The federal government must make improved customer service a priority

Long lines. Confusing websites. Unreachable customer service. Many Americans navigate these common obstacles to access critical services from the federal government.  

Recent polling by my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, suggests this experience is hardly unique. Today, just 23% of Americans believe federal services are easy to navigate, and only 21% agree the government listens to the public. 

The customer experience—which encompasses all aspects of a person’s interactions with and perceptions of an organization—is central to our government’s mission to protect the health, safety and well-being of the public.  

When it falls short, we all suffer. Distrust in our federal institutions grows, people disengage from the government and, in turn, the government “hears” people’s preferences less, creating a worse customer experience for everyone.  

Some argue that improving the performance and accountability of the government requires converting career civil servants into political appointees who could be fired at will by the president.    

These proposals are both deeply unpopular and a recipe for disaster. Hiring more federal workers for partisan loyalty over merit would make our government less competent, less responsive to the public and less customer focused.  

At the Partnership for Public Service, we have a better alternative—a five-point reform agenda designed to improve the way our government serves the people and rebuild trust in our federal institutions, including through developing a better overall customer experience for the American public.   

In recent years, Congress and presidents of both parties have prioritized this issue though an executive order, call-outs in the President’s Management Agenda and a new government-wide initiative to build more customer-friendly services.  

Still, challenges remain.  

It is not common practice for agencies to ensure that programs and initiatives have a customer-centric approach, and senior leaders don't prioritize customer experience as a significant responsibility.  

A clunky federal hiring process also makes it difficult to hire customer experience experts in a timely manner, and outdated laws make agencies jump through hoops to collect valuable customer feedback. 

To address these problems, Congress, agencies and the incoming administration should prioritize three main reforms.  

• Make the customer experience a priority. Agencies need to hold federal employees—from political leaders to career professionals—accountable for providing a first-rate customer experience. This should involve building an infrastructure for this work by senior leaders dedicated to leading customer experience initiatives, funding and creating customer experience teams and offices.  

• Tackle recruitment and hiring challenges. Agencies must build a diverse pipeline of customer experience, data and technology experts by identifying the specific skills necessary for this work, assessing candidates based on those skills and sharing the best qualified candidates with other federal agencies. Congress and agencies must also collaborate to simplify the hiring process. It takes the government more than twice as long as the private sector to hire someone, a pace that costs agencies top talent.  

• Improve data sharing and collection. Congress should consider legislation, and agencies should develop processes for the government to more easily collect, exchange and use customer data. Federal services work best when they are tested by the public and informed by customer feedback. Unfortunately, collecting this data requires a slow, convoluted approval process, and this must be fixed.  

At the Partnership for Public Service, I know these recommendations work firsthand through our Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals® program, which recognizes exceptional career civil servants.  

One honoree transformed the customer experience at the Department of Veterans Affairs through a new office that has made it easier for veterans to access services, resulting in increased trust in the agency. 

Another led the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, which provides burial services for veterans and their eligible family members, to a score of 97 out of 100 in the 2023 American Customer Satisfaction Index, the highest mark in the history of the survey and nearly 30 points above the government-wide average. 

Still others helped bring the Social Security Administration’s 16-page disability recertification form online for the first time, and worked with agencies to enable online passport renewals, better support for newborn children and their parents, and a more streamlined online disaster relief application. 

However, despite these important efforts, which offer a model for future work, the government still ranks last among 10 major economic sectors measured in the latest national customer satisfaction index. 

This situation must change. A good government requires good customer experience—and that requires serious reform. Equipping agencies to center the customer experience in everything they do, hire skilled talent, and collect the right data would revolutionize the way people interact with the government and help it regain the public’s trust.  

Jenny Mattingley is the vice president for government affairs at the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, an organization dedicated to building a better government and a stronger democracy.