By: Alyssa Levitz - June 30, 2023
Good customer experience (CX) results in better-informed claimants, a higher number of accurate and complete filings and weekly certifications, and a reduction in burden on the staff of the state Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs. States can measure good CX for claimants on initial applications and weekly certifications by looking at:
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Task completion: Claimants should be able to complete the initial application or weekly certification without dropping out of the process.
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Ease of use: Claimants should be able to complete the processes quickly and in a single session, with minimal follow-up required by staff.
This article establishes some of the metrics that you should collect to get a baseline understanding of your claimants’ CX and to identify opportunities for improvement. Later, as you make changes to your systems, you can use these metrics to inform whether those changes had the intended impact.
Task Completion
Claimants should be able to complete the initial application or weekly certification without abandoning the process or otherwise dropping off.
Funnel conversion metrics are the primary way to measure task completion. These metrics help determine whether claimants submit their application or weekly certification or identify where they abandon the process:
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Percent of claimants who begin and successfully submit that application or weekly certification process
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Percent of claimants who drop off after each step of the process
Ease of Use
Claimants should be able to complete the initial application or weekly certification quickly and in a single session, with minimal follow-up required by staff.
You can use another set of funnel conversion metrics to track ease of use:
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Median time required to complete each step of the process
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Median time required to complete the full process across any number of sessions (of those who submit and complete the process)
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Percent of completed submissions that require more than one session
If claimants face challenges during the application or weekly certification process, that could show as issues created on the initial claim or weekly certification. The following metrics are a starting point in this area:
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Median number of issues created per application or weekly certification
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Median number of manual staff interventions required per application or weekly certification
Well-designed surveys can be a tool to measure how easy or challenging claimants perceive the process to be. You can offer the claimant a survey after submitting the initial application and/or weekly certification. Your baseline metrics collection should include the aggregate answers over time to survey questions like the following:
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How difficult was it to apply for unemployment insurance benefits online? [Answer type: Very hard, hard, somewhat easy, easy, very easy]
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Were there any questions you did not understand? [Answer type: Yes, No; if yes, provide text box to explain their answer]
Learn More
To learn more about customer experience metrics, reach out to the Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization (OUIM) and copy your Regional Office Representatives.