Dive Brief:
- People’s trust in government and satisfaction with government services declined in 2025, according to a recent Qualtrics XM report. Qualtrics surveyed more than 4,700 recipients of government services globally and 2,000 government employees globally.
- Only 60% of customers are satisfied with government services, compared to an average 76% across other industries.
- “The state of government CX, I would say, is incrementally improving,” said Sydney Heimbrock, chief industry adviser for public sector at Qualtrics. “We did see a slight decline this year in customer satisfaction, but before this year, it actually has been steadily increasing over time.”
Dive Insight:
People reported fewer bad experiences with government in 2025, according to Heimbrock. Purposeful investment in government customer experience, especially in the United States, has shrunk the gap between satisfaction in government and in other industries.
“The cause of the gap closing over time is because of investment, and really purposeful investment,” Heimbrock said. “At the federal level, we've been working on this for well over a decade now, and it has been supported with policy and statute and presidential action under both administrations, Republican or Democrat. They both really invested in improving how we deliver services to customers.”
However, trust and satisfaction in the U.S. government faces some headwinds this year. People’s trust in government in the U.S. is down slightly to 51% in 2025, compared to 73% in other industries, Heimbrock said.
Globally, employee trust is down to 62% and satisfaction dropped to 60%. Employee distrust and dissatisfaction can spell trouble for any industry, but especially for government, Heimbrock said.
“Generally, the role of employees is more important in government than in other industries,” Heimbrock said. “According to our data, when people do report that they've had a bad experience with government, the top two reasons are No. 1, communication, No. 2, employee interaction.”
More engaged employees are more effective service providers. In a separate study, Qualtrics found that “employee engagement is a direct predictor of customer service effectiveness,” with 70% of engaged employees actually understanding their customers' needs, Heimbrock said.
In the U.S., disruptions at the federal level, with organizations like DOGE cutting programs and employees, can cause headwinds to customer satisfaction with government services.
“We've got massive, massive challenges at the federal level because of the disruption by design,” Heimbrock said. “Whatever you think of the motivation and the rationale for that disruption, a huge percent of employees are now gone. Those who are left are having to try to deliver — assuming the program hasn't been cut or the agency hasn't been dissolved. There are still statutory programs that need to be delivered and far fewer people. So I think you're going to see some pretty significant friction this year with people's experiences with federal services, because there's going to be a gap.”
