Requirements for transforming federal customer experience and service delivery

Understand the policy framework: Executive Order 14058 and OMB Circular A-11 Section 280

Why is customer experience important?

Digital programs deliver trusted services by putting their users first.

Each year, the federal government provides information and services to more than 400 million individuals, families, businesses, and organizations. Understanding customer needs and implementing a customer experience strategy can increase the public’s trust in your program, agency, and the federal government.

What’s in the executive order?

In 2021, the White House issued Executive Order 14058: Transforming customer experience and service delivery to rebuild trust in government to recommit to being of the people, by the people, and for the people, and improving service delivery and customer experience as fundamental priorities. To learn more about the executive order, read the fact sheet, Putting the Public First: Improving Customer Experience and Service Delivery for the American People.

Executive Order 14058 requires all executive branch agencies to manage customer experience and improve service delivery using customer experience best practices and a human-centered approach. Specifically, the executive order says the federal government must design and deliver services in a manner that people of all abilities can navigate. Agencies should:

  • Continually improve their understanding of their customers
  • Reduce administrative hurdles and paperwork burdens to minimize “time taxes”
  • Enhance transparency
  • Create greater efficiencies across government
  • Redesign and simplify compliance-oriented processes

What’s in OMB Circular A-11 Section 280?

In 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) updated OMB Circular A-11 Section 280: Managing Customer Experience and Service Delivery (PDF, 376 KB, 14 pages). The circular provided guidance to help federal agencies implement leading practices in customer experience across the federal government and deliver trusted digital services that meet customer expectations. It also provided recommendations on how to manage and plan customer experience initiatives, strategies for measuring the performance of federal services, and guidance for high-impact service providers (HISPs) on delivering customer-facing services.

This update simplified structures for transaction surveys and data collection, and outlined leading practices for effective management of customer experience. It also identified connections between customer research efforts and the Paperwork Reduction Act, and additional detail on the collection of digital analytics data to augment transactional surveys.

OMB’s policy guidance in OMB Circular A-11 Section 280: Managing Customer Experience and Improving Service Delivery says, “All agencies should apply the guidance provided in this section for annual customer experience management and planning, as well as the design of feedback surveys and measurement strategies for the performance of [f]ederal services.”

How should agencies identify and deliver services?

Agencies must identify paper-based or in-person government services for digitization in accordance with the requirements for delivering a digital-first public experience.

To fulfill this requirement, agencies will be required to provide information about public-facing services to the Federal Services Index, which is currently under development. OMB, in coordination with GSA, will release additional instructions for agencies about this requirement. Agencies should refer to the OMB Memorandum M-23-22 MAX page for updates about this requirement.

Service delivery through multiple channels increases access and participation, ensuring that government services are available to all — including those who need them the most, such as underserved communities. Agencies are encouraged to leverage a multi-channel approach — when appropriate, feasible, and supported by customer research.

How should agencies analyze digital services?

OMB Circular A-11 requires agencies to gather and analyze customer experience data of their digital services, including the following, among others:

  • Using an agency’s digital analytics (such as the Digital Analytics Program (DAP))
  • Reviewing web analytics data, including clicks, pageviews, and other transactions
  • Attaching timestamps to data points to trace a user’s journey through time and analyze macro-level shifts in user behavior over longer time periods

Get started

Introduction to human-centered design

Everything you need to know to get started with our human-centered design series

High-impact service providers

OMB designates and maintains a list of high-impact service providers — federal entities that provide or fund high-impact customer-facing services, either due to a large customer base or a high impact on those served by the program.

Given the significance of the services they provide and the requirements in Executive Order 14058, high-impact service providers take steps to manage customer experience. For example, they must implement at least one customer feedback survey for each of their current designated services to understand the perception of customers and their interaction with federal services.

Note

When crafting the customer feedback surveys, high-impact service providers include three prompts:

  • This [interaction / service] increased my trust in [provider].
  • What about this interaction made the difference? OR What could have been better?
  • Anything else you want us to know about your experience?

To learn more about the survey framework, including question wording and branching logic, check out pages 9-12 of OMB Circular A-11 (PDF, 376 KB, 14 pages); Section 280.14: “How should HISPs collect and submit ‘post-transaction’ feedback data?”

Connect with others interested in transforming customer experience and service delivery

Join the User Experience Community of Practice to share and explore best practices for creating great user experiences in government.

Note

Digital.gov provides information and resources for federal agencies related to web and digital policies. However, we cannot interpret the statutes or specific requirements.

Contact OMB’s Office of the Federal CIO at ofcio@omb.eop.gov with any questions about interpretations of the law and guidance.