Commerce, Interior, Energy Top New Government Customer Experience Rankings

The Commerce, Interior and Energy departments provide the best customer experience across the federal government, according to a new report compiled by customer experience tools provider ForeSee.

The Government CX Insights report, released earlier this month, ranks 15 executive branch agencies and two independent agencies based on survey data from 4,000 people who recently engaged with those agencies’ websites, digital platforms or facilities.

Commerce, which houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, scored a government-best 76.9 (on a 100-point scale). Interior, which includes the National Park Service, scored 76, and the Energy Department scored 74.8.

The Justice Department received the lowest score, 60.8, slightly below the Labor Department’s 62.6 and the Social Security Administration’s 62.9.

The index examines a variety of ways citizens interact with agencies, including transactional services and agencies’ role as providers of official information and statistics. Like other reports, ForeSee’s index shows a wide gap between the sort of customer experience citizens receive from industry and what they’re getting from government. Overall, the government scored the lowest among all industries in customer experience with an average score of 68. That’s 14 points behind the banking industry.

"The private sector sets a high bar when it comes to digital services and convenience. People are looking to the federal government to deliver the same tools and conveniences they find with their bank or favorite retailer,” Dave Lewan, ForeSee’s vice president, said in a statement.

“The report suggests that customer experience can be the galvanizing metric to help federal agencies and the public sector prioritize services and improvements to drive better outcomes across channels and touchpoints,” Lewan said.

The report suggests agencies could improve their scores if customers could complete their tasks, such as passport applications, in one fell swoop. However, less than one-quarter of government customers report being able to do that. Agencies also improved their scores by improving digital offerings, such as offering better websites.

Politically, the report states that independent voters are the least satisfied among all government customers, scoring agency services at 66.3. Republicans rated the government a 68.6, while Democrats scored agencies at 70.6.