Our Guide to the Federal CX Mandates
First, a little background info
Since the 1970s, there’s been an awareness of the concept of “customer service” and of the need for our government to attend to how it serves the American public. Yet it wasn’t until the rise of digital technologies, and the self-service and automated capabilities of servicing within the private sector, that the U.S. federal government acknowledged the critical need to recognize and support the role of service design.
It’s just within the past seven years that the first service design requirements were codified, laying out the requirements for federal agencies’ service improvements and a baseline for any new services. Yet the 21st Century IDEA Act didn’t say where should they start, or how the agencies should go about meeting the requirements and achieving improvements.
Three years later, in Executive Order (EO) 14058, this need for the “how” guidance was partially answered when High Impact Service Providers (HISPs) – and specific services and intended outcomes – were named as the first areas of targeted customer experience (CX) improvements.
Two years later, in 2023, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) M-23-22 homed in on specific digital requirements for executive agencies and named seven tangible starting points for enhancing digital service components. Specific goals were outlined that formed a standardized roadmap for each agency to reach approachable and achievable goals for accessibility, plain language, search, digitizing forms, and electronic signatures.
Since M23-22, we’ve seen marked improvements in these targeted areas across many agencies. However, there’s still a massive gap where service design itself, as a practice and approach, hasn’t taken root. HISPs are furthest along in maturity. Yet across these executive and affected sub-agencies, there’s no consistency towards building their Service Design capacity and capabilities.
Leadership from Service Design professionals is critically needed to be put in place across all executive agencies for concerted efforts to improve and materialize digital and physical, end-to-end customer journeys. The most recent effort to establish accountability for the task of improving federal services, and to orchestrate a movement that’s about application vs. theory, is provided by the January 2025 Government Service Delivery Improvement Act. In this act, all executive agencies must name a Federal Service Delivery Lead that is accountable for delivering federal service transformations. Much like the Digital Experience Leads established to enable the M23-22 requirements for digital experiences, the Federal Service Delivery Leads will form a uniform network of officials responsible for oversight of the delivery of service improvements.
What follows is our WebFirst CX team’s guide to the federal CX mandates.
21st Century IDEA
The first, chronologically, and likely the most familiar – the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act or “IDEA Act” sets fundamental requirements for digital experiences. It establishes the baseline standards that have to be met for any new digital websites, web or mobile applications, or digital service touchpoints.
What are the intended outcomes of the Law?
Standardize the baseline set of requirements for creating, delivering and maintaining digital user experiences.
“Agencies should ensure their websites, including all web applications, digital services, and mobile applications, conform to these requirements and principles.”
2018 Idea Act
Digital services requirements:
- Is accessible (according to Section 508 Rehabilitation Act of 1973)
- Uses consistent branding and visual identification patterns
- Doesn’t duplicate or overlap existing agency websites or web content
- Contains a search function for public use
- Is available via private and secure connections
- Requires iterative user testing and performance testing to ensure user needs are addressed
- Is fully functional on mobile devices
Process requirements – Head of each executive agency is required to:
- Regularly review public-facing applications and services to ensure they are made available – to the greatest extent possible – to the public in digital form
- Coordinate alignment of internal and customer experience programs and strategies
- Coordinate with management leaders of the executive agency to ensure proper funding to support the implementation of this act
- Continuously examine the digital service delivery strategy and submit recommendations for guidance and best practices
- Use qualitative and quantitative data related to customer experience and satisfaction to identify areas of concern/needs for improvement
For the American public, it means we are granted the ability to get to the information we need, on the platform we choose, securely. It means everyone can access the content and the content is organized to be findable. It means the site looks, acts, and performs as expected; and we can easily verify that it’s an authentic U.S. federal website or digital service. It means we shouldn’t find conflicting information on other government sites and should feel confident we are getting the most accurate, up-to-date, and trusted information from the truest source.
21st Century IDEA Deadlines:
Within 180 days:
Director of OMB is required to provide guidance to the head of each executive agency that establishes processes for:
- Identifying public non-digital, paper-based, or in-person government services
- Including in the agency’s budget, request a list of non-digital services with greatest impact that could be made digital along with estimates and schedules for implementation
- Submitting plan to use accelerate the use of electronic signatures standards
- Report annually to the Director (of the OMB) on progress for the prior year
Within 2 years:
- The Head of each executive agency shall make sure any paper-based form that is related to serving the public be made available in digital format
- If it cannot be made digital, the agency head must document the form title, description, responsible parties, blockers, and potential solutions
- Each agency must ensure a paper-based or in-person method of form completion remains available so as not to deprive individuals who lack access to digital services
Federal government requirements:
- U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) shall make available under a Federal Supply Schedule, the systems and services necessary to fulfill act requirements
Executive Order 14058
December 2021
In this EO, the idea of our government being “of the people and by the people” was extended into the modern realm of digital experiences and services for the American people. The president asserts the government’s role and accountability for focusing on the actual experiences of the people government serves. In possibly the most democratic expression of this idea, the order instructs the federal government to establish direct lines of feedback with American people that enable ongoing support for co-designing federal programs, processes, and services.
What are the intended outcomes of the order?
Provide accountability for improving customer experiences by direct all government agencies to establish and support iterative feedback methods for co-design – with the people – the services that will be used by the people.
“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.”
