News

Reston, VA– June 20, 2017 – HighPoint Global®, the citizen experience companyTM, today announced the appointment of Cal Shintani to its executive team as Chief Growth Officer. In this new role, Shintani will lead the development and execution of HighPoint’s growth strategy. He will oversee business development, capture, as well as mergers and acquisitions. “As we continue to help... Read More

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – May 24, 2017 – HighPoint Global®, the citizen experience companyTM, announced today that it has donated over $125,000 to support the Autism Society of Indiana’s (ASI) respite care program for the fourth year in a row. To date, HighPoint has donated over a half a million dollars to the program, which supports more than 60 families. Since the program launched in... Read More

We’ve been programmed to seek out information via technology. But certain work environments require more than technology-based learning solutions. by Doug Taylor Published on Chief Learning Officer Technology helps us learn every day. We consult Siri and Alexa to check facts in real time when debating with our friends. We log on to YouTube to learn how to remove wallpaper. We want... Read More

Josh Plaskoff is the director of learning and experience design at HighPoint Global. Originally published on Nextgov. On a road trip, you find yourself hopelessly lost. You spot a small diner and duck in with the hopes of getting directions and back on track. The elderly woman behind the counter knows exactly where you want to go and rattles off directions, hands flying and fingers... Read More

Author: John Loughlin, Director of Client Solutions and Delivery Published on Contact Center World  Here’s a scenario we’re probably all familiar with: you place a call into a customer service line, and the automated system puts you on hold. You wait. And wait. And wait. Meanwhile, the news that’s being played in the background has changed four or five times until it’s not even news... Read More

Published on The Public Manager Written by Paula Ketter  The ACSI Federal Government Report 2016 reports that “following three years of steady erosion ending in an all-time low score, citizen satisfaction with the U.S. federal government rebounds in 2016.” That’s very good news for agencies. An infograph in the April 2017 issue of The Public Manager offers some... Read More

Scenario-based learning programs can equip new and seasoned employees to more effectively help their citizen customers. Written by Doug Taylor, senior director of training Published on The Public Manager Most people who enter public service do so because of their desire to improve people’s lives. Whether it be through healthcare, travel, taxes, or some other life event,... Read More

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – March 28, 2017 – HighPoint Global, the citizen experience company™, has been awarded an IT 70 Schedule contract (GS-35F-284GA) with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). HighPoint was awarded labor categories in the Information Technology (IT) Professional Services (Special Item Number 132-51) and Health Information Technology (IT)... Read More

Gary Davis oversees HighPoint Global‘s efforts to expand in the government information technology services market with a particular focus on federal healthcare agencies as a senior vice president of business development for the company. The 35-year federal sector veteran joined HighPoint in July 2015 after 28 years at Anthem, where his most recent role was staff vice president for... Read More

Published on Federal News Radio By John Loughlin, Director of Client Solutions and Delivery, HighPoint Global Citizen Experience (CX) is a cross-agency priority and agencies are making great strides to increase citizen satisfaction with government service. While organizations are putting metrics in place to measure performance, agency leadership can sometimes feel overwhelmed... Read More

Published on MarTech Advisor John Loughlin, Director of Business Insights at HighPoint Global, discusses how video, cloud, social media monitoring, and virtual assistants will drive contact center innovation in 2017 In reflecting on contact center innovation in 2017, I have to revisit the past. I remember watching The Jetsons, an animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1962–63... Read More

Create an environment that gives reps the confidence to help customers at any touch point. By John Loughlin, Andrew Anderson, Amanda Bell Posted to Destination CRM on Jan 5, 2017 According to Frost and Sullivan, 60 percent of repeat calls in the typical call center result from a lack of clear process or training. Repeat callers are typically unhappy callers, which can affect... Read More

Written by Abby Herriman Published on MarTech Advisor All businesses exist to serve their customers’ specific needs. The best businesses go beyond customer demographics and dig in deep; they gather all the information they can about their customers via focus groups, web surveys, pilot programs, product testing and other instruments. They put themselves in the shoes of the customer... Read More

By Abby Herriman Published on GCN The Department of Veterans Affairs faces a unique set of challenges. While other agencies focus on a single aspect of a citizen’s life — healthcare, education or housing, for example — the VA must be everything to every veteran. That “everything” includes healthcare, hospitals, veterans’ centers, benefits offices,... Read More

Written by Dr. Josh Plaskoff Published on GovLoop Imagine a wall of water coming toward a city, rushing down a mountainside. To protect the city, as a reaction to the change in your environment, you decide to try to control the water by quickly building a wall between it and the city to keep the water back. However, water’s liquid quality makes your wall ineffective. The water flows... Read More

Written by HighPoint’s John Loughlin Published on Contact Center World When it comes to hiring, contact centers may not always have the luxury of time. All too often, they have to ramp up quickly for the next big product launch or corporate initiative. This creates a significant hiring challenge. Contact center managers want to make sure they’re hiring the right people as... Read More

