Customer Experience (CX) is front and center these days in the federal government. Why, you may wonder? Before we answer this question, let us understand what is CX in the context of the federal government.
CX is the sum of the public’s interactions with any government service. An intentional CX strategy is essential to building and maintaining public trust, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government programs, and delivering better outcomes for the public.
Why is CX important for federal agencies? Investing in quality government customer service can save taxpayer money in the long run. A McKinsey report, highlighted that improved customer service in the public sector could reduce costs by up to 20% by streamlining processes and reducing redundant tasks.
US federal agencies are taking steps to develop a CX strategy in response to the Biden Administration’s Executive Order. In December 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14058 on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. This Executive Order (EO) directed a whole-of-government approach to managing customer experience – including specific agency commitments to improving services, and establishing a new “Life Experiences” framework to tackle pain points people experience at critical moments in their lives when they need government to work.
In response to the EO, in 2022 the GSA published a CX Maturity Model. This model defines 5 levels of maturity:
- Reactive: Agencies with a rudimentary understanding of their customers
- Tactical: Agencies who have had occasional forays into customer research, usually as part of larger IT projects
- Strategic: Agencies with enough customer-related initiatives to warrant aligning research and analysis efforts
- Foundational: Agencies whose CX efforts are coordinated and fit very intentionally within well-articulated strategies
- Customer-centric: Agencies structured primarily around the measurable satisfaction of their customers’ needs
The above model is focused on the federal agencies, and their level of CX maturity. From one perspective, this makes sense. However, it is inward facing rather than outward, customer facing.
If we are talking about CX, the customer should be the center of the universe, rather than the federal agency. Below is a 5-stage CX maturity model focused solely on the customer’s experience:
- Customer-Negligent – An organization that is failing to value customers as vital assets and doesn’t consider CX a priority.
- Customer-Chaotic – An organization that is becoming aware of the value of CX. While the organization has taken no significant actions or a coordinated effort associated with it, CX is at least acknowledged and talked about as something important.
- Customer-Aware – An organization that has paid more than just lip service to CX and has begun to design a centralized, coordinated effort.
- Customer-Centric – An organization that values its customers and considers them in every major mission and business decision. These organizations have established, centralized CX initiatives with clear strategies and tangible outcomes.
- Customer-Champion – An organization that values customers as the principal asset. In these organizations, industry-leading design combined with near-perfect execution leads to superior CX
Where does your organization fall in the above customer-centric 5-stage CX model?
