The Employee Benefits Security Administration of the US Labor Department got on the Customer Experience movement fast. Not maybe what we would expect from a government agency, but part of why this movement is so incredibly powerful. EBSA management recognized the need for metrics to drive performance and cultural change. They engaged Gallup to measure their customer engagement scores, all the way down to individual benefits advisors.
In 2005, EBSA's customer engagement scores moved above the 75th percentile of rankings for private sector organizations that Gallup has studied. This is notable because the outcome of any particular inquiry is not necessarily within EBSA's control, as EBSA does not provide benefits directly to its customers. There are times when EBSA must inform a customer that he or she is not legally due benefits that they assumed they were due, or that even though they may be due benefits, there is no money available to pay them. Considering these constraints, its high ranking relative to private sector organizations was particularly satisfying.
But bragging rights are the least of it. EBSA is finally able, for the first time, to see what's going on in individual regions. "We've been able to provide EBSA with outcome and customer engagement data on every single one of the regions, so they really can shine the light on where the problem areas are.
EBSA's focus changed once they saw that aiming to engage customers brought about significantly different results than aiming just to satisfy customers. Through their own outcome data, EBSA could see that engaging customers had much more impact than just satisfying them. The benefit of engaging customers is to better understand their problem and provide them the most complete answer or solution possible.
EBSA's effort to engage customers is paying off, as is the increased focus on performance-based management at the Department of Labor. Labor was the first of 26 major agencies to attain the highest score -- a "green" rating -- in the five key management initiatives set by the President's Management Agenda.
The full story is on The Gallup Site.
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