Workshops and webinars designed to help government expand customer service capabilities Indianapolis, IN – October 17, 2016 – HighPoint Global, the citizen experience companyTM, announced today the development of a full training curriculum designed to better educate government agencies about strategies to improve and measure the citizen experience (CX). HighPoint Global creates,... Read More

Citizen Experience Company Further Demonstrates Commitment to Continuous Improvement  SEPTEMBER 20, 2016, Indianapolis, IN – HighPoint Global (HighPoint), a provider of contact center optimization services, experience design, customer experience consulting, IT and quality assurance expertise that help government agencies elevate the citizen experience, announced today a strategic... Read More

Government can’t do what businesses do, but citizens still expect the same kind of customer service By Leonard Klie Some government agencies are even exploring more multichannel and omnichannel customer service options. The biggest channels that they are considering are email, web chat, and social media, Herriman says. But unlike the private sector, which has few restrictions... Read More

by Dennis Redden Published in Contact Center Pipeline September 2016 Contact centers today are facing multiple, and sometimes competing, pressures. The need to improve operational efficiency, integrate new technologies, support multichannel environments, exploit and manage social media, and hire and retain agents, while still keeping customers satisfied and loyal can all be daunting... Read More

Citizen experience solutions are now available through GSA Indianapolis, Indiana – Sept. 6, 2016 – HighPoint Global, the citizen experience companyTM, has been awarded a Professional Services Schedule contract (GS-00F-269DA) with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). HighPoint was awarded 34 labor categories in the Integrated Consulting Services (SIN 874-1) and Information... Read More

Written by Josh Plaskoff, PhD, director of learning and technology service development, HighPoint Global Published on Federal News Radio When I was a child, we had a toy that was a collection of multi-colored gears and a pegboard. I would get hours of fun out of putting wild configurations of gears in place, with their teeth enmeshed, attaching a crank and turning it to watch energy... Read More

HighPoint has released a new white paper, The Employee Experience (EX): The Critical Link to Better Citizen Experience. Read the white paper here. Read More

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – June 30, 2016 – HighPoint Global®, the citizen experience companyTM, announced today that it has donated over $125,000 to support the respite care program for the Autism Society of Indiana for the third year in a row. The Autism Society of Indiana (ASI) is a leading resource in Indiana for connecting people who live with autism, and those who care about them, with... Read More

Citizen-service agencies are making strides into the digital landscape. They are embracing digital channels beyond email by offering web chat and establishing their presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Some agencies have even established a presence on Pinterest and Instagram. Today’s digital citizens want to independently access information and... Read More

Company also offering Foundations of Citizen Experience course to provide tactical guidance on improving CX maturity. April 11, 2016 Reston, VA – HighPoint Global, the citizen experience companyTM announced today the availability of a free online tool designed for government agencies to assess the state of their citizen-facing support services. The assessment is based on HighPoint’s... Read More

Every service delivery organization sets key performance indicators (KPI) to measure the health of the organization. Knowing where to take action based on what is reported is a recipe for success. However, there is a balance that has to be achieved among the metrics to ensure that the measurement scale is not tipped too far in any direction. If you think only of cost and do not... Read More

In elementary school, we learned how to look at the dimensions of things. If we wanted to find the volume of a rectangular object (say, a brick), we needed to know the length of the side, the width of the second side and its depth. We multiply them together and — presto — we have the volume of the object. So how can we use this example as a metaphor to think about citizen... Read More

How services are delivered often matters more than the services themselves. A recent McKinsey survey of 17,000 citizens across 15 states revealed that citizens are often dissatisfied with services delivered by state government. Though the types of services—medical care, housing supplements, education, and the like—varied, citizen dissatisfaction often stemmed from how state services... Read More

Federal agencies have been working diligently to improve citizen customer service and meet expectations set by both the federal administration and citizens themselves. In previous columns, I’ve described the different steps organizations take to improve the citizen journey across all parts of their agency, including understanding, optimization, integration and transformation.... Read More

Good process and technology enable better service and this is often the primary focus of citizen experience (CX) efforts. However, what truly drives a good citizen experience are the people — those that believe in the process, engage in the relationships and are enabled by technology. So it stands to reason that happy and engaged employees are the key to happy and engaged citizens.... Read More

Transforming an agency’s culture is a slow process. It begins with what might feel like tiny, quick-hit wins in isolated parts of the agency. Transformation builds on those quick-hit successes to create positive feelings of change that permeate the agency. While agency leaders must be committed to the change, making it happen is not a result of a top-down declaration, and it... Read More

Today’s citizens want service to be accessible anytime, anyplace and through their preferred communication channel. They expect channels of communication not to operate independently, but to be integrated across all platforms so that all conversations, information and context will flow to create a unified experience. For federal agencies, meeting those citizen expectations can... Read More

