to collect customer feedback

Agency and PSB design a visual dashboard of metrics

Agency and PSB develop CX Metrics to track over time

Agency identifies process improvements

are you to recommend the online process to a friend). o NPS would require an additional question added to your standard survey and would follow a 10 point Likert Scale. Please consult with PSB about the addition of this question.

ESJ CONSIDERATION : As agencies consider what metrics to track, also consider what voices are not being captured through your CX feedback system. Begin to develop a plan on how to capture those customer voices that are not filling out a survey or providing other feedback

Develop a scorecard (Optional) Once metrics have been identified, it is helpful to build a customer experience scorecard which helps to identify the critical moments of truth and improve them. Your CX Measurement Scorecard should include:

 Objectives: What do you want to achieve? o Improve issue resolution time o Understand how customers feel about employee interaction o Improve response time

 Measures: how will you measure what you are trying to achieve o Median days to resolution o Satisfaction with employee interaction o Average handling time

 Targets- define your objective in quantifiable terms o <2 median days to resolution o Average 3 on employee interaction o < 24 hours to engaging in initial inquiry

 Key Business KPI – business KPI that drives your objective o Issue resolution time o CSAT on employee interaction o Response time

TEMPLATE B. Customer Journey Mapping

This template is a guide to facilitating a customer journey mapping (CJM)

session. CJM sessions last from 2-4 hours long and help the agency

understand the customer experience when interacting with the organization

including customer steps, customer feelings and perceptions, and the

business processes that are occurring simultaneously.

Note: A good prelude to this activity is the completion of the Customer

Empathy Map Canvas.

Sample CJM Session Agenda:

Time Activity Notes

9:00-9:30 What is CJM CJM is the method to identifying the full customer experience

including the emotions, the chronological steps, and the processes

surrounding the customer during their journey. It helps to identify

quick process improvements and where/when to survey customers

9:30-9:45 Familiarize the group

with the customer

persona/Customer

Empathy Map

Become familiar with the customer that is being represented today

in the journey, what is their goal? What are they scared of

happening? What do they see in the environment? etc.

9:45-10:45 Map the customer

journey

Identify the event that begins the journey for the customer and the

goal that they would like to complete. As a group write down each

step that the customer has to take towards the completion of the

goal. Ensure that every stakeholder is engaged within their role

(i.e. one person is identifying pain points, another person is

identifying business process, an additional person identifies

customer emotions, etc.)

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00- 11:30 Assess the health of

the journey

Discuss the overall state of the CJM:

• What was the overall feeling for the customer?
• What were the pain points that showed up

o Are there opportunities to fix those pain points?

• What would be a good time to ask the customer to take a

survey? (you will want to request as close to the completed

transaction as possible)

11:30- 12:00 Debrief Identify what types of questions would be helpful to ask on the

survey and set a date to draft survey questions as a group.

Roles:

There are various roles that people will need to represent during this journey. You will want to use different

color sticky notes to identify each role and as you map out the journey, use the different colors to identify

different parts in the process.

Time needed:

2 -4 hours

Materials needed:

• Large room with wall space
• Butcher paper
• Markers
• Sticky notes (at least 5 different colors)

You will need someone to:

• Identify customer pain points throughout the journey

(The machine was broken so employee had to spend more time processing application)

• Identify customer actions

(The customer looked for parking, went through the main entrance, took a number, waited to be called,

etc.)

• Indicate customer emotions and feelings during the journey

( The customer was frustrated with waiting)

• Identify the business process components

(i.e., the customer service representative submits paperwork to treasury)

• Identify internal systems used

(i.e., Oracle, Microsoft Word, Outlook email, etc.)

Once the agency has completed the CJM Session, they will need to identify a person to collect the notes and

the journey electronically and send to the group. Until the group is able to validate this journey with a real

customer, this map is only a hypothesis customer journey map , meaning that it is only representative of what

those involved believe the customer is experiencing. The agency will want to create a Customer Journey Map

for each critical touchpoint within the agency to fully understand all customer experiences.

TEMPLATE D. Scorecard

Develop a scorecard (Optional) Once metrics have been identified, it is helpful to build a customer experience scorecard which helps to identify the critical moments of truth and improve them. Your CX Measurement Scorecard should include:

 Objectives: What do you want to achieve? o Improve issue resolution time o Improve response time

 Measures: how will you measure what you are trying to achieve o Median days to resolution o Satisfaction with employee interaction o Average handling time

 Targets- define your objective in quantifiable terms o <2 median days to resolution o < 24 hours to engaging in initial inquiry

 Key Business KPI – business KPI that drives your objective o Issue resolution time o CSAT on employee interaction o Response time