Government investment in customer experience – backed by Presidential initiatives and the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act of 2024 – has delivered positive results in how agencies serve the public. This article examines recent CX trends across government services and provides a detailed analysis of current state and federal experiences. We also explore public perception of government feedback mechanisms and offer recommendations on how government can strengthen trust through better citizen experiences.

US Federal Government Improves its Customer Experience, 2020-2023

Each year, we ask 10,000 US consumers about their recent experiences with organizations from over 20 industries and have them rate three components of each experience:

• Success: Were they able to accomplish their goals?
• Effort: How easy or difficult was it for them to accomplish their goals?
• Emotion: How did the interaction make them feel?

From their responses, we average the scores for these components to create a composite rating: the XMI Customer Ratings – Overall. From 2020 to 2023, we included US federal government agencies in this overall measure, comparing their results to the cross-industry average ratings of 23 consumer-facing industries¹.

We found the federal government outpacing other industries’ year-on-year improvement in customer experience (CX) from 2020 through 2023. This was likely driven by an increase in federal investment in CX, driven by Presidential initiatives and formally authorized by Congress in the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act of 2024, which has delivered positive results for the people the government serves. In fact, since we started measuring CX for federal agencies in 2020, their industry XMI Consumer Ratings – Overall score has increased by 19 percentage points – the most of any industry. improvement to their industry XMI Customer Ratings – Overall score.  Not only did And just as the Federal government improved more rapidly than all other industries, it also achieved higher customer satisfaction scores than several consumer-facing industries, including airlines and insurers.

But we wanted to dig deeper. Where is government performing better and where are there opportunities to accelerate improvement?

CX Ratings across Government Services, 2024

In 2024, to further understand people’s experience with government agencies, we had our 10,000 US respondents evaluate their experiences with specific activities administered by state and federal government agencies. These touchpoints reflect the key life experiences that lead people to interact with government – and directly influence their perception of government effectiveness.

2024 Federal Government Services CX Ratings

When asked about specific activities that the federal government oversees, consumers told us that:

• Federal customer experiences were best for international arrivals and social security beneficiaries. People who recently went through US Customs and Immigration or interacted with Social Security gave this experience the highest rating, at 63%. These two services were the only experiences that achieved “good” ratings (60% or higher).
• The federal loans/grants process received a “poor” CX rating from the public. Customers that recently applied for federal government grants or loans gave the worst federal CX rating of 35%, a “poor” rating (below 40%). They rated this experience 14 points below the next-lowest rating, which was 49% for applied for or renewed Medicaid coverage.
• Emotion remains the lowest-scoring CX component for all federal activities. Across all eight activities included, consumers consistently rated emotion as the worst component of the experience. The greatest discrepancy between emotion and the next-lowest component score is for filing federal taxes — consumers gave an emotion rating 15 points lower than effort.
• Social Security services ranked highest for Success. People who applied for or used social security benefits gave a success rating of 72%, a score 4 points higher than the next-most successful activity: going through US customs and immigration (68%). People were by far the least successful when applying for federal grants or loans (37%).

2024 State Government Services CX Ratings

We also looked into people’s experiences with state government services and found that:

• Vehicle registration received the highest CX ratings across state government services. Consumers gave vehicle registration the highest success, effort, and emotion ratings for any of the six activities, and an overall rating of 68%. In addition to vehicle registration, one other activity achieved a “good” CX rating — consumers who recently used public transit gave it an overall rating of 63%.
• Other state services are “okay.” The other four state services evaluated received CX ratings between 40% and 60%, which are considered “okay.” Applying for or using government benefits or cash assistance received the lowest CX rating from the public, at 45%.
• People were least successful at receiving workforce or educational training. With a success rating of just 45%, consumers experienced failure most frequently when trying to receive government training, a full 10 points below the next-lowest success score of 55%, provided by consumers that applied or used government benefits or cash assistance.
• Applying for or using government benefits had the lowest effort and emotion scores. People gave applying for or using government benefits an effort score of 40% and an emotion score of just 39%. Filing state taxes received the second lowest emotion score (43%), while workforce training got the second lowest effort score (48%).

Public Perception of Government

It may be no surprise that public perception of government needs work.  While many factors go into public trust in government, our research shows that service delivery experiences play a critical role in shaping perceptions of public sector institutions. When just four of fourteen government activities receive “good” or better ratings, it signals an urgent need for action.

Agencies should start by collecting feedback on customer experiences.  However, for the communities that government serves, listening is not enough. Our research shows they expect government to take meaningful action based on the feedback they are providing, so agencies also need to translate the CX data they collect into tangible improvements in government services.