2021 EO 14058
New U.S. policy requirements for executive agencies to demonstrate measurable improvements to their customer service:
- The gGovernment’s performance must be measured empirically by on-the-ground results for the American people
- Agencies should continuously improve their understanding of their customers to identify root causes of CX challenges
- Agencies should have action plans for resolving CX challenges
- Customer experience is defined as the “public’s perceptions of and overall satisfaction with interactions with an agency, product, or service.”
- Definitions are given for “customer,” “equity,” “High Impact Service Provider (HISP),” “human centered design,” and “service delivery.”
- Specific Agency Actions are mandated for HISP’s
For the American public, it means we should be part of the design of modernizing federal services. It means agencies will need to ascertain accurate knowledge of how Americans user their services as well as provide a means for their customers to provide feedback about their service quality. The order requires federal agencies to work together to tackle inter-agency service improvements and for each agency to demonstrate targeted improvements that make every day, critical servicing interactions with government agencies more efficient, less burdensome, and less time consuming for the American public.
EO 14058 Deadlines:
Within 90 days:
Selection of a limited number of customer life experiences that will be prioritized for government-wide action to improve customer experience.
- Appropriate leadership structures will be organized to assess the designated customer life experiences
- Specific improvement outcomes, action plans, and measurement tools will be defined as a system to measure progress against goals
- A report is presented to the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff on the status of the action plans
- The Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is require to provide guidance on specific steps to reduce information collection burdens on customers, including increased flexibility under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)
Within 180 days:
- All participant agencies supporting a life experience shall coordinate their respective efforts to improve data sharing and support processes both inter-agency and with state and local governments
- The GSA is required to submit a roadmap for the development of prioritized common services to the Director of OMB including assessment of improvements needed in CX management and service design capabilities (within each agency’s available budgeted resources)
- Director of OMB establishes and maintains a list of designated HISPs
- Deputy Director for Management of OMB is required to issue guidance for all HISPs that outlines annual process for assessing their capacity to manage CX, and their performance of service delivery according to public perspectives
- The Director of OMB is required to establish a team within OMB to lead and support agency CX initiatives as well as inter-agency initiatives and facilitate decision-making processes
- A report is presented to the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff on the status of the action plans
OMB M-23-22 Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience
The first federal CX guidance specifically for Digital CX – for improving digital servicing touchpoints including federal websites, web applications, digital services, and mobile applications.
What are the intended outcomes of the Order?
Provide practical design, development, and delivery requirements for the production and delivery of all federal digital servicing touchpoints.
“This memorandum applies to all executive agencies. …Agencies should ensure their websites, including web applications, digital services, and mobile applications, conform to the(se) requirements and principals.”
2023 OMB M23-22
Digital experience (DX) requirements:
- Must be accessible
- Uses consistent visual design and agency brand identify
- Content must meet plain language requirements ensuring it’s easy to understand
- Content must be authoritative (single source of truth)
- Information must be discoverable and optimized for search
- Must be secure by design
- Must respond to user-driven requirements as shown by user data and research; and demonstrate user-centered design principles
- Must offer customized and dynamic user experiences
- Must be designed and optimized for mobile first
Specific requirements for digitizing forms and services:
- All forms must be made available to the public in a digital format
- Services should be provided to the public digitally and to accommodate self-servicing
- Forms can no longer require a handwritten “wet” signature or in-person proof of identification without also providing an equivalent digital method
For the American public, it means every government-provided service should be accessible via a digital servicing option that enables customer self-servicing. It means all government websites should use a common method to identify their authenticity. And each executive agency website’s design should consistently use established visual design patterns to build recognition, credibility, and trust in the information it provides. Every American should be able to securely access and understand content presented on federal websites or digital applications (mobile, internal, or public facing).
OMB M-23-22 Deadlines:
By March 20, 2024:
- Any new or redesigned website, service, or form is expected to meet included DX requirements
By September, 2024:
- Executive agencies were to complete a series of immediate actions, including defining a list of DX compliance violations, prioritization of remediation, or digitization efforts based on the memo’s guidance
Government Service Delivery Improvement Act
This act establishes a chain of accountability for implementing federal CX policies for improving services to Americans.
What are the intended outcomes of the Order?
To name responsible parties for delivery of improved services to the American people.
“The head of each agency shall be responsible for the Government service delivery of the agency.”
“Stakeholders (will) ensure that the websites of agencies, including those associated with high impact service providers, are consistent with the objectives of this subchapter, the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, and any other applicable law.”
2024 Government Service Delivery Improvement Act
Federal Government Service Delivery Leads must:
- Orchestrate government-wide efforts to improve agencies’ service delivery
- Develop and oversee delivery standards
For the American public, it means there are designated individuals given the responsibility and accountability for improving services across each executive agency and sub-agency. It means there’s a network of accountable leaders that should have significant authority to collaborate and govern CX improvement strategies and implementation.
Government Service Delivery Act Deadlines:
Within 1 year:
- The head of each agency must designate or appoint a senior official to implement CX improvement delivery plans
- Agency reports on service improvement plans and metrics on success or impediments are to be delivered to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate
Putting federal CX mandates into practice
The WebFirst CX team is well-versed in the above set of guidance and our team of research, content, and design professionals is accomplished in the areas of CX capability-building, CX operations, CX metrics, and digital service design and implementation. Find out more about the services we offer for enabling the service design processes and ultimate outcomes the American people deserve.