Six month update on CX EO

6-Month Update: Delivering on the President’s Commitment to Transform Customer Experience

President Biden believes that every American—regardless of where you live, where you work, or who you are—should have simple, seamless, and secure access to the Federal services they need.

Over the past six months, we’ve gotten off to a fast start translating the President’s historic Executive Order on customer experience into action. Today, at the half-year mark, we have more key updates to share.

Progress on Agency Actions to Improve Customer Experience

• USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and the HHS Administration for Children and Families jointly announced a new policy to make it easier for families to demonstrate eligibility for Head Start through their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility and participation.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a new Medicare.gov homepage on May 18th that makes it easier to understand your benefits and enroll.
• The Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance explaining how audio-only telehealth may be provided by practitioners in compliance with the HIPAA Rules, making it easier for Americans to access vital care while protecting their health information privacy.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs updated its new flagship mobile app, which allows Veterans to complete many common VA transactions—including messaging with their health care providers, viewing claims status, and managing appointments. The app now also allows Veterans to view their benefit payment history and their VA vaccination record information, and use Login.gov as a secure credential for log in.
• VA launched a virtual chatbot on VA.gov, giving Veterans another way to interact with VA. Additional chatbot functionality will be added over time based on feedback and customer research.
• The State Department has issued more than 6,000 passports during preliminary beta testing for the online passport renewal pilot process, and received over 2,200 feedback surveys on the experience to inform improvements.
• The Social Security Administration (SSA) released a new fact sheet on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other programs and resources for both English and Spanish speakers with limited income.
• The US Agency for International Development has translated key documents on its Work With USAID website into seven languages, including Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, and more.
• CMS published a list of steps beneficiaries should take as COVID-19 continues to become less of a threat and states resume normal eligibility and enrollment operations in Medicaid. The website also provides beneficiaries with a centralized resource list for state Medicaid agencies.

The General Services Administration (GSA) and Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO) at OMB have been continuing to develop Federal products, platforms, and services that agencies can use to power a simple and secure customer experience. OMB and GSA recently announced that $100 million of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) will be designated to help streamline and improve public-facing digital services and technology systems.

Progress on Government-wide Actions to Improve Customer Experience

All five Life Experience projects, announced this Spring, are now mid-way through the initial discovery phase. Research teams are pairing existing quantitative data with new qualitative insights gathered through meetings with members of the public, frontline staff, and subject matter experts inside and outside of government. The teams are now developing opportunity areas for agency action and cross-agency coordination.

Life Experience Project Updates

In-person research has been conducted in both English and Spanish with North Carolina-based participants navigating birth, Medicaid and other support programs to inform the Birth and early childhood for low-income mothers and children team’s research. The team has also engaged with multiple potential collaborators, including health care providers, health plans, foundations, and community-based organizations as we continue to refine our scope.

The Approaching retirement team is interviewing SSA customers about getting ready for retirement and collaborating on outreach with organizations like AARP, the National Council on Aging, and local State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs), including connecting with organizations representing people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has joined the effort, bringing an understanding of their agency’s work on later-life financial security.

Agency leadership engagement, such as with the Facing a financial shock and becoming newly eligible for critical support programs team, has been crucial, particularly in diving into areas where no one agency has clear ownership. The team is focused on finding pain points for applicants, caseworkers, and providers to develop pilot projects and products – including data services for income verification and electronic payments.

The Recovering from a disaster team has identified key barriers, particularly on integrating application forms for assistance programs created through different statutes, and digging in deep on touchpoints with the public through disaster-related communication strategies that have been identified by more than thirteen agencies.

The Navigating transition from active duty to civilian life team has already begun synthesizing research from more than 200 veterans, service members, military families, and subject matter experts, and is now working to develop and conduct four design sprints, including the military to civilian transition process, life planning, education and timing, and programs and service connections.

Teams are continuing to learn from the public about their experiences navigating these key moments in their lives. If you (or someone you know) would like to tell us your story, please do so here:

  Share your story about navigating one of these life experiences

Progress on Ongoing Accountability for Federal Service Delivery

Finally, the 35 Federal High Impact Service Providers (HISPs) have designated and publicly shared priority services on Performance.gov/cx. Soon, they will be reporting trust, satisfaction, and other customer experience data on these specific services. Further, each agency has conducted its 2022 Capacity Assessment and is currently using what they’ve learned from service reviews, customer feedback, and capacity assessment to develop Actions Plans for FY23 and FY24.

Please continue to track our progress here at /cx.