US Federal Government Mandated to Improve its Customer Experience

Compart expects the US federal government to provide them with the same service levels other companies offer, but those expectations are not always met. Customer experience (CX)—the interactions and relationship between a business and its customers—is an essential metric for any company, but Forrester rated the federal government’s CX as “weak and uneven.”

In fact, 80% of federal agencies scored in the lowest two categories of Forrester’s 2019 U.S. Federal Customer Experience Index, compared to only 14% of non-governmental companies. Forrester reported that federal agencies make services too difficult, struggle with customer service, and don’t make customers feel respected.

Overall, the 14 U.S. federal agencies and programs rated scored an average of 59 out of 100, or “poor.” Compare that to the average private-sector score, which was 70.

Improving Customer Experience

Changes are on the horizon, though. The December 2021 Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government (official statement) lays out strong White House expectations about improving the customer experience: “It is the policy of the United States that, in a Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, improving service delivery and customer experience should be fundamental priorities.”

The executive order mandates that 17 large government agencies—including the State Department, Treasury, and the Departments of Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Education, among others—prioritize improving their customer experience and designated services.

It’s exactly what Compart has already been working on with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for two years. The IRS still mails out taxpayer notifications the same way it did in the 1950s. Its IT modernization plan, though, aims to make notices universally accessible to taxpayers via electronic communication channels while ensuring they’re compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The IRS chose to modernize using Compart DocBridge^® solutions, a flexible, secure solution that allows the IRS to modernize the output from their legacy document composition application without the heavy lifting of replacing the application.

Modernizing Compliant Output

Compart is also actively assisting the agency with installation, configuration, and execution of this digital transformation. Taking AFP files from a legacy application and transforming those files to a PDF/UA (universally accessible) format that can be read by assistive technology such as screen readers allows the Federal government to create fully accessible documents that are Section 508 compliant and meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards.

Over the next year or so, when the IRS asks Compart to opt into its new, more efficient, and digital-friendly communications system, it will be using the DocBridge® solutions specifically to create content. DocBridge^® products offer secure and economical solutions that bridges the gap between legacy systems and the ever-increasing demands of modern, channel-oriented customer communications.

Communicating with customers in the way they want to receive information is core to what Compart provides. Modern communications need to be relevant, timely and personalized. While batch processes are still important, interactive documents are the future of customer communications. Compart supports companies by automating customer communication processes, making them more agile while conserving IT resources. The solutions offer functions as services that can quickly and easily be integrated into existing infrastructures through well-documented and easy-to-use APIs and linked with third-party applications.