The U.S. Department of Agriculture has implemented several customer experience (CX) improvements since President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government in December 2021. The executive order directed all federal agencies to improve the overall experience for customers accessing government services and benefits.
In the time since, USDA, also known as The People’s Department, has worked diligently to establish a CX framework that reduces barriers to our programs and increases equitable access for all Americans seeking our services. Our collective efforts include providing world-class CX to an array of customers – farmers, scientists, children, families, foresters, Tribal nations and state governments.
We are fortunate to have USDA’s Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small serving in a leadership role across the federal government for the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) on the Customer Experience Priority.
“I am proud of USDA’s customer experience improvements over the past two years,” said Deputy Secretary Torres Small. “USDA will continue to uplift our customer experience work to ensure a more positive experience for customers and employees, increase access to products and services, and improve service delivery. USDA is working with our internal and external customers to actively incorporate their ideas on how to best reach our diverse customer-base and deliver services that significantly and positively impact the lives of all people.”
We recognize that improving customer experience in the federal government is not only mandated by policy but is also motivated by the demand from internal and external stakeholders for more efficient services and positive experiences. By providing a more positive experience for both customers and employees, we increase the likelihood they will access our products and services, that we will increase trust in government, and that we will potentially decrease mission delivery costs while improving service delivery. To help achieve such results, USDA customers are surveyed to measure trust and satisfaction, and to inform our next steps. This is an ongoing process that we are committed to.
We will also keep working on CX practices and tools that can help USDA achieve its priorities, including addressing climate change, tackling food and nutrition insecurity, creating more, better and new market opportunities, and improving equity and support for underserved communities.
In celebration of the two-year anniversary of the CX executive order, we will feature our CX accomplishments and efforts in a limited weekly series on USDA Blog. Updates will also be posted on the Office of Customer Experience (OCX) website and reported publicly on Performance.gov. To follow CX stories and posts across agencies, follow #govdelivers on social media.