Customer Experience Toolkit

Customer Experience (CX) is defined as the sum of all experiences a customer has with your organization. Since government is often a sole-source service provider (e.g., there’s only one place to pay taxes, or get a driver’s license), CX is even more important in the public sector than in other organizations.

This Toolkit is intended to help government agencies improve how we deliver services and information to the public.

How to use this guide:

• Honestly assess where you’re doing well, and where you need some work, then use the resources below to help you improve
• Coordinate internally, to ensure your agency “speaks with one voice” across the entire organization
• Start small and iterate—focus on changes that will have a positive impact on the largest customer groups first

Topics covered in this toolkit include: Strategy, Governance, Culture, Customer Understanding, Design, Measurement, Digital Services, and Collaboration.

Strategy

Make the customer experience a strategic priority for your entire organization.

Get the big picture

• Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government (December 2021)
  • FACT SHEET: Putting the Public First: Improving Customer Experience and Service Delivery for the American People (December 2021)
• OMB Circular A-11 Section 280, Managing Customer Experience and Improving Service Delivery (PDF, 385 KB, 14 pages, August 2023)
• 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (21st Century IDEA)
• The CX Cookbook: A Collection of Key Ingredients & Recipes for Embedding Customer Experience in Federal Services (PDF, 1.8 MB, 34 pages, 2020) - U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Customer Service Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal Update (2015)
• The Customer Service Playbook for Government (PDF, 17.4 MB, 34 pages, 2015) - GovLoop
• Serving Citizens: Strategies for Customer-Centered Government in the Digital Age (PDF, 1.3 MB, 44 pages, 2014) - Partnership for Public Service
• Re-Imagining Customer Service in Government - GovLoop

Develop a strategy

• Identify what matters most to customers
  • A Deep Dive Into Top Tasks with Gerry McGovern — one-hour webinar; Digital.gov Event
  • What Really Matters: Focusing on Top Tasks – A List Apart
  • Task Analysis – Usability.gov
• Document what the ideal customer experience looks like
  • CX: The Art of the Possible (PDF, 2.1 MB, 13 pages, 2016) – InMoment/CustomerThink

Share high-level priorities and goals

• Publicly share goals and priorities to increase accountability
  • Agency Strategic Goals and Strategic Objectives – Performance.gov
  • Biden-Harris Administration’s President’s Management Agenda (PMA), Priority 2: Delivering Excellent, Equitable, and Secure Federal Services and Customer Experience – Performance.gov
• See what other agencies are doing
  • High Impact Service Providers (HISPs) – Performance.gov
  • Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2022-2026 – U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
  • 2022-2023 Agency Priority Goals (AGPs), and AGP Goal 3: Create a human-centered customer experience – U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
  • Fiscal Years 2022-28 Strategic Plan (PDF, 38.5 MB, 235 pages) — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Vision 2025 – Social Security Administration (SSA)
  • Improving Customer Experience at DHS – U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • Customer Service Pledge and Strategic Plan 2022-2026, Customer Service Plan (PDF, 1.9 MB, 3 pages) – Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)

Governance

Designate a single person to be responsible for the customer experience agency-wide; give them appropriate resources and authority to approve and monitor CX efforts and influence change across the entire organization.

Hire a Chief Customer Officer (CCO)

• Focus on collaboration and teamwork
  • Sample Chief Customer Officer position description (Word document, 23 KB, 4 pages) – General Services Administration (GSA)
  • Sample CCO performance evaluation criteria (PDF, 83 KB, 2 pages) – GSA
• Empower the CCO to influence change across the entire organization
  • Federal Student Aid Customer Experience Journey: A Recap

Stand up a Customer Team

• Performance Plans
  • Sample CX Consultant performance plan (Excel spreadsheet, 82 KB, 2 tabs) – GSA
• Position Descriptions (PDs)
  • Sample PDs for Digital Government jobs - incl. usability, design, analytics
• Agency examples
  • Customer Service and Public Engagement Directorate (CSPED) overview (PowerPoint presentation, 2 MB, 13 slides) and Functional Profile (Word document, 87 KB, 5 pages) – DHS/USCIS

Coordinate delivery of content and services

• Institute central oversight for cross-channel customer support
• Train all front-line employees across the entire organization on service level expectations and frequently asked questions (FAQs)
  • Share contact center FAQs with all front-line staff
  • Develop scripts for people who answer the phones
  • Document boilerplate email responses to FAQs
• Identify content owners and establish editorial controls over content publication across the entire organization
• 7 Inspiring Examples of Omni-Channel User Experiences – HubSpot
• Join the Web Managers Community of Practice
• Required Web Content and Links — A list of required links that all federal websites need to have.
• Go-Live Checklist for Federal Websites

Follow all relevant laws and policies

• Government Customer Service Policies & Requirements

Culture

Publish customer service standards and train all employees so they understand their role, responsibilities, expectations and behavioral norms in the customer experience ecosystem.

