How to Improve Government Customer Experience

The private sector sets a high bar for customer experience as companies continue to innovate and exceed expectations in many realms, leaving federal organizations in catch-up mode. According to Forrester's 2017 Federal Customer Experience Index, 80 percent of federal agencies measured have overall scores that fall into the "mostly poor" or "very poor" categories, compared with 22 percent of private sector companies. Agencies are trying to up their game. Many have conducted customer surveys and made more services and information available online. These are good first steps toward improving customer experience, but federal leaders need to do more.