Dive Brief:
- Citizen satisfaction with federal government services climbed to a 7-year high, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index survey of 5,769 people released Tuesday. Satisfaction increased 2.2% to 69.7 on a 100-point scale.
- Americans reported higher levels of satisfaction with processes to access government services and the clarity of and ease of accessing information.
- American’s perceptions of the courtesy and professionalism of federal customer service teams remained level, while their perceptions of government website quality led to a 1-point decline.
Dive Insight:
The growth in satisfaction scores is the result of a decades-long effort to improve citizens’ experiences accessing federal government services, an initiative that saw greater focus under the past two administrations.
"It's encouraging to see that change is possible — it's been a yearslong effort to turn the machine to orient towards delivery and tangible service to the public, and I think we're seeing it's possible," Amira Boland, chief of staff of New America’s New Practice Lab, said via email.
Boland, who was the former lead for federal customer experience at the Office of Management and Budget in the executive office of the president, said that the Biden administration codified many of the Trump administration's federal CX pilot projects in a 2021 executive order to improve government services.
The executive order also established ongoing accountability among high-impact service providers, departments and agencies that provide critical services to large swaths of the population.
In ACSI’s analysis of citizen satisfaction with high-impact service providers, the Office of Personnel Management, which includes the Federal Employment Services and Retirement Services, had the highest satisfaction score of 76. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Control, and Federal Emergency Management Agency, came in second with a score of 74.
"It's great to see DHS' increase, particularly as one could hypothesize that it is highly correlated with their immense burden reduction efforts across the whole of the department over the past few years," Boland said.
In September 2023, the DHS launched the first annual Burden Reduction Plan for Fiscal Year 2024, which looked to improve government forms and reduce the burden on citizens, among other things.
“It is the duty and responsibility of all of DHS to put our customers at the center of our work and strive to improve their experiences interacting with the Department,” DHS said.