Train your employees

• Ensure all employees understand the importance of good customer service
  • CX Video Training Library – Digital.gov YouTube playlist
  • Understanding Your Customer online training course (16 short videos, totalling 26 minutes) – Small Business Administration (SBA) Learning Center
  • 2023 online training from Lab @ OPM, Center for Leadership Development
    • Design in Government: Designing Accessible Communications, a 3-day course, in April or August 2023.
    • Design in Government: Introduction to Human-Centered Design, a 3-day course, in January, May, or July 2023.
• Provide additional customer service training to front-line staff
  • Share FAQs and boilerplate language, to ensure customers receive the same correct answer from everyone across the organization

Build a customer-centric culture

• Learn how to Create a Culture of Engagement – YouTube video; Digital.gov Event
• Improve the onboarding process for new employees
  • Develop a “New Employees” section on your intranet to help new hires easily find critical information
• Share customer service expectations and stories on your intranet
  • Sample intranet content (PowerPoint presentation, 705 KB, 4 slides) – DHS/USCIS
• Encourage employees to join the CX Community of Practice
• Celebrate Customer Experience Day
• Learn from the private sector
  • How the Nationals’ Customer Experience Principles Can Be a Home Run for Agencies

Hold employees accountable

• Include customer service in performance rating criteria
  • Sample performance rating elements (Excel spreadsheet, 23 KB, 5 tabs) – GSA

Respond to employee concerns

• Regularly ask for, listen to, and take action on feedback
  • Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (EVS)

Reward success

• Acknowledge employees who provide great service
  • Doesn’t have to be monetary—a simple “thank you” can go a long way

Customer Understanding

Systematically collect and analyze customer behavior and feedback to understand needs and expectations.

Clearly identify who you’re serving

• Guide to Understanding Your Customer (PDF, 10 MB, 13 pages)
• Getting to Know Your Users: Tips and Tricks from Veterans Affairs
• Spend time in your customers’ shoes
  • Be a “secret shopper” and interact with your agency from the outside in

Bring customers to life with personas

• Personas 101
• Using Personas to Better Understand Customers: USA.gov Case Study
• Sample personas.
  • Voices of Veterans: Introducing Personas to Better Understand Our Customers
  • FY 2021, Improving Customer Experiences, (PDF, 3.7 MB, 17 pages, 2021) — Veterans Experience Office (VEO), U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA)
  • USDA Personas and Use Cases (PDF, 581 KB, 7 pages)

Map the entire customer journey

• Journey Mapping the Customer Experience: A USA.gov Case Study
• Make it easy to complete common tasks
  • A Deep Dive Into Top Tasks with Gerry McGovern — one-hour webinar; Digital.gov Event
  • 2022 Research Report: Inclusive Design Patterns — U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)
    • Inclusive design patterns, practical guidelines and best practices for common user interactions
  • List of Top Customer Tasks – Department of Education (ED)
  • Template: Veterans Journey Map (PDF, 65 kb, 1 page) — Veterans Experience Office (VEO), U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA)
  • Template: Veterans Journey Map Activity Guide (Docx, 2.2 MB, 4 pages) — VEO, VA
  • Women Veterans Journey Map (PDF, 188 kb, 1 page) — VEO, VA

Analyze and act on data

• Institute processes to review customer feedback on a regular basis
  • Using Customer Feedback to Improve Healthcare.gov
• Review website and search data to identify the most-viewed, popular content
  • DAP/Google Analytics - web analytics
  • Search.gov - website search
• Join the Web Analytics and Optimization Community of Practice

Identify common questions

• Ask your contact center and front-line staff which questions they’re asked most often
• Document and share common questions
  • FAFSA Help – ED
  • Common Questions – Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Frequently Asked Questions: Smoking & Tobacco Use – CDC

Design

Implement agile, iterative, customer-centric design processes for all customer interactions.

