Customer Experience

Use data and customer feedback to design and improve services

To help their customers, agencies must first understand them through data and direct customer feedback. Our research found that agencies have incomplete and outdated customer information, preventing them from drawing meaningful insights and driving strategic decisions. Agencies should create consistent and seamless customer experience by analyzing, sharing and integrating customer data across the organization’s divisions, programs and service delivery channels.

The Department of Veterans Affairs used different types of data to understand how veterans engage with the pension claim process. By using an approach called “human-centered design,” the VA conducted one-on-one interviews and observed how veterans behaved in the waiting room and interacted with staff. The research revealed that veterans were uncomfortable with the process, often because they had little information about what it entailed. Combined with their quantitative survey data, the VA developed a more complete understanding of the issues with its pension claim process and created better ideas to redesign it.

Developing a CX plan

Agency’s need a customer service definition and a customer experience plan to ensure employees are all working toward a common goal. According to private sector best practices, plans should articulate who the customers are, what kind of experience they expect and what gaps need to be addressed, as well as top priorities and an implementation roadmap.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency integrated its customer experience strategy into its 2014–2018 strategic plan, which set aggressive targets to increase citizen satisfaction. The plan helped to articulate that employees’ work is “all about the survivor and not about the agency supporting the survivor,” said Karole Johns, deputy director for FEMA’s Recovery Technology Programs Division. For a customer experience plan to work well, employees in the organization need to see it and understand how their work contributes to the plan’s implementation.

Establishing a CX leadership team

One of the best ways an agency can demonstrate its commitment to customer service is to assemble the leadership team responsible for carrying out the vision. For some agencies, this might entail establishing a chief customer experience officer. For others, it might involve assembling a team of senior leaders responsible for improving the customer experience.

Our research has identified several benefits to establishing a chief customer experience officer: It signals a sea change for agencies that have not had a strong customer focus and ensures that a single leader has the insight and authority needed to strengthen and coordinate agency-wide customer experience efforts. To ensure effective implementation, agencies must establish clear roles for the position, provide sufficient budget and staff, and place the chief high in the organization.

For example, when the secretary of the VA announced the establishment of a chief veterans experience officer position, it sent a strong, positive message to the organization that improving the veteran experience was a top priority. The position was one of only three people in the agency who reported to the secretary, giving the position substantial authority and power to effect change.

Build the CX workforce

Every agency needs a skilled, engaged workforce that understands and is prepared to serve its customers. To build this workforce, agencies need to hire well, train and prepare staff to serve customers and hold employees accountable for the quality of service delivery. The Office of Federal Student Aid specifically hired an expert to evaluate the tone, soft skills and emotional intelligence of customer service representatives. This helped the office ensure that it was hiring employees with the ability to provide the best possible customer service experience.

While strong front-line customer service employees are critical, truly enhancing customer experience must extend beyond the employees who interact with customers directly. It also includes those who create policies and regulations, design products and services and supervise everyone involved.

The Social Security Administration includes customer service competencies, such as oral communication and interpersonal skills, in job announcements for positions dealing with customers. Because such competencies could be broadly interpreted, the agency develops detailed descriptions that define each competency in the context of its work. During interviews, hiring panels ask candidates questions to assess whether the applicants can meet these competencies. The questions require candidates to describe how they would handle the specific kinds of difficult and complex situations agency employees often face when interacting with the public. Despite the extra work required to screen candidates, the meet-and-deal method “has proven extremely valuable [because] it allows us to get the right people on our front lines,” said Erik Jones, assistant deputy commissioner for operations.

Congress: Remove roadblocks to providing a better customer experience

Congress can take several steps to improve the customer experience by holding agencies accountable and giving them the tools they need to succeed.

For instance, Congress can revise the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires that agencies complete an arduous clearance process before collecting information from 10 or more members of the public, to allow agencies to better meet the needs of today’s citizens. The act hasn’t been updated for decades and, in today’s environment, creates an unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle that restricts agencies from asking for voluntary feedback and citizens from voicing concerns and providing suggestions to government.