By Paul Robson, Adobe Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand

The saying 'the customer is always right' may be old, but in government, as in business, it contains more than a grain of truth. Citizens are the customers of today’s government officials, and they are more connected and tech-literate than ever before.

The opinions they form play a vital part in the political process and now they have a range of media channels through which they can express themselves – whether an issue makes them feel good, bad, or simply indifferent. Public media channels also identify whether service delivery is proving challenging or successful according to citizen feedback.

With a vast and rapidly-expanding amount of data at their fingertips, citizens increasingly seek more personalised experiences tailored to their particular needs and responsive to their feedback.

Giving citizens this level of service is a challenge for government as they move to address their many stakeholders in a way that is appropriate to contemporary context yet also delivers important messages and content effectively.

The explosion in media channels and information means governments have to work even harder to stay relevant and retain public support for their mandates. This is particularly important given many government initiatives relate to critical national issues such as health, public safety and quality of living.

This is where Citizen Experience Management comes in. Citizen Experience Management involves governments giving citizens and stakeholders the content most relevant to them in the most effective way possible. Put that way, it sounds simple, and in many ways it is.

The two main facets of Citizen Experience Management, measurement and content, are basic, intuitive concepts, although developing a powerful strategy around these concepts can be a slightly trickier enterprise.

Providing an engaging and personable experience is at the heart of all successful communication. Governments and businesses have traditionally found it difficult to quantify which modes of communication work and which do not. It is very hard to accurately track how many people remember a newspaper advertisement, or how many pay attention to a public service announcement on the radio, although digital content interactions are much more measurable.

Measurement, the first part of any Citizen Experience Management strategy, becomes possible and much easier with digital media channels. The detailed tracking of user interactions and impressions becomes possible when operating in the digital realm, where each customer’s action is translated into discrete points of data.

After it is captured, this data can be analysed in real-time or by automated programs, allowing organisations to create content which adapts to individual user preferences on the fly. This enables content to be more interactive, customisable and adaptable – meaning government organisations can calibrate their messages and overall strategy for maximum impact on an ongoing basis. It helps to have a solid content management system in place to streamline this process.

Most governments have already begun the move to digital media, but many may still feel unsure about what this actually means for their strategy. A good place to start is with the axiom of all government bodies: to inform, assist or otherwise serve the public.

Now, 'the public' is a nebulous term at best. Of course it consists of citizens, voters, interest groups, but for most government initiatives or projects it refers more specifically to certain demographics or social groupings.

This is particularly the case with awareness campaigns, such as those relating to public health or social issues.

What this suggests is that governments need to measure two things. First of all, they need to measure the reach of their messages, to find out whether they’re actually getting through to the various demographics of citizens they are targeting. Second, they need to measure the impact of these messages.

Advanced analytics can track granular data such as how long individuals spend on a webpage; how users interact with content and links; and even how citizens access content, whether that’s through a PC, smartphone, tablet or other media device. This information is especially relevant to governments.

The second part of Citizen Experience Management is using that information to develop better content. A lot of buzzwords get bandied around this topic, with the most effective content often being described as 'sticky' or 'viral'. This refers to content which becomes very popular, very quickly; more often than not, this happens because users who have a positive experience will go on to tell their friends about it.

So what makes an experience positive, or powerful, or profound ultimately depends on the sort of content you are trying to produce.

To build better citizen experiences, governments need to not only measure how citizens respond to information, but also analyse what these measurements mean. A high click-through rate may suggest one image or video is particularly effective, or that all the others do not resonate with a particular demographic.

A site may have high traffic from PCs, but not from smartphones: this might mean the site does not resize properly on mobile devices, or it takes too long to load, or some feature is not compatible with mobile browsers.

Once the data is interpreted and analysed, more effective content can be developed.

This may mean using one digital channel instead of another; for example, a smartphone application rather than a dedicated website. It may even mean reverting to non-digital modes of address, or using the data to mould non-digital services; informing, say, how front-line service staff direct queries or address those they are helping. Or it might mean further developing a channel which already exists; remembering user preferences, for example, or providing customisable viewing formats for increased accessibility.

Ultimately, governments need to address certain citizen values if they are to effectively serve and maintain their constituencies. They need to provide information and services which are contextually relevant to their audiences and tailored to the precise needs of each individual citizen.

They need to sort and filter information so that the message getting to the citizen is in its clearest, most pared-down form.

Most of all, they need to figure out what content works, when, where and why it does so, then act on this knowledge and adapt as quickly as possible.

Governments are in the business of supporting their citizens. Providing these 'customers' with memorable and affecting experiences is an essential part of achieving this.