Follow design best practices

• U.S. Web Design System (USWDS)
• U.S. Digital Services Playbook
• Method cards – 18F (GSA)
• 18F User Experience Design Guide – 18F (GSA)
• Human-Centered Design Field Guide (PDF, 1 MB, 18 pages, 2017)
• Mobile User Experience Guidelines and Recommendations
• Connecting with the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team

Be accessible

• Accessibility Guides and Resources
• An Introduction to Accessibility (and why it matters)
• Accessibility for Teams
• Best Practices for Writing for the Accessible Web
• 18F Accessibility Guide
• Section508.gov
  • Find your agency’s Section 508 Program Manager
• Information and Communication Technology Revised 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines – U.S. AccessBoard
• OPM 2023 Training, Center for Leadership Development
  • Design in Government: Designing Accessible Communications - April and August 2023 online courses

Be agile

• Foundations in Agile, Part I, Digital.gov Event
• Foundations in Agile, Part II, Digital.gov Event
• How Agile Development Can Benefit Federal Projects
• Why People Contribute to Federal Tech Projects (And How You Can Provide a Good Experience)
• Agile Project Management in Government

Streamline contact center operations

• Contact Center Guidelines

Use plain language

• Federal Plain Language Guidelines
• Lessons from the 2021 Federal Plain Language Report Card
• Bilingual Glossaries, Dictionaries, and Style Guides
• Customer Experience Case Study: CDC’s Clear Communication Index – YouTube video
• Join the Plain Language Community of Practice
• Join the Multilingual Community of Practice

Conduct regular and ongoing user testing

• User Experience Basics
• User Research Methods
• Creating a User-Centered Approach in Government
• UX Training Video Library – DigitalGov University (DGU)
• Join the User Experience (UX) Community of Practice

Solicit ideas from customers

• Challenge.gov
• Join the Challenge and Prize Community of Practice

Measurement

Define a framework for collecting common customer metrics, measures and outcomes within and across channels; require every program to regularly measure customer satisfaction and act on customer feedback.

Determine service levels for top tasks

• Report of the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee (Word document, 238 KB, 16 pages, 2005) - CSLIC

Standardize processes

• Follow policies and requirements
  • Digital Metrics Guidance and Best Practices
  • Paperwork Reduction Act - includes Fast Track approval guidance
• Adopt survey best practices
  • Designing a Better Customer Survey – video
  • Navigating the Alphabet Soup of Survey Methodologies (PDF) – ClickTools
  • Sample CX Question Database (Excel spreadsheet, 87 KB, 1 tab)
  • Likert-Type Scale Response Anchors (PDF, 57 kb, 2 pages) – recommended wording and rating scales for a variety of survey questions
• Sample surveys
  • BusinessUSA (Word document, 29 KB, 2 pages) – Department of Commerce
  • Passports (Word document, 75 KB, 2 pages) – State Department
  • USAJOBS (Excel spreadsheet, 77 KB, 2 tabs) – OPM

Use shared services

• Digital Analytics Program (DAP) - website analytics
• Search.gov - hosted search service
• Federalist - web publishing platform
• DOI Federal Consulting Group (FCG) - survey tools and analysis support

Engage your team

• Identify how each person/team contributes to the customer experience
• Train employees to use customer feedback
  • CX Data in Action Series: Case Study #1 - Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA)
  • Analytics Video Training Library – DGU

Publish your progress

• Develop reports and dashboards
  • Above and Beyond Metrics: Tell a Story with Reports – video
  • Code for America Analytics Dashboard
• Agency examples
  • Digital Metrics Dashboard – CDC
  • Annual Performance Report—Fiscal Years 2014–2016 – DHS

Digital Services

Develop a Digital Business Strategy that embraces an improved customer experience, and empower and fund your digital services team to modernize agency websites and online systems to take advantage of new technologies.

Deliver anytime, anywhere, any channel government

• Improve digital interactions
  • Digital Government Strategy – Whitehouse.gov
  • U.S. Digital Service
• Publish open, structured content
  • Finding the Best Mobile Moment for Anytime, Anywhere Government
• Coordinate across all channels (web, social, mobile, etc.)
  • U.S. Digital Registry
  • Join the Social Media Community of Practice

Communicate clearly

• Plain Language and Writing for the Web – video
• DHS CX Glossary
• Join the Federal Communicators Network

Adopt shared services

• Use shared services to streamline and save money
• Customer Experience Center of Excellence (CX CoE)
• Customer Experience Services Evaluation and Buying Guide (PDF, 823 KB, 2020) - guidance on purchasing Human-Centered Design (HCD) services

Collaboration

Collaborate internally, and with other agencies and stakeholders, to improve the overall government customer experience.

Work together

• Work with your CCO and others across your agency
• Join the CX-COP community
• Consider joining other communities of practice
• Coordinate service delivery where agency missions intersect
• Develop in the open

Tap the wisdom of the crowd

• Consider ideation competitions to find solutions.

Share your story

• Good Communication is a CX Imperative – video
• Do you have a resource or case study to add to this Toolkit? If so, please email us.