A new report says that federal agencies come up short in delivering great customer service to the public.
The report, Government for the People, was released this week by the Partnership for Public Service.
The report points to four main areas that need to be addressed to improve customer service:
- Data
Here, the report says that agencies are not making the best use of feedback and customer data to drive their decisions. The report suggests that, among other things, collecting feedback from customers and sharing data with other agencies could help fill in the gaps that exist. - Governance
Many agencies lack a clear customer service experience strategy and a senior leader who is ultimately responsible for customer service. The report suggests that agencies should create a customer experience plan and update it annually. - Communication and engagement
Poor communication and lack of engagement between federal agencies and their customers can lead to service delivery that is out of touch with what the public needs. Suggested solutions for this area include involving customers in testing agency services and conducting campaigns to educate customers about new or improved agency services. - Workforce management
Agencies are not doing enough to build a workforce that is fully prepared to crate a great customer experience, and they fail to focus on the fact that all agency employees are involved in a great customer service experience rather than just the employees who interface directly with the public. Recommendations provided by the report for this area say that agencies should stress customer service when hiring federal employees and also include evaluations of employees’ work with customers when doing employee evaluations.
For complete details of each of these items and other findings, see the full report below.
