Description
The Public Experience Portfolio strives to unify, improve, and standardize the experience the public has while interacting with the federal government. The Public Experience Portfolio operates USAGov, which connects people with government information more than 117 million times a year through websites (USA.gov and USAGov en español), social media, publications, email, and phone calls to the USAGov Contact Center.
Designated Services
- Navigating information and tasks during critical life experiences
- Finding government information quickly (in English and Spanish)
Previously-reported Services
Navigating information and tasks during critical life experiences
Description
Many users interact with government when they are experiencing a significant life event – such as the birth of a child, marriage or divorce, financial hardship or the loss of a loved one – and frequently, these experiences lead them across Federal agencies in a disconnected journey of discrete tasks. Because USAGov already provides content on common tasks and are not affiliated with any particular agency, USAGov is ideally positioned as a navigational aid for these users.
Through experimenting with the USA.gov homepage, developing and integrating interactive features offering personalized recommendations, and helping users connect tasks that are often related during life experiences, USAGov hopes to reduce the cognitive and emotional load for users during times of stress and reduce the overall time required to access the benefits and services they qualify for. As USAGov develops a greater understanding of how people use this service during life experiences, USAGov will then be able to share that insight with other Federal agencies to build more connected experiences across agencies in coming years.
Why this service was designated
“Life experiences” are designated in the CX EO as a unifying organizational framework for Federal agencies to better integrate and streamline service delivery around how people actually experience government. USAGov data indicates that users often seek information on tasks that are required during many life experiences.
Finding government information quickly (in English and Spanish)
Description
Within this service designation, USAGov is focused on serving customers who do not know where to start, or who may be confused or frustrated by their government interactions to date. USAGov equalizes government for everyone by providing a trusted bilingual starting point where users can both affirm their efforts to date or use the USAGov channels to find a more appropriate course of action. USAGov also offers a referral to the proper agency that can help an individual complete their task.
Why this service was designated
There is a demonstrated public need to access government. In FY22, USAGov interacted with the public more than 106 million times to handle inquiries from customers trying to find the right place to complete a variety of government tasks. USAGov provides information and assists customers in getting to the right agency to make task completion easier. These efforts build trust with the public and ensure they are on the right path and in contact with the right agencies to get their tasks accomplished.
It is vital that the offerings available to Spanish speakers provide the same high-quality, easy to navigate experience as the English-language service offerings. The needs of the Spanish language audience differ in some significant ways from those of visitors to the English-language USA.gov. In fact, USAGov does significant research to more deeply understand the needs of the Spanish-speaking population and curate an experience for this community with better information and assistance to help in the areas that are most important to them. These data are used to build content that isn’t a mirror image of the English, but rather reflect the information needs of Spanish speaking users.
Quarterly data reported
Q2 2023
What we learned from this quarter's data:
In Q2,USAGov saw minor shifts (less than 2% in magnitude) on our CX scores. With the exception of the contact center satisfaction score that increased by almost 1%, all other CX scores decreased by small margins.
Of note, on the websites we saw a surge of interest in passports and federal tax topics, given that Q2 overlaps with much of the tax filing season. In the contact center, social services and complaints were most popular, a consistent theme for callers.
We continued to conduct regular content maintenance and updates based on feedback from website visitors and contact center agents. However, the team was focused on building our new versions of USA.gov and USAgov en Español.
Contact center agents consistently used the USAGov knowledge base to answer more than 90% of inquiries. We’ve continued to reinforce this practice via training and reminders.
Service details
Transaction point: End of call
Channel: phone
People served: 28937
Surveys offered: 28937
Responses: 5253
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 16655204
Surveys offered: 540628
Responses: 2910
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 2139283
Surveys offered: 274987
Responses: 1997
Q1 2023
What we learned from this quarter's data:
In Q1, USAGov saw minor shifts (less than 3% in magnitude) on our CX scores. With the exception of the contact center satisfaction score that decreased by 1%, all other CX scores remained the same as last quarter or increased slightly.
Of note, we saw a surge in interest in voting and election topics, given that election day happened during this quarter.