HighPoint Global®, the citizen experience companyTM , is proud to announce that its employees, team HighPoint Cares, raised $4,645 for the D.C. Autism Speaks walk. The team exceeded its fundraising goal of $4,000 and was among the top ten fundraising teams in D.C. In May, HighPoint employees participated in the Indianapolis Autism Speaks walk. Together, the D.C. and Indianapolis... Read More

HighPoint’s Abby Herriman talks about the significance of employee engagement on citizen experience. Listen to her interview with Chris Dorobek and read the article below. GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE STARTS WITH THE EMPLOYEE Government leaders are all hyped about integrating the newest technological innovations into their agency to improve customer service, but we may have forgotten... Read More

With technology ubiquitous in our everyday lives, there is an expectation that using it as part of citizen experience (CX) efforts will help quickly close the gap between citizens’ expectation and the reality of the service they often get from government. Undoubtedly, technology must be considered as part of a CX solution, and when used properly, it can indeed enhance CX. ... Read More

In my last column, I made the case for the critical need for agencies to put citizens’ needs and expectations at the center of all they do. Citizen Experience, or CX, is a citizen-centered cultural shift that will help build trust and confidence in government if we focus on delivering the information, assistance, services and relationships people must have in a way that works best... Read More

HighPoint included on Inc. list for two consecutive years, topping the Government Services and Washington D.C. area lists August 12, 2015, Indianapolis, IN — Inc. magazine today ranked HighPoint Global number 26 on its 34th annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. HighPoint was also ranked number 1 on the Government Services... Read More

HighPoint Global, the leading provider of citizen experience services to the Federal Government, today announced that it has been ranked #2 on Washington Technology’s 2015 Fast 50 list of government contractors. “We are thrilled to have been named to Washington Technology’s list again this year, and to have propelled from the #6 spot to #2,” said Ben Lanius, Chief Executive Officer.... Read More

HighPoint is pleased to be presenting with such an experienced Citizen Experience group of government executives on Aug. 5. HighPoint’s Abby Herriman will speak on “Measuring the Human Element” of citizen experience. Join Government Executive and Nextgov to explore the right combination of customer-focused strategy, technology, and talent to significantly raise the... Read More

4 MYTHS OF CITIZEN EXPERIENCE Josh Plaskoff is director of learning and technology service development at HighPoint Global Any time we face new challenges that require a shift in thinking, we are naturally drawn to pathways that are the familiar, the comfortable, the expedient or the one of least resistance. The result is that we generate myths based on old ways of thinking that can... Read More

Successful program provides break for caregivers and balance for those with autism July 13, 2015 – At the heart of its corporate values and culture, HighPoint Global supports organizations related to autism research, education and family support. After a successful pilot program last year, HighPoint Global will for the second year in a row, be the sole sponsor of the Respite Care... Read More

By Abby Herriman Born from the quick evolution of the retail sector from brick and mortar stores to online, always-on, consumer-driven experiences, U.S. citizens have incredibly high expectations of customer service. And yet, for a variety of reasons, the federal government has not kept pace with private sector. As a result, the lack of attention to the citizen experience is having... Read More

RESTON, VA – June 8, 2015 – HighPoint Global®, a nationally recognized management solutions company specializing in elevating the citizen experience (CX) through improved constituent services, announced today that its employees raised $4,310 for the Walk Now for Autism in Indianapolis. The HighPoint Cares team set a goal to raise $3,000, and exceeded that goal by $1,310 to be the... Read More

Indianapolis, IN, June 5, 2015 – EY has announced that Ben Lanius, CEO of HighPoint Global was named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2015 Awards in the Ohio Valley Region.  The awards, which recognize entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities, were... Read More

RESTON, VA – May 20, 2015 – HighPoint Global®, a nationally recognized management solutions company specializing in elevating the citizen experience (CX) through improved constituent services, announced today that D.J. Dart has joined the company as a business development executive. In this role, he will continue to expand the presence in the federal market through the acquisition... Read More

Creating a Citizen Experience Turnaround By Abby Herriman The year 2014 was a tough one for federal government customer service. With the issue-plagued rollout of Healthcare.gov, accusations of poor service at Veterans Affairs, and customer satisfaction ratings for the public sector reaching the lowest point in sixteen years, it’s clear that something needs to change in the way our... Read More

HighPoint’s Abby Herriman to be featured on Federal News Radio, April 10 Senior Vice President of Delivery & Innovation, Abby Herriman, will be featured on Fed Talk on Federal News Radio this Friday, April 10, at 11 a.m. Abby will be live in the Washington D.C. studio to join a discussion about customer service (and customer service initiatives) in the federal government.... Read More

The Power of Digital Listening to Improve the Customer Experience People often post unbiased, passionate opinions and feelings on social media that have immediate and viral impacts. Because of this, social media has the potential to engage communities and drive public opinion growth. How can call center organizations best tap into this power to improve their service in real time?... Read More

New members cite the importance of learning from their peers and the opportunity to benchmark their programs against the World’s Most Ethical Companies®. The Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, announced today the latest list of organizations to join the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA); a community... Read More