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Insights from the Customer Experience Organization Design Roundtable Series

America is at an inflection point, with public trust in government continuing its overall decline since the 1960s. 

Public servants are working to reverse this decline, improving how people engage with federal services, from filing taxes, renewing a passport, or signing up for Social Security benefits. The President’s Management Agenda also lists improving the customer experience as a top priority, and agencies and customer experience leaders are following suit by working to institutionalize customer experience, or CX, programs across government.  

To support this work, the Partnership collaborated with the Office of Management and Budget to create the CX Organization Design Roundtable Series.  

With participation from 14 agencies, the roundtables aimed to foster collaboration among CX leaders, providing a space to share tried and trusted CX strategies, exchange CX lessons and resources, and strengthen CX networks. This work complements our latest reform agenda, which proposes three main actions agencies and Congress should take to improve the customer experience in government.  

Participants highlighted several key factors that are crucial for advancing CX across federal agencies: organizational design and culture, staffing and funding, and internal governance structures. These concepts are critical to building a more customer-focused government and underscore the steps needed to improve public trust in federal services. 

Staffing and funding 

Agencies face challenges in forming dedicated teams to implement CX initiatives. Participants suggested solutions such as using pooled hiring, leveraging subject matter experts in talent searches, and tapping talent sources like Presidential Innovation or U.S. Digital Service Fellows to address these challenges.  

Those who joined us also emphasized the importance of highlighting the financial benefits of CX initiatives to address funding challenges and help navigate a rigid budget process. By demonstrating how CX investments lead to cost savings, workforce efficiency gains, and increased public satisfaction, agencies can better justify budget allocations for robust and cohesive CX work. 

Organizational design and culture 

The Partnership’s research has emphasized the importance of embedding an enterprise-driven, customer-centric mindset across all levels, ensuring that CX is not just a function but a core organizational value. 

This requires changing organizational culture. Clear communication, a holistic approach to designing services, and ongoing support from leadership to maintain momentum and drive change is key. By addressing these cultural challenges, agencies can create an environment where CX initiatives thrive, leading to better service delivery, increased trust, and a more customer-focused government. 

Governance structures 

Agencies must also establish strong governance structures with delineated roles and responsibilities to support and sustain these cultural shifts.

Roundtable participants shared that establishing a clear internal understanding of CX offices and securing leadership support are vital for integrating CX into agencies’ core work and developing a successful CX strategy.

For example, having a senior CX official report directly to the agency head or deputy ensures that customer experience principles and goals are core elements of strategic planning efforts. Prioritizing CX when making policy and programming decisions, and using intentional storytelling to demonstrate return on investment, is also important.   

Governance models with clear roles and responsibilities also enable agencies to develop additional, comprehensive training programs that distinguish CX from traditional customer service, addressing employees’ skill gaps, and fostering ongoing learning and growth. 

In all, our CX Organization Design Roundtable Series offered a clear guide for agencies to improve their customer experience. By addressing organizational design and culture, staffing and, funding issues, and how the CX fits into the internal governance hierarchy. agencies would enhance the public’s experience with federal services, in turn strengthening public trust in government. 

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