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By making improving customer experience (“CX”) a cornerstone of the President’s Management Agenda, signing an executive order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, and issuing guidance on Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience, the Biden-Harris Administration signaled its commitment to delivering efficient and effective services for all Americans.

Strong support for the adoption of CX best practices – like human-centered design, customer research and engagement, and evidence-based decision-making – along with building partnerships across agencies, levels of government, and sectors, contributed to the highest four-year gain in public satisfaction with government services in 25 years. These reforms made a real difference in the daily lives of Americans: saving time and streamlining access to vital services.

At an unprecedented level, agencies prioritized embedding CX in their talent, organizations, and performance measures, fundamentally changing how the Federal Government engages customers and designs services with customer needs at the forefront. Due to the capacity, measurement, and priorities in place, Federal agencies are, for the first time, positioned to continually improve their services for years to come. 

Below are highlights of notable strides the Biden-Harris Administration made in delivering for the American people:

The State Department streamlined passport renewal – including launching a fully online process. From 2022 through 2024, Passport Services issued over 70 million passports. Facing consecutive years of record-high application submissions and the backlog from the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency moved mountains (of paper), processing routine applications in less than four to six weeks, down from 12-18 weeks a few years prior. Additionally, State launched the Online Passport Renewal (OPR) system, enabling over one million Americans so far to securely renew their passports, all without needing to mail documents or travel to an office – delivering on a CX Executive Order commitment.

The Social Security Administration saved beneficiaries time – updating its website, forms, and telephone platform. The agency has taken a customer-focused approach to improve how people access SSA services. In 2022, SSA launched a redesigned website with interactive tools and user-friendly navigation for over 180 million annual visitors. Fulfilling a CX Executive Order commitment, SSA released Upload Documents, an online tool which enables digital submission of 50 forms and nearly 80 types of evidence. In addition, SSA enabled digital signatures on 90% of the most commonly used forms, and removed signature requirements altogether from 13 forms. Finally, for those individuals that choose to access Social Security through the national 800 number, SSA cut call wait times in half, with the average now at 13 minutes.

The Internal Revenue Service expanded and modernized taxpayer services to help Americans navigate filing. IRS investments to improve communications with taxpayers resulted in over 100 simplified notices, the opening or reopening of 54 in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers, over 1.5 million hours of hold time saved by expanding Customer Callback in 2024, and an average call wait time of just over three minutes during the 2023 and 2024 filing seasons (down from 28 minutes in 2022). Additionally, IRS introduced web-based tools to help taxpayers accomplish top tasks, including easily and securely checking refund status using “Where’s My Refund?”, and Direct File, which helped 140,000 people across 12 states file online in the pilot year.

The Department of Veterans Affairs designed a one-stop shop for veterans to manage health and benefits. With over 50% of traffic to VA websites coming from mobile devices, the VA designed the Health and Benefits app with and for veterans. Since launching in July 2021, the app has helped over 2 million users manage claims and health care appointments, securely message their VA health care team, and access critical information, from vaccine records to benefit letters. VA continues to enhance the app by adding requested functions, including refilling prescriptions, providing proof of veteran status, and new accessibility features that enable blind and low-vision veterans to read their benefits decision letters using assistive technology.

The Small Business Administration increased opportunities for America’s small business owners through streamlined certifications. In Fiscal Year 2024, SBA certified more than 17,000 small business across programs for women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged businesses in HUBZones. With the MySBA online certifications platform, customers can now apply for and manage multiple federal contracting certifications in one place, providing more opportunities to bid on and win contracts. As a result of the simplified applications, SBA expects an estimated 40% reduction in time to complete a single certification, and up to a 70% reduction for firms seeking multiple certifications.

