Improving Service. Improving Trust.

Improving customer service (or in the case of the government, citizen service) has been a focus of the Federal government for the past several administrations, most recently being named a key goal of the Biden-Harris President's Management Agenda (PMA). Despite this focus, citizen satisfaction with government service has remained low, but a 2022 report shows that the tide may be turning.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) Federal Government Report 2022 showed that citizen satisfaction with Federal government services increased by 4.6 percent in 2022. Report authors attribute the increase to improved availability of digital services (spurred by the PMA and the Customer Service Executive Order) and major government initiatives including the distribution of free COVID-19 tests.

In addition to these high profile projects, agencies are making inroads in a number of smaller, but nonetheless impactful ways.

• Veterans Affairs (VA) has been a pioneer in government in terms of completely re-tooling how it serves citizens. Their digital transformation has been human-centered, focused on how veterans use, and want to use, their services. The solutions they have rolled out, starting with a complete overhaul of VA.gov to be user-centric rather than agency-centric, have been successful in raising trust in the organization from 55 percent to nearly 80 percent in seven years.
• Feeding off VA's success, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently re-launched the medicare.gov website with streamlined navigation and improved mobile optimization - delivering information where and how people want it.
• The Government Services Administration (GSA) is working on redeveloping USA.gov into a true "federal front door" where citizens can begin their journey to request government service without having to know exactly which agency they should approach. The goal is to provide people the information they need directly on the USA.gov site rather than simply linking them to an agency site that they then have to navigate.
• The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service and the Social Security Administration updated their data-sharing partnership to help ease burdens on people needing benefits from the agencies. By improving data sharing, citizens eligible for certain Social Security benefits can be automatically directed to enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) within the same paperwork and process.

While there has been much progress, there is much more to do to improve government service. The increase in 2022 brings the government's overall score up to a 66.3 out of 100 which is barely a passing grade. GovEvents and GovWhitePapers hold a wealth of information for helping agencies continue and accelerate their customer experience journey.

• Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference 2023 (May 7-9, 2023; Cambridge, MD) - New technologies are inspiring digital transformations that introduce new opportunities and improve customer experience. Listen and engage with a range of keynotes, panels, and executive sessions from influential thought leaders and innovators who are using emerging technology and innovation to make positive advancements.
• Improving Public Sector Customer Experience (May 18, 2023; virtual) - This event will explore the policies, applications, and technologies involved with improving customer and employee experience.
• Together Public Sector (May 23, 2023; Washington, DC) - Hear from leaders in government who are leapfrogging costly 'rip and replace' technology modernization projects and deploying automation to get the full value of what they have. Learn from automation pioneers who are transforming mission operations through automation - creating simple, frictionless experiences for employees and customers, and building a foundation of innovation to drive more value for the mission.
• Government Customer Experience & Engagement Summit (June 1, 2023; Washington, DC) - Hear experts from industry and Federal, State, and Local governments highlight case studies and success stories in groundbreaking CX efforts. Leaders will unpack their strategies in human-centered design, why data drives their work, and how agencies are operationalizing new guidance all to deliver a central goal: delivering excellent and equitable services to those who depend on them.
• How to Capitalize on Customer Experience to Move the Mission (white paper) - The Biden administration issued an executive order directing agencies to deliver seamless CX. Discover the four key takeaways and lessons learned on providing and improving CX to drive mission benefits.
• Changing the Perception: Using Digital Transformation to Increase Trust in Government Agencies (white paper) - This paper explores the critical factors influencing customer trust and provides recommendations and examples for leaders implementing customer experience and digital transformation initiatives.

For more customer experience best practices for improving service and trust check out GovEvents and GovWhitePapers.