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CX Guides

Come join us at DHS! We're hiring CX experts across the Department.

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You don't need to recreate the wheel, especially if you are just starting as a CX Practitioner. Instead, check out the resources we pulled together that represent proven approaches to fostering a customer centric mindset in the Federal government.

The resources below can help you learn about the core components of customer experience and human-centered design and identify ways you can build CX momentum within your team, office, and Component.

  • DHS Usability Testing Kit

    Explore the guidance in this kit on how to test your service materials with real users to help you make informed decisions that improve your materials.

    Conduct Usability Testing

  • TSA PreCheck® Journey Map Case Study

    This guide uses the journey of service members transitioning to civilian employment as the identified service, but the activities and templates within can be applied to many DHS services.

    Read the Case Study

Customer experience is more than just customer service. It’s the combination of measurable factors, including ease, efficiency, equity, and effectiveness, that result from touch points between an individual, business, or organization and the Federal Government over the duration of an interaction and relationship. Touch points with the Federal Government may include digital interactions via a website or mobile application, in person interactions with Federal employees, and phone interactions.

Fortunately, there are proven approaches to fostering a customer centric mindset in the Federal government. Consult the resources below to learn about the core components of customer experience and human-centered design and identify ways you can build CX momentum within your team, your office, and your Component.

Introduction to CX

  • Tips for Starting Your Customer Experience Journey

    There are a number of low-cost, low-lift actions that can contribute to a positive difference in how citizens experience your agency’s services. Here are some actions you (a Federal employee at any level!) can take within your agency.

    Tips for Starting Your Customer Experience Journey | Performance.gov

  • How Customer Experience (CX) Can Help Your Agency

    The best way to learn about your customers’ needs is to go where your customers are; observe them in their daily environment as they live, work, and use your products and services; and ask them directly using methods that test assumptions, reveal hidden needs, lead to practical solutions, and are supported by data.

    How Customer Experience (CX) Can Help Your Agency | Performance.gov

  • HCD, UX, and CX: Why Their Differences Matter and Why They Don't

    HCD, UX and CX aren’t the same things, but they have a great deal in common. They all involve researching the needs of users and working with them to design and test solutions.

    HCD, UX, and CX: Why Their Differences Matter and Why They Don’t | GSA - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

Journey Mapping

  • How Do You Use a Journey Map?

    A customer journey map helps organize your research findings in a way that uncovers patterns, reframes the data, and helps your team identify new insights. Along the way, you’ll validate (or reject) assumptions and get insights into your customers and stakeholders that you just can’t get from a straight-up process map.

    How Do You Use a Journey Map? | GSA - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

  • Mapping the Cross-agency Customer Experience

    Journey mapping and service blueprints are an essential part of sharing findings with others. Learn how to capture the most important points in these maps.

    Mapping the Cross-agency Customer Experience | Performance.gov

Personas

  • Personas 101

    Personas are descriptions that give you an understanding of your users and how they use your product or service. Personas can take on a variety of forms depending on your organization’s needs. But there are a few basic questions and ideas that every persona should include to ensure that the tool is useful.

    Personas 101 | Digital.gov

Federal agencies like the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have created customer experience playbooks, comprehensive guides for CX implementation within the Federal Government. Use the guides below to learn about CX best practices and approaches that can help you foster a customer-centric mindset and improve service delivery within DHS.

  • Thirteen Plays of Our Customer Experience Approach

    This playbook represents a synthesis of ideas gathered from interviewing several subject-matter experts (SMEs) and leaders in CX and Human-Centered Design (HCD). Whether you are just curious about CX, already dabbling in CX, or a professional CX practitioner, this playbook can offer insight to enhance your agency’s CX presence.

    Thirteen Plays of Our Customer Experience Approach | GSA - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

  • GSA CX Center of Excellence CX Buying Guide

    Many businesses provide services that they claim are used to understand customer experiences and improve them. Some of these claims are reliable and some may not be. The purpose of this guide is to give evaluation recommendations to representatives of federal agencies as they shop amongst those providers. We provide a dual lens of what to seek and what to be cautious of.

