The Federal Government Doesn’t just have to Implement CX, They Have to Defend it
That was the underlying message at last Friday’s ACT-IAC Customer Experience Summit. The speakers portrayed a mix of optimism, and big aspirations for the future of CX in the public sector, but Politics and Elon Musk’s threats subtly loomed in a few ways:
Urgency to move from understanding terminology to action: There’s now an expectation that the civic sector understands terms like Human-Centered-Design, UX (User experience), CX (Customer experience), EX (Employee experience) and DX (Digital experience). There’s no more time to debate or parse them out. And this shift is significant. Change begins with shared language. When everyone understands and values the role of a user-focused experience, it lays the groundwork for meaningful progress. As Lauren Bracey Scheidt, Assistant Commissioner, Technology Transformation Services, Office of Solutions said, “Users don’t know how government works and they don’t care!...Success is if a user comes in and can complete tasks.”
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it: Many speakers emphasized the need to prove CX’s value with hard evidence. And the numbers are compelling:
--Improved UX can lead to a 400% increase in conversion rates while dramatically reducing service delivery costs.
--Organizations with strong CX programs experience loyalty gains of up to 92%, proving that user-centric design is not just a buzzword—it’s a business imperative.
Another source of value emerged in the conversations –the idea of qualitative information as data, as identified by, Simchah Suveyke Bogin, Chief Customer Experience Officer, U.S. Department of Agriculture. In her organization, they count new thoughts, ideas, perceptions and interplays between agencies as key metrics as well.If you build it they will come: While the level of talent and thought-leadership with existing civil servants is obvious, many Federal departments are showing their ambitions for progress with private sector recruitment. Agencies like the USDS hire from the tech sector for two year terms. And Savanrith Kong, CXO, Department of Defense, made the case for more design leadership, specifically Chief Experience Officer roles. In the context of a shifting private sector field, he said “If you’re trying to catch up with where UX is going, come over to the Federal government. We need you. We are so far behind.” Though the challenges—legacy software, bureaucratic silos, and sheer operational scale—are daunting, the opportunities are transformative.
Amidst the optimism, one question lingered for me: Will this CX focus be enough? Is leapfrogging better than incremental innovation, or even possible in the Federal government? Jennifer Pahlka explores this in her thoughtful piece on responsible disruption.