A positive customer experience greatly affects an organization’s success. Successful companies have long understood the importance of focusing on customer experience (CX) to create user-friendly online experiences and improve their bottom line.

Government agencies are now catching up by adopting innovative technologies and hiring chief experience officers to enhance citizen trust and satisfaction. A December 2021 Executive Order mandated that the federal government learn from companies like Amazon, Nike, and Apple to invest more in the customer experience. This shift in mindset acknowledges that the public should be treated as customers who expect excellent service.

But many agencies are still falling short.

While citizen satisfaction in government services increased by 4.6% in 2022, it remains lower than satisfaction in other industries. To address this, agencies must deliver faster, better, more accessible, and more inclusive digital services that meet or exceed citizen expectations.

Putting people first: a white paper

In this white paper, we share insights from Forum One’s digital strategy experts who have spent decades working with government agencies to improve customer experience and user experience.

What we cover

• Why putting people first improves digital experience
• What we can learn from successful agencies and CX projects
• How to implement CX approaches in government services

At Forum One, we recognize the power that effective communication has to bring data to life. We work with nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to understand how data provides value, where it can be found, and what insights can be taken from it. From education metrics to health and livability, we work to develop data stories and build interactive tools to communicate impact. 

We see the immense power that data has to influence the world around us. To help make sense of all the various types of data you have at your fingertips, we propose a multi-step process to approach and craft your data communications strategies.

In this how-to guide, we share the building blocks of a data communication strategy to better understand the value and the potential of your data, the two tiers to measure the impact of your strategy, and a worksheet to put your data communication strategy in place. We also provide real-world examples from mission-driven organizations like you.

Whether through off-the-shelf tools like ChatGPT, or custom solutions, in this webinar we will discuss how AI has impacted some government agencies and how you can think about using AI in your work.  Learn how the latest innovations in AI can affect and support the public sector.

Areas we’ll be exploring:

• Where can AI help improve government now? 
• What are examples of how the Federal government is using AI today? 
• How can agencies get started using AI/ML now?

This webinar is ideal for government digital program leaders, and those interested in using AI for government. 

Our Speakers

Alexis Bonnell, Emerging Technology Evangelist

As the former Chief Innovation Officer of USAID, Alexis had the privilege of working with thousands of innovators, inside and outside of USAID who are changing the world and helping millions of people become self-reliant. In 2018, USAID received a 10/10 in Innovation in the “Results for America” study of Federal Agencies. She previously served as the Chief of Applied Innovation & Acceleration in the U.S. Global Development Lab, of USAID, one of the premier Innovation Labs in the development industry, that she helped create in 2014. She serves as a key spokesperson and “Innovation Evangelist” across the industry driving innovation and modernization.

Jay Finch, CEO, Polydelta

Jay is the founder and CEO of Polydelta, a platform that helps to deliver public sector outcomes with AI. Jay has advised U.S. Federal agencies on digital transformation strategy as the 18F Director of Agency Partnerships and Senior Advisor at the Technology Transformation service within GSA. He was recognized in Forbes magazine 30 under 30 for law and policy and as a Rising Star by FederalComputer Week. ‍Jay earned a B.A. from Villanova University, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, and an MS from the Stanford Graduate School of Business as a Sloan Fellow.‍

Mike Shoag, VP of Government Services, Forum One

As VP of government services, Mike ensures that Forum One addresses the unique challenges of its Federal, state, and local clients. Mike brings expertise gained over two decades of working with government and multilateral agencies, including large portfolios of projects for USAID, EPA, DOI, USDA, Peace Corps and the World Bank. Mike is a regular speaker on digital innovation in government and guides the Forum One team in building strategies for helping our governments be more effective through digital solutions. Mike is currently writing a book on how AI can help solve challenges in international development.

Google Analytics is a decision-making lifeline for any organization. From out-of-the-box reports to custom dashboards, the platform’s capabilities are a huge driver of your digital strategy.

In less than six months, you will be required to manually migrate to Google Analytics 4. A huge thing to recognize is that the switch from UA to GA4 will not happen on its own, and the consequence of not migrating is that you will no longer be able to collect valuable and actionable data.

GA4 is already available, so our advice is that you make this migration sooner than later. In this webinar, we’ll talk you through this entire process so that you feel knowledgeable and ready for your GA4 migration. Specifically, we’ll discuss:

• What GA4 is and why this switch is happening
• What GA4 looks like (so that you know what to expect)
• Why you should start your migration now (and not wait until June/July!)
• What your migration journey will look like
• Why this is a good thing!

Forum One is hard at work supporting a number of nonprofits and government agencies in their migration to GA4 and so we are very happy to answer any questions you might have so that you feel ready to go.

Target audience: this webinar is ideal for leaders of digital strategy, branding, marketing, and communications

Whether your organization’s fiscal year operates within the calendar year or not, December is always a month full of reflection and planning. What do we need to do differently, better? What do we need to cut out or start? How are we going to measure success?

