# The philosophy of government customer experience

 

 

Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2021

 By  [Shira Kates](/shira-kates)

### Fundamental values and mindsets that drive CX

“Every interaction between the Federal government and the public is an opportunity to demonstrate the government understands and is meeting their needs.” That’s according to a [statement](https://www.performance.gov/cx/?) from the federal government as to why customer experience (CX) is an emerging top priority.

While CX has been driving the private sector for years, it’s now taking root in government with [25 federal agencies](https://www.performance.gov/cx/?) (so far) proactively embracing it. Though CX is relatively new territory for the public sector, there have been some impressive strides. We’ve recapped those, along with some tactical recommendations, in these previous posts:

- [Government customer experience: A primer](https://medium.com/civicactions/government-customer-experience-a-primer-7eacae879cf7)
- [Government customer experience: A practical guide](https://medium.com/civicactions/government-customer-experience-a-practical-guide-59b602815e3f)

Now, we’ll focus on some of the soft skills and mindsets that can help you earn buy-in and build better experiences for people from the ground up.

## **Build empathy**

At its heart, CX is about putting yourself in the customers’ shoes. That’s a big — but necessary — mindshift for many government leaders.

“\[Government employees\] should be asking themselves how their customers will interact with the process at every step,” said [Margie Graves](https://www.linkedin.com/in/margie-graves-42a799a/), the former Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Department of Homeland Security, during a recent [CX conference](https://medium.com/civicactions/in-brief-act-iac-cx-summit-2020-2f6eb62b6f86) for government leaders.

#### Government employees should be asking themselves how their customers will interact with the process at every step.

At the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), empathy is taking center stage in a whole new way. At an agency that often gets a bad rap on the customer service front, one IRS intern was so surprised and inspired by the CX dedication she witnessed there, [she wrote about it](https://blog.codingitforward.com/discovering-the-impact-of-human-centered-design-at-the-irs-d4343ba24f0e):

> *“I recognized how dedicated the IRS is to serving the people, and how they uphold the human-centered design thinking process so deeply within their agency. These designers are determined to dig out pain points with current products to ensure their user’s needs are met. Let’s not forget — the IRS designers are taxpayers too, which allows them to build even more empathy with end-users.”*

Andrew Chiu, Director of Product Management and User Experience Design for the IRS, reinforced that empathy-driven culture in [a recent presentation](https://medium.com/civicactions/in-brief-act-iac-cx-summit-2020-2f6eb62b6f86):

“We have to put ourselves in your \[the public’s\] shoes,” he said. “That means being digital-first, mobile-friendly, and always accessible — from the couch to your commute.”

## **Ask, listen … then act**

A look at the efforts of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) reveals what’s possible when CX teams are driven by commitment to service. For example, its [Transition Assistance Program](https://benefits.va.gov/transition/tap.asp) supports the important progression from military to civilian life. VA leaders have made this program more successful and modern by researching what support Veterans really want, and how they’d like it delivered — such as health care via telemedicine, and appoint reminders via text messages.

By [listening to its customers](https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2020/10/how-vba-turned-customer-feedback-into-new-legislation-in-2-weeks/), the agency also learned that its Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program was confusing to many people, leading to low usage of the program:

> *“The surprising thing we found was it wasn’t that the services weren’t great,” said Margarita Devlin, VA’s Principal Deputy Undersecretary for benefits, “It was that when they heard ‘vocational,’ they thought of a certain kind of career, which was vocational school related and maybe they were college bound. Or maybe they heard the word ‘rehabilitation’ and they thought, ‘Wow that sounds like drug rehab or that sounds like substance abuse rehab. That’s not me.’ And they would immediately tune out.”*

To address this, they simply renamed it — Veteran Readiness and Employment Program — based on what resonated with Veterans they spoke to. This is precisely the sort of customer-centric research that drives CX — listening to pain points and then acting on the information to create a better experience.

## **Stay agile**

While agile development is common in technical projects (and critical to our lean process), it’s also important to keep an agile mindset in your overall approach to CX. No doubt, 2020 taught us that major change can happen practically overnight, and the government must adapt swiftly along with it.

For many, the pandemic brought laser focus on the importance of contactless, integrated services for the public and the employees who deliver them. Some agencies were able to [pivot effectively into modern approaches](https://distributedgov.com/news/government-agencies-that-are-committing-to-telework) for service delivery, while others found their backlogs piling up.

“I find it ironic that this year, 2020, also means clear vision. A lot of these challenges have risen to the top with such clarity that we can’t ignore them,” said Nina Bianchi, Chief of People and Culture in the IT Modernization Centers of Excellence at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during a recent [CX conference.](https://medium.com/civicactions/in-brief-act-iac-cx-summit-2020-2f6eb62b6f86)

#### “A lot of these challenges have risen to the top with such clarity that we can’t ignore them.”

But adapting to COVID has also inspired some government leaders to explore new ways of advancing CX. Bianchi, for example, has started hosting virtual outings so that the IT teams can see the connection between their work and what’s happening out in the field across the nation.

“We’re holding space for people to, quite literally, work out of the ‘org chart boxes’ and connect to one another, better,” Bianchi said in a recent [*Forbes*](https://www.forbes.com/sites/christosmakridis/2020/11/20/are-federal-unicorns-100-real-anything-is-possible-with-lifelong-learning/?sh=294720ea87ea)[ interview](https://www.forbes.com/sites/christosmakridis/2020/11/20/are-federal-unicorns-100-real-anything-is-possible-with-lifelong-learning/?sh=294720ea87ea).

That’s also the goal behind [AGL](https://www.agilegovleaders.org/), a nonprofit working to connect and empower the people who are reimagining how government serves the public. Sharing their experiences across agencies and organizations, this community of practitioners supports the growth of a more resilient government through agile practices.

For all of us that are buying, designing, and building digital services (both government and vendors), it’s important to look up from the daily silos of our work and think about the whole experience: Who are we helping? How are they experiencing our work? How can we make it better? And how can we measure success?

We look forward to being part of these conversations and contributing to CX efforts as agencies begin to build programs that will reshape the way people experience government services.

### Learn more about this topic

- Read the ACT-IAC white paper on [improving government CX](https://www.actiac.org/system/files/ACT-IAC%202020%20Election%20-%20CX%20FINAL_0.pdf)
- Download the Department of of Veteran Affairs’ [CX Cookbook](https://www.va.gov/ve/docs/cx/customer-experience-cookbook.pdf)
- Understand the role of [UX in an agile team](https://medium.com/civicactions/the-role-of-ux-in-an-agile-team-1f376d478cfd)
- Learn how to [quickly shift to distributed teams in government](https://medium.com/civicactions/quickly-shifting-to-distributed-teams-in-government-54bd79b912c3)

### **Let’s optimize public service together**

[*Get in touch with us*](https://civicactions.com/contact) *to talk about creating government digital services that build public trust.*