From the Washington Post, President Biden on Monday signed an executive order seeking to streamline and modernize a vast array of government services that directly affect Americans, such as claiming retirement benefits, renewing passports and filing taxes.
In a “fact sheet” released ahead of the signing, the White House detailed numerous other examples of interactions with government “customers” that can be improved through more online access and streamlined application processes.
“Whether searching for vaccine safety information, claiming retirement benefits, receiving health insurance, passing through a security checkpoint, or checking the status of a farm loan application, Americans expect Government services to be responsive to their needs,” the fact sheet said. “But too often, people have to navigate a tangled web of Government websites, offices, and phone numbers to access the services they depend on.”
The executive order identifies 36 “customer experiences” across 17 federal agencies that can be improved.
The intention is to use USA.gov as the digital front door for government services.
If you want to see a final outcome of a trend, it’s when governments adopt it. That’s not necessarily a criticism – you don’t always want your government at the bleeding edge, do you?
Viewing citizens as customers and implementing customer experience management is smart. It also raises the general floor for businesses. If the IRS experience improves digitally… how much will customers tolerate poor digital experiences? Not much.
It’s worth considering as you ponder the investment happening here. Oh, and there are clearly tons of projects in flight around the government to address this.