The Department of Agriculture implemented a simplified direct farm loan application and digital tools. Following the CX Executive Order, the USDA Farm Service Agency’s multi-year modernization effort transformed a challenging and lengthy paper-based process into a more seamless experience, reducing the application from 29 to 13 pages, and introduced an interactive digital option for the first time. In addition to traditional channels, farmers and ranchers now have access to a range of new digital tools, including an interactive Loan Assistance Tool, Online Loan Application, and upon obtaining a direct farm loan, can make payments through the Pay My Loan feature on farmers.gov.

The Department of Homeland Security streamlined passenger experience for record numbers of travelers. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) saw record-setting travel rates, with 10 of its busiest travel days ever occurring in 2024. To better serve and screen historically high passenger volumes, TSA continues to deploy new technologies, improve screening processes, train staff in CX best practices, and expand use of TSA PreCheck®. Additionally, in 2023, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), through the Global Entry trusted traveler program and the Mobile Passport Control app, safely processed more travelers than the total U.S. population – a 24% increase over the previous year.

Agencies connected Americans to the great outdoors and the wonders of space through digital platforms. The National Park Service worked to better connect Americans with public lands and enable trip planning through updates and improvements to the National Park Service app, NPS.gov, Recreation.gov, and Volunteer.gov. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched a redesigned fws.gov, making it easier to explore national wildlife refuges, including piloting secure online payment functionality and digital passes for a selection of sites. To make it easier for the American public to explore more out of this world places, NASA launched a redesigned flagship website, streaming service, and app that have been used by more than 151 million visitors since September 2023 – with more than 10 million visitors in a single day when a solar eclipse moved across North America.

Agencies partnered to improve how government meets the needs of Americans during critical moments in their lives. Too often, people have to navigate and interact with a tangled web of government agencies, websites, offices, and phone numbers to access the services they depend on. To help break down these silos, theLife Experience framework requires working within and across agencies, and even across levels of government, to more effectively meet people where they are in the moments that matter most. As a result of Life Experiences program work throughout the Biden-Harris Administration:

  • Older adults and caregivers can now access tested and tailored resource guides for navigating healthcare, housing, and financial assistance services;
  • Mothers and families experienced less stress and had better access to support through pilot programs that connected over 200 families to a peer guide and delivered 10,000 Newborn Supply Kits with essential postpartum care supplies and resources;
  • Disaster survivors can more easily apply for assistance with a streamlined registration intake process, online application, and improved navigation of DisasterAssistance.gov;
  • Hundreds of disaster and incident response staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Small Business Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Justice have received training on trauma-informed techniques to better support customers during periods of high stress; and
  • Millions of American families maintained Medicaid coverage during the public health emergency unwinding of 2023 without unnecessary red tape and burdensome paperwork.

Agencies are listening to customers, and using that feedback to make service delivery better – and customers are noticing. More agencies than ever are using customer feedback to improve their services thanks to efforts under the Biden-Harris Administration. Thanks to streamlined processes for launching customer feedback surveys, a consistent and transparent data dashboard, and more mature models for using feedback data to drive decision-making, agencies are demonstrating what is possible when you consistently measure and share service performance. The Trust in Major Government Service Providers dashboard shares customer feedback publicly to build accountability and transparency into how customers view government services, and provides an opportunity to demonstrate continuous improvement. And according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Federal Government Study from 2024, citizen satisfaction with U.S. federal government services reached a seven-year high.

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More than ever before, government is operating of, by, and for the people. Behind each of these improvements are the frameworks, tools, talent, and culture required to increasingly put people at the core of everything government does. A growing majority of government services have the key ingredients needed to deliver great customer experiences, including journey maps to understand the customer perspective, staff with the right skillsets to turn customer feedback into action, and a culture of performance that rewards everyone for contributing to customer-centered service delivery. Thanks to new government-wide guidance, agencies can more easily conduct usability testing to better understand and then fix frustrations felt by the public when interacting with forms, websites, and other tools. Across the federal enterprise, agencies are reorienting how they do business by bringing customer insights into everything they do – and government services are better as a result.

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