Dorris Consulting International
Transforming Government Services for Better Citizen Experience

Customer experience (CX) is gaining importance in every sector, including the government. With the type of experiences being offered by private corporations today, the public is starting to expect the same from their governments. However, with the challenges that the government has faced in terms of prioritizing service delivery, scale, organizational silos, data sharing, authentication, and others, it’s been difficult to meet many of the public’s expectations. To achieve quality results, the government must start by putting themselves in their citizens’ shoes, understand their journeys as they access services, and determine whether the customer satisfaction and if they are solving their problem. “My experience in the government space has enriched me in terms of understanding the complexities of customer experience management from an analytical standpoint to understanding what’s important to people who use government services,” says Martha Dorris, Founder & CEO at DCI, a wholly woman owned CX consulting agency, that specializes in all aspects of customer experience in including strategic consulting, voice of the customer, contact centers, and communications and marketing.

Having previously worked at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) for over three decades, Martha Dorris has encouraged the government to embrace customer experience methodologies, disciplines, and strategies to build a holistic view of their customer expectations. She has also been helping companies that work in the government space to understand the government’s priorities and incentives while assisting agencies to embrace the need to improve the services they deliver.

Driven by Martha Dorris’ extensive expertise in the government and private sector, DCI is constantly working to improve how the public interacts with and accesses information and services from the federal government. DCI is supporting companies that specialize in all aspects of customer experience (CX), from strategic consulting, to understanding their customers, to implementing technologies that improve customer experience to communications and marketing. Further, DCI supports the exchange of best practices between government and industry through a CX Community of Interest (CoI); the transfer of knowledge and experience from the government to government, industry to government and between the United States and other national governments; and the continuation of CX knowledge transfer through training and education.

Additionally, DCI publishes a monthly Citizen Services newsletter that compiles all information about customer experience and citizen services from across the federal, state, local and international governments. Martha Dorris also hosts a podcast called The CX Tipping Point, where she interviews government and industry leaders on government CX. She also runs a recognition program called the Service to the Citizen Awards, which gives due recognition to people for their service delivery in the government sector.

Martha firmly believes that the public deserves excellent, equitable and secure services from the government and making their lives as easy as possible

Martha firmly believes that the public deserves a better quality of service from their government—one that can make their lives as easy as possible. So she seeks to remain on top of what the government’s pain points are and then develops services to help address those requirements. Martha has assisted various contact center companies in better understanding the government’s challenges in delivering the types of services that the government requires, including the latest technologies that provide an omni channel experience, which is truly novel for the government. According to Martha, when it comes to deploying technology to create an omni-channel experience, one must be able to consistently deliver the same information across all delivery channels and have the technology to do so. Martha assists companies in understanding the complexities of the government CX ecosystem to ensure they can help deliver the digital experiences that the public demands. All in all, Martha strives to shore up both sides (demand & supply) so that it creates a beautiful partnership in favor of enhancing the lives of government consumers.