Budget Highlight: Customer Experience (CX) in the FY2024 Budget Request
By Jonathan Sanders, Director, Research, GovExec
The Biden Administration has proposed more than $500 million in the FY2024 budget proposal to improve customer experience (CX) across the Federal government. This highlights a continued investment from President Biden’s 2021 executive order that focused on transforming the Federal customer experience in order to provide US citizens with a more citizen-centered government.
With an initial focus in CX originating during the Obama Administration in 2011, President Biden’s proposed focus on CX aims to, “deliver excellent, equitable, and secure federal services and customer experience,” with particular emphasis on:
Improving the Airport Security Experience
$2.7 million allocated to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to pilot a Customer Experience Manager model.
Modernizing Federal Retirement Services
$6.6 million allocated to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to help reduce processing times, expand a pilot for retirement applications, and a myriad of IT modernization initiatives.
Providing more Services Online
$163 million allocated for the Department of State to revamp the delivery of Passport Services, most notably supporting US Citizens’ ability to renew passports without any in-person elements.
Digitizing Federal Land Maps
$1 million allocated for the United States Forest Service to pilot increased access to digital maps of Federal Lands.
Investing in Shared Products, Services, and Standards
$119 allocated to the General Services Administration (GSA) to continue support to ongoing programs such as the US Web Design System, Digital Analytics Program, Digital.gov, Search.gov, and touchpoints/feedback analytics.
Another key area included in this budget is the commitment to hiring up to 120 new full-time employees with customer experience and digital product delivery experience in order to improve digital service delivery, foster a human centered design mindset, as well as to learn directly from the public to identify pain points, analyze customer feedback, with the overall goal of improving service delivery.
The budget proposal calls for standing up and expanding CX offices at some of the largest Department-level organizations across the Federal government considered “high impact service providers” including:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- U.S. Department of the Interior
- U.S. Department of Labor
- U.S. Department of the Treasury
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
- Social Security Administration (SSA)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Census Bureau
What does this mean for you?
With over 300 million Citizens interacting with the Government yearly, improving the Fed’s service delivery to its customers has proven to be an ongoing priority across administrations. The high impact service providers noted above are actively looking for key partnerships in their CX journey, and with the establishment of new CX offices and an increased spend in CX tech across web design, chatbots, and the standing up of Customer Experience management models, it’s clear the Fed will continue building out its CX capabilities for years to come.
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Questions? Please reach out to Jonathan Sanders at jsanders@govexec.com.