Challenge. The monthly customer meetings (hereafter, “Event”) hosted by U.S. Government Financial Management organization generated sparse and irregular attendance among the target audience – extra-organization personnel responsible for budget management in their respective programs. The meetings seemed to lack structure and there wasn’t much enthusiasm among leadership.
Approach. Sensing an opportunity for improvement, I proposed and took responsibility for coordinating the meetings on behalf of Financial Management leadership, and working with leadership and subject-matter experts (SMEs), re-designed, re-branded, and implemented Event in Jun 2018 to be a more integrated, customer-centric system. In doing so, we expanded Event to serve more customer groups, defined the requirements of each group, designed and implemented 30 – 60 – 90 Day planning and annual planning sessions, planned and delivered customized topics to each group, designed and implemented attendance tracking and customer feedback mechanisms, and reviewed Event performance after each event.
Additionally, for marketing, planning, and execution purposes, we designed and produced an Event one-sheet and plan, the latter of which defined Event purpose, objectives, performance measurement elements, content framework of possible topic ideas, stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and other key elements. We shared Event one-sheet with stakeholders to create awareness and communicate the purpose, objectives, and customer benefits of the Event.
Results. Since its re-design in Jun 2018, we’ve experienced growths in average attendance per event and median attendance at Event each fiscal year (see attendance data below). In surveys, 72.5% of customers reported Above Average or Outstanding experiences (two highest ratings among five options) at Events since we began recording customer feedback in Jul 2018. And, leveraged by the use of Microsoft Teams, the final Fiscal Year 2020 Event hosted on Jul 22, 2020, attracted 80 total attendees, the largest single-event total since the re-design.
Feedback. “The [Event] is the single most successful [Financial Management organization] initiative of the last two performance periods. Stephen successfully increased attendance during this cycle and helped coordinate multiple training sessions for our customers, a new element to the [Event] designed by him. There [have] been numerous [“well dones!”] provided to the Comptroller and the Budget Officer for our continued efforts to bring financial information to our customers … This was an EXTREMELY successful year for Stephen…” – J. Odiorne, Deputy Director, Financial Management (N8B) / RPM, Budget Formulation (Budget Officer) (N81), Regional Headquarters of U.S. Government Agency