Feature
Throughout 2022, the government has undertaken several initiatives to improve CX.
While at first blush, it might seem that the government doesn’t need to address CX, nothing could be further from the truth. And while it may seem government interest in customer experience is nonexistent, some efforts to improve the status quo did start appearing about the middle of the last decade, according to a marketing agency LMD blog post.
Why is CX in the government's interest? According to LMD, good customer CX has positive impacts on employee satisfaction and retention, compliance, operational efficiency, private sector partnerships and congressional support. And without good CX, government agencies invite additional scrutiny from Congress and from government oversight agencies.
The drive for better government CX received an additional push just before entering 2022 when President Biden signed an executive order directing agencies to modernize programs, reduce administrative burdens and develop new online tools and technologies to enhance CX.
Below is a look at some of the largest current government CX efforts.
OMB: Better CX for Retirees, Military, Mothers
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the government arm that oversees the performance of federal agencies and administers the federal budget, adopted five separate initiatives this year designed to improve CX for retirement planning, recovering from a disaster, transitioning from active military duty to civilian life, mothers facing economic insecurity regarding childbirth and early childhood, and those undergoing sudden financial hardship. As OMB notes in a Performance.gov blog, each of these experiences often requires interactions with multiple federal agencies, as well as with state and local, tribal and territorial governments.
These projects are still in the “discovery phase,” with teams conducting research and collecting data to determine how federal agencies can better design and deliver CX on a large scale as well as how to improve small-scale service delivery.
Department of Labor: Digital Transformation Around Customers
The US Department of Labor is centralizing its digital transformation strategy around its customers to improve service value and inform the agency’s IT modernization. Constituents can now use digital signatures to reduce delays.
In another initiative, the Department of Labor has updated worker’s compensation programs to enable beneficiaries to use telehealth options for routine medical appointments, enabling beneficiaries to obtain some medical evaluations and consultations from the comfort of their homes.
Related Article: The Most Important Components of the Customer Experience
Department of Homeland Security: Offering Customer Experience Training
Working with the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has added baseline CX training for TSA screeners, which if effective, should help CX in airport security lines. This can be helpful because travelers typically are already under stress from late or missed flights, baggage and other issues.
DHS has also collaborated with the state of Arizona and Apple on new technology that enables airline customers to use state-issued mobile driver's licenses or mobile ID cards stored in the Apple Wallet, on an iPhone or an Apple Watch for airport identification. This means no more digging a plastic card out of a wallet or purse for identification. It also means that passengers can keep their identification on the same device that they keep their digital airline tickets and boarding passes.
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
Webinar
Jun
7
The Building Blocks of Personalization
This webinar will explore how personalization can create powerful ecommerce shopping experience.
Webinar
Jun
8
Attracting—and Keeping—Your High-Net-Worth Investors
Join PwC to dissect their recent survey findings on a specific customer subset — high-net-worth investors.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
Jun
13
Learn How to Deliver Dynamic Video Experiences at Scale
Learn how to convert existing assets into video experiences in near real-time.
Webinar
Jun
20
3 Steps to Unlock Your Customer Data and Drive Revenue
Discover how Twilio Segment’s #1 Customer Data Platform helps implement data-driven strategies.
Going a step further, TSA is piloting TSA PreCheck — Touchless Identity Solution, a facial recognition technology designed to compare a live image of a passenger to a gallery of pre-staged photos that the passenger has previously provided to the federal government (for a passport or visa). However, with the technology still in its infancy, TSA requires passengers (except those using the digital IDs mentioned above) to carry a physical identification to resolve any discrepancies with the facial recognition technology.
According to Performance.gov, “TSA will continue to expand its identification technology to more airports, in collaboration with airlines and other industry and government partners.
Related Article: How to Deliver a Customer-Centric Digital Customer Experience
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): Mobile App Enhancements
The VA updated its mobile app to enable it to complete many common VA transactions (e.g., messaging healthcare providers, viewing claims status and managing appointments). Vets can also use the app to view benefit payment history and their VA vaccination record information.
Additionally, the VA launched a virtual chatbot on VA.gov, providing vets another option to interact with the agency. The VA plans to use customer feedback to determine what functionality to add to the virtual chatbot.
More Government CX Change Needed
Despite the initiatives undertaken this year, a report from the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture Federal Services says the federal government still needs a “customer-centric” redesign to address the primary root causes of customer experience (CX) challenges.
The report says that the current state of government CX is due to the fact that a lot of government structure and regulation “was not designed with customers in mind.”
Good leadership and practical solutions are needed to address the many challenges of understanding the government’s customers and providing better CX. Let’s hope the way forward takes place at warp speed.
