Federal agencies must adapt their systems to deliver a simple, seamless and secure customer experience that cuts across multiple programs and agencies, according to a new report from the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture Federal Services.
The report, “Designing a Government for the People: Collaborative Approaches to Federal Customer Experience,” provides agencies with a concrete path for better understanding and addressing the root causes of customer experience challenges.
It cites exclusive findings from interviews with experts within the federal government, as well as academic and national research institutes, addressing the actions needed to design a government centered around its customers.
The report offers a vision for collaborative CX centered around life experience. This will require, among other things:
- Empowered leadership: This includes “providing deputy secretaries with the insights, staff and performance management systems to be true champions of improving the customer experience.”
- An engaged and accountable agency enterprise, with agencywide CX performance expectations for chief financial, information, human capital and other officers.
- A knowledge mobilization strategy for customer solutions, one that makes all customer data easily accessible.
- A comprehensive data-sharing policy infrastructure, with “common, consistent and secure resources to enable customer-data sharing.”
- A digital enterprise to support a consistent customer experience. Agencies must invest in “enterprise-wide digital talent, solutions and infrastructure to support simple, seamless and secure customer experiences.”
- External partnerships that leverage expert knowledge and trusted communication to connect with vulnerable customer groups.
The researchers say all this requires serious investment across all functions of government, but add that it will generate significant benefits.
“When we give federal agencies the correct tools to implement positive change in their customer experience systems, they do so effectively,” said Loren DeJonge Schulman, vice president of research, evaluation and modernizing government at the Partnership for Public Service.
Take, for example, the call for agencies to co-design services with customers. This idea “has me excited about the potential for future interactions with the government,” said DeJonge Schulman. “If agencies listen to customers first, they can overcome historic physical, emotional, and resource barriers.”
Along with DeJonge Schulman, the report’s authors are Kathy Conrad, director of digital government at Accenture Federal Services; Nadzeya Shutava, manager at the Partnership for Public Service; and Sarah Hughes, senior manager at the Partnership for Public Service.
They aim to help government shift “from a culture of waivers and workarounds to a deeply embedded, customer-centric mindset,” with collaboration among multiple stakeholders, including finance, human resources, legal and others, said Megan Peterman, customer experience and design leader at Accenture Federal Services.
“Our report lays out a blueprint for building on the progress made to design customer journeys that mirror life experiences and deliver more equitable services for all,” she added.