Our goal is to help the government earn the trust of its customers by meeting their needs and expectations.
The public deserves user-friendly services from the federal government, whether it’s veterans who need health care, taxpayers who seek assistance from the IRS or college students who apply for financial aid. The public consistently rates federal agencies far behind other sectors and industries, while viewing the private sector as more capable of adapting quickly to changing customer needs. This disparity leads to a lack of trust in government.
To bolster how agencies interact with customers, we share knowledge and leading practices through research, events, papers and reports; advocate for removing policy and legislative barriers; convene people who oversee the customer experience at their organizations; and hold agencies accountable by publishing insights on their interactions with the public.
Government for the People
Designing for Equitable and Trusted Customer Experiences
The government’s relationship with the public is at an inflection point. Public trust in government is at historic lows at a time when people’s expectations of our government are evolving rapidly. The Biden administration has the opportunity to reset this relationship with a fundamental shift that places its customer—the public—at the center of its work.
The Partnership for Public Service and Accenture Federal Services’ Government for the People report offers a customer experience roadmap to empower federal leaders to anticipate the public’s unique needs and meet them up front. Our core message: People deserve simple, consistent, purposeful and secure experiences with government—all customers, across all their journeys—delivering on the promise of government for the people.
Our third annual report provides in-depth data and insights on 15 key federal services, assesses the progress government has made since last year, and recommends agency leaders expand their perspectives beyond the most visible symptoms of customer experience challenges to address the root causes, a critical step to generating lasting trust and real positive change.
Customer Experience Profiles
This report examines customers’ experiences with 15 federal services that are among those with the highest volume of direct contact with the public. For the first time, we are also considering the role of equity in these critical services, and how to enable a customer-centered lens that improves trust.
Airport Security
Screening and
Passenger Support
Services
Transportation Security
Administration
Citizenship and
Immigration Applicant Services
U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services
Customs Airport Security and Screening Services
Customs and
Border Protection
Individual Assistance Disaster Relief Programs
(NEW!)
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Medicare Customer Support Services
Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services
Outdoor Recreation Reservations for Federal Lands
Recreation.gov—
a multiagency initiative
Outpatient Health Care Services for Veterans
Veterans Health Administration
Retirement Services for Federal Employees
(NEW!)
Office of Personnel Management
Social Security Retirement Services
(NEW!)
Social Security Administration
Trademark Registration and Maintenance
(NEW!)
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Customer Experience Research
Leading with Experience: A Framework for Customer-Focused Leadership in Government
The Partnership for Public Service and Maximus Federal address how individual leaders can improve the federal customer experience and recommends government-wide actions agencies can take to create a culture of customer-focused leadership.
Behind the Scenes: How Government Mission-Support Services Can Use a Customer Lens to Meet Big Challenges
This issue-brief demonstrates how mission-support offices have created—and can create—more customer-focused services that better enable government to solve big challenges.
Government for the People: Profiles on the customer experience
This report features in-depth customer experience profiles that highlight what is working well, where improvements are needed, and the actions that agencies are taking to strengthen the customer experience. It also highlights concrete steps that federal agencies, the Office of Management and Budget and Congress can take to enhance these services.
Colleagues as Customers: How Mission-Support Services Can Improve the Customer Experience
The Partnership for Public Service and Medallia identify three key strategies for mission-support service providers to use to improve the internal customer experience.
Time for a Change: How agencies are transforming business practices to meet customer needs
In this issue whitepaper we worked with Accenture Federal Services to identify how federal departments and agencies are rethinking traditional ways of doing business.
Beating the Tax Rush: Providing Critical Information Early Improves the IRS Customer Experience
In this issue brief, we worked with Accenture Federal Services to examine how the IRS overcame significant budget and staffing constraints to get ahead of customer questions and improve customer understanding and experience.
Customer Experience Dashboard
This sample customer experience dashboard highlights some of the important data that agency leaders can track to understand services from a customer’s perspective.
Beyond the Basics: Leading Practices for Improving Customer Experience in Government
This white paper highlights three proven private-sector strategies that government can adopt to improve citizen services, and explores common challenges federal agencies experience when implementing these practices.
The Most Important Customer: Improving the Citizen Experience with Government
Benefits of improving the customer experience go well beyond satisfied customers. Learn how in the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture Federal Service’s new issue brief.
Serving Citizens: Strategies for Customer-Centered Government in the Digital Age
In this report the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture highlight lessons learned from federal initiatives that have simplified and streamlined the process of interacting with the government by implementing a customer-centered approach to digital services.
In the News
The Three Keys to Providing More Equitable Government Services
October 8, 2021
Publication Type: In the News
Achieving equity in and access to government services requires a fundamental shift in how federal programs and policies are designed and implemented, and how services and products are provided. Equity and access must be incorporated into all program elements from the start.
Partnership for Public Service suggests review of federal tech laws, pay system overhaul
September 1, 2021
Publication Type: In the News
The Partnership for Public Service recommended ways for Congress and the Biden administration to improve innovation and technology modernization in government while bolstering the federal workforce, in its Roadmap for Renewing Our Federal Government.
Report: Biden Administration Must Prioritize Workforce, Tech Modernization
August 13, 2021
Publication Type: In the News
The government employs 19 times more mission-critical IT employees over the age of 50 than under the age of 30, according to the Partnership for Public Service.
Federal HR in need of attention and resources, Partnership says
March 30, 2021
Publication Type: In the News
Agencies lose ground on their quest to find the best talent and meet their increasingly complicated missions when they fail to improve and transform outdated federal human resources, according to a recent report from the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte.
On the Blog
- How a new focus on customer experience helped the Bureau of the Fiscal Service adapt to the pandemic
- How mission-support leaders can improve the internal customer experience
- Trust is the foundation for transforming federal HR
- How Federal Executive Boards played a key role in supporting the federal workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic
- How the Transportation Security Administration’s mission-support offices used a customer focus to adapt to the pandemic