    GSA CX Center of Excellence CX Buying Guide (PDF) | GSA - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

  • Journey Mapping Workshop Guide

    Use this facilitator’s guide to lead an interactive workshop to identify opportunities for helping your customers access your organization’s service(s)*. The activities are planned for participants from one or more federal agencies. The results may expand upon existing programs, reveal opportunities for collaboration, or generate new ideas.

    This guide uses the journey of service members transitioning to civilian employment as the identified service, but the activities and templates within can be applied to many DHS services.

    Journey Mapping Workshop Guide (PDF) | Performance.gov

  • Federal Service Identification Worksheet

    This worksheet is meant to serve as an initial conversation facilitation tool at your agency to re-imagine yourselves in the way your customers see you.

    Federal Service Identification Worksheet (PowerPoint) | Performance.gov

Personas and journey maps are essential pieces of a customer experience team’s toolkit, helping them organize and analyze their customers and their experiences accessing services, identify challenges and opportunities, and bring service improvements to life.

  • Surviving a Natural Disaster

    Those who have lived through a natural disaster are facing one of the most difficult experiences they’ve ever encountered: attending to their families’ most basic needs while experiencing trauma, stress, and multiple bureaucratic processes. In these most vulnerable moments, survivors expect the government to step up.

    A cross-agency collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration, and the Social Security Administration.

    Surviving a Natural Disaster | Performance.gov

  • Seeking Employment After Service

    Each year, approximately 200,000 service members leave the military. Employment statistics have continued to improve, but there is more to understand to improve the rates of those that find a career that is satisfying, has potential for development and higher wages, and recognizes valuable skills veterans have.

    A cross-agency collaboration between the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Labor, and the Small Business Administration.

    Seeking Employment After Service | Performance.gov

DHS High Impact Service Providers (HISPs) and many other Federal agencies are employing leading human-centered design approaches and tools that help them better understand their customers and identify opportunities to improve service delivery.

  • The OneUSDA Ecosystem

    The Customer Experience Center of Excellence (CX CoE) set out to visually represent the OneUSDA Ecosystem: a comprehensive view of USDA services and customers, with the power to reveal overlaps, bring clarity to complex customer and employee interactions, and uncover opportunity areas within the department and its agencies.

    A cross-agency collaboration between the Department of Agriculture and GSA.

    The OneUSDA Ecosystem: Visualizing the Connections Between USDA Customers, Services, and Agencies | GSA - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

  • The Journey to Affordable Housing for Seniors

    Using human-centered design (HCD) research methods, the CoE team interviewed very low-income seniors, intermediaries who facilitate HUD programs that serve seniors, and HUD representatives to understand the activities and challenges involved in navigating HUD’s affordable housing programs. The learnings from this research were visualized in a journey map and via a service blueprint.

    A cross-agency collaboration between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and GSA.

    The Journey to Affordable Housing for Seniors | GSA - IT Modernization Centers of Excellence

  • FEMA 2021 CX Profile

    Each year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency helps hundreds of thousands of people recover after disasters, providing critical emergency services, financial support, and other assistance. Remote property inspections, launched out of necessity during the pandemic, are helping disaster survivors get easier access to inspections to verify damages.

    FEMA 2021 CX Profile | Partnership for Public Service

  • TSA 2021 CX Profile

    Every year, the Transportation Security Administration interacts with millions of travelers passing through airports and other transportation hubs. Customers appreciate the general travel information and answers to their questions that TSA provides over social media using its #AskTSA accounts. Customer satisfaction with the agency’s website has also increased in recent years. The agency has improved the clarity of information on the site, although many customers still call the agency’s contact center to confirm information.

    TSA 2021 CX Profile | Partnership for Public Service

  • USCIS 2021 CX Profile

    USCIS is now working to improve the experience for attorneys and legal representatives who helps applicants navigate the process and making it easier and quicker for customers to complete tasks when interacting with the agency across multiple channels.

    USCIS 2021 CX Profile | Partnership for Public Service

  • CBP 2021 CX Profile

    As international travel resumes and border restrictions are lifted, Customs and Border Protection is increasing its use of technology to streamline the customs experience.

    CBP 2021 CX Profile | Partnership for Public Service

For additional Federal customer experience information and resources, please visit the following webpages:
Last Updated: 12/06/2022
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