We took a temperature check on the state of government’s usage of feedback, and found that:

• The public wants to be heard. Fifty nine percent of consumers agreed that it’s important that government asks me for feedback after I apply or use a government service.
• Yet consumers don’t feel their feedback is used. However, customers don’t believe agencies are doing enough to act on the feedback they provide. Only 44% agree that government acts on the feedback it gets from customers like [them.] This low evaluation suggests agencies should find opportunities to better communicate how they are using their feedback to improve public services and meet evolving community needs.
• Positive perceptions of feedback usage coincide with customer experience. When customers agree or strongly agree that government acts on their feedback, they are more likely to provide high CX ratings. Those who strongly agree that the government acts on feedback rate their recent service experience(s) an average of 35 points higher than those who don’t agree – with some services showing gaps of up to 58 points.

Recommendations for Government Services

• Build trust by listening. Fostering public trust through listening is essential because people’s perceptions of government have serious consequences for policy adoption and, therefore, the effectiveness of public investments. They can even affect the security of public servants. This trust is crucial because government’s role is not only to deliver services, but also to strengthen democracy itself. This requires governments to actively listen to the needs and experiences of the communities they serve. Start by conducting strategic research, whether that’s through a strategic planning survey or a quick pulse during a disruptive event. AI-driven analysis of call center data, for example, can surface unexpected insight into negative experiences. This approach may explain why customers rated vehicle registration highest across the state government services we measured. For example, when the State of Utah’s Tax Division used conversational analytics to analyze phone calls from 2023-2024, it found that customers’ most common question was about calculating the vehicle registration tax. After rolling out a self-service vehicle registration tax calculator on the state government’s website, related calls dropped from the top to the eighth most common cause for calls into the Tax Division. This shows how open-ended listening empowers governments to proactively improve experiences.
• Make listening part of service design and deployment. Government services must incorporate customer feedback throughout the entire process of revamping or launching new digital tools – from design through the end of development and deployment. The success of this approach is evident in our data, where the Customs and Immigration experience scored at the top of federal services. When US Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the new myUSCIS platform – a webpage and app for international travelers requesting longer-term visas for entry into the US – Qualtrics helped them embed feedback mechanisms throughout the experience. Listening surfaced inaccurate information from both the Chatbot tool and web pages that were causing confusion for visa applicants. Empowered with these insights, USCIS was able to quickly improve and relaunch these tools. As a result, the website earned the highest customer experience scores among all four customs and immigration channels. The chatbot even outperformed live agent chat. This success demonstrates how embedding listening into digital tools can make the experience of interacting with them more empathetic and effective.
• Take action fast – and close the loop. Governments work hard every day to provide effective and efficient services to people, but traditional analysis and decision-making processes can cause lengthy gaps between when customers provide feedback and when action is taken. This lag time is a key driver for people’s perception that governments don’t act on their feedback, which our research shows significantly reduces positive customer evaluations of government services’ CX. Shortening these data-to-action cycle times can increase customer confidence that their voice matters to their government. Even more important is clear and visible communication about the steps the government is taking to improve the experiences of the communities they serve. If people don’t know about government’s efforts, they can’t recognize how it helps them. Closed-loop communication will help assure people they’ve been heard and action will be taken. When agencies strategically message about their investments in experience improvements, it shows customers that government is responsive and accountable – ultimately strengthening trust between governments and the people they serve.
• Target investments at moments that matter. Governments must strategically allocate their finite resources, but limiting measurements to an overall customer satisfaction score can mask variations in improvement needs across service delivery areas. Identifying such variations is crucial for prioritizing CX investments appropriately. The nature of people’s experiences with government can be wildly different. For example, obtaining a business license requires a different type of support than getting emergency help during a natural disaster. To be effective overall, governments must design and deliver the right experience for the specific need. This requires embedding customer experience into service organizations’ cultures through both consistent methods and tools for measuring customer journeys and adoption of human centered approaches to service design and delivery. Even within a single journey, expectations will vary by moments and touchpoints. People may be willing to invest more time reading information on a government website at the beginning of a journey than they do when chatting with a contact center agent to resolve their issue. Understanding how expectations vary by touchpoint – and closing experience gaps with the appropriate service design choices – can make customer journeys easier, more successful, and more satisfying.

The bottom line: Government’s customer experience still has room to improve.

Sydney Heimbrock, Ph.D is Chief Industry Advisor for Government with Qualtrics

Talia Quaadgras is a Research Program Manager with XM Institute