Nearly three years on from the beginning of the Covid pandemic, nonprofit organizations have made leaps and bounds in terms of implementing which strategic directions to take, how to plan for success, when to become agile, and what to be looking out for as behavior and technology changes along the way.

On December 7th, we’ll be digging into these questions and more with digital leaders in the mission-driven space. Join Forum One’s CEO, Chris Wolz, as he discusses with digital leaders on what annual planning looks like in terms of tried-and-trusted approaches and tools, as well as tangible examples of how either planning or agility has allowed them to be successful.

Our Speakers

• Graham MacDonald, Chief Information Officer & Vice President for Technology and Data Science, Urban Institute
• Liisa O’Neill, Vice President of Marketing & Sales, Pacific Science Center
• Paul Bock, Director of Digital Development, Mercy Corps
• Chris Wolz, CEO & President, Forum One (moderator)

Join us to hear about:

• The current state of SEO and organic social media and the reality that what you post is likely not being seen by as many of your followers as you may think.
• We’ll share benchmarks from other nonprofits you can use to evaluate your own communication.
• Real-world examples of how nonprofits and government agencies are already investing more deeply in their advertising budget and seeing valuable ROI. 
• What an advertising budget looks like based on the size of your organization and audience.

You’ll walk away with some practical questions to address within your own organization’s marketing strategy, and what next steps are necessary to move your digital advertising strategy forward.

Forum One hosted its first-ever Digital Impact Summit on September 28th. We explored digital impact in the nonprofit and public sector space. With experts from the nonprofit, public and commercial sectors, we talked about what digital impact means today and in the future when it comes to creating positive change in the world. 

Featured speakers include:

• Alexis Bonnell, Emerging Technology Evangelist, Google & former Chief Innovation Officer, USAID
• Martin Franzini, Head of Digital, National Gallery of Art 
• Marc N. Gourevitch, Founding Chair, Dept of Population Health, NYU Langone Medical Center
• Rodney Harrell, Vice President of the Public Policy Institute, AARP
• Cindy Rahman, Senior Vice President of Marketing, March of Dimes
• Pamela Taylor, Senior VP & CMO, Share Our Strength

For mission-driven organizations, providing proof of the impact of initiatives is vital to the continued execution of their work—funding, effort, reputations, and the fate of future support are often at stake. Investors, boards, executives, communities, and other stakeholders want to be assured that their efforts are making a difference. Mere claims about generalized impact are no longer acceptable; the evidence is required.

Measuring impact means finding a way to determine whether your organization is accomplishing long-term, lofty, and often subjective goals such as “increase a feeling of inclusivity in a community” or “improve the overall well-being of children.”

In this white paper, we break down what is impact and why it is important, provide examples of outcomes versus impacts, and walk you through creating an impact opportunity statement to use as a comprehensive evaluation tool to ensure that the projects your organization creates consistently reach their full potential, as defined by your mission.

In this webinar, we’ll speak with one of them. NYU Langone Health’s City Health Dashboard program has excelled over the last number of years in creating an award-winning approach to democratizing health data for over 750 cities across the United States. Using a layered approach to intrigue, contextualize, and deepen engagement, the City Health Dashboard communicates health data using a multi-pronged strategy that resonates with citizens, city leaders, policymakers, and health experts alike.

We’ll dig into various layers—such as the “Data on the Go” and “Impact Stories” series, as well as the overall data platform of the City Health Dashboard—to provide you with both an example and inspiration for how you can use your organization’s data to tell stories of impact.

Our Presenters

• Becky Ofrane, Manager of Engagement and Partnerships, City Health Dashboard, 
• Samantha Breslin, Senior Program Coordinator, City Health Dashboard
• Jenn Johnson, Managing Director of Client Services, Forum One

While the actual customer experience may look very different to different agencies, good CX generally gives a user the ability to have a pleasant, professional, helpful interaction with your agency and feel generally positive about the overall experience and everything associated with it.

In order to ensure inclusion, accessibility is an integral part of good CX. It’s no longer just a compliance consideration, but an integral part of design and delivery, and an opportunity for further innovation. This is further supported by the White House Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. The digital divide is still very real in communities across the U.S., however, the pandemic has sparked a greater understanding of just how important equal access to information is, and how reliant many of us have become on digital products and services to connect and contribute. 

The challenge: it’s often unclear whose responsibilities CX and accessibility are within a team. In this webinar, we explore how different departments within government agencies fit together to create an accessible, customer-centric digital experience, and why the information that support teams gather can improve the entire organization. 

In this webinar you’ll learn: 

• What an inclusive, accessible customer-first mindset looks like
• Where to start and key considerations for planning
• Examples of how to collect and use digital data in order to better anticipate citizens’ needs