We continue to conduct regular content maintenance and updates, based on feedback from website visitors and our contact center agents. However, we remained focused on building our test sites, beta.USA.gov and beta USAgov en Español.
This quarter, the contact center consistently used the USAGov knowledge base to answer inquiries. We’ve continued to reinforce the training and best practices in daily reminders to agents.
Service details
Transaction point: End of call
Channel: phone
People served: 25021
Surveys offered: 25021
Responses: 4477
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 14382100
Surveys offered: 477518
Responses: 2481
Transaction point: Invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 1880590
Surveys offered: 251049
Responses: 1827
Q4 2022
What we learned from this quarter's data:
In Q4, USAGov experienced minor shifts (less than 2% shift in magnitude) on our CX scores. The satisfaction on USA.gov en Español saw a minimal decrease across the satisfaction criteria, while both USA.gov and English calls in the contact center saw upward movement. These fluctuations are minimal, and don’t cause alarm for the team.
While we continued regular website maintenance, our efforts to improve customer experience for online customers were focused on the launch of our test sites, beta.USA.gov and beta USAgov en Español. All functional teams were focused on the content, design, and technology to make the sites available to the public. We did launch those sites at the end of FY22. We won’t begin capturing customer satisfaction metrics on these sites until they replace the primary versions of our websites.
In the contact center, training efforts from Q3 continued to yield positive results. In addition, the contractor added training to prepare call center agents for an increase in inquiries related to Medicare during the fall open enrollment period.
Service details
Transaction point: End of call
Channel: phone
People served: 26984
Surveys offered: 26984
Responses: 4835
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 13664128
Surveys offered: 418574
Responses: 2555
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 1801996
Surveys offered: 241831
Responses: 1934
Q3 2022
What we learned from this quarter's data:
In Q3, USAGov experienced minor shifts (2% or less) on our CX scores. Changes in both languages were both driven, at least in part, by traffic and use of our most popular pages on each site. For example, “where’s my refund” was the most popular search term for the quarter in English. USA.gov visitors’ expressed frustration about the length of time to get their refunds or that there was no information available from the regulating agency. This is emblematic of a general trend where some visitors don’t distinguish the USAGov platform from responsible agencies when they complete surveys.
We made efforts to impact customer experience across both channels this quarter. USAGov consistently verified the accuracy and timeliness of the content. This included regular content reviews, but also ad hoc updates due to policy changes or new inquiries from the public. This quarter, those updates focused on international travel issues. In addition, the contact center implemented a two pronged approach to improve CX. Based on an analysis of calls, they’ve identified low hanging training opportunities for agents that can improve the quality of calls and chats. They have also revamped hiring requirements to emphasize the need for research capabilities, with the expectation that it will improve multiple aspects of customer experience. These initiatives will remain in place for the next quarter.
Service details
Transaction point: End of call
Channel: phone
People served: 27861
Surveys offered: 27861
Responses: 5182
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 13618359
Surveys offered: 428287
Responses: 2628
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 1796174
Surveys offered: 254713
Responses: 1890
Q2 2022
What we learned from this quarter's data:
As a newly designated HISP, Q2 is our first time reporting CX data. People come to USAGov for answers across the entire spectrum of government services and tasks. However, the platform experiences usage spikes related to seasonal top tasks and current events. This quarter USAGov responded to the elevated interest in tax returns, international travel, and military/international conflicts (driven by the Ukraine/Russian conflict). USAGov’s Q2 metrics reflect that users were able to find trustworthy answers to these timely questions and evergreen topics. In addition, the score for the employee component reflects our contact center staff’s dedication to providing accurate information. It should be noted that USAGov doesn’t currently deliver government services on our channels, so users can’t accomplish tasks with us. We understand that as a challenge for visitors, and may impact their satisfaction with the platform.
Service details
Transaction point: End of call
Channel: phone
People served: 27666
Surveys offered: 27666
Responses: 5633
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 13589962
Surveys offered: 451193
Responses: 2747
Transaction point: invitation appears at the beginning of visit - button to click at the end of a visit to take the survey
Channel: computer
People served: 2017008
Surveys offered: 268812
Responses: 2161
Previously-reported Services
Prior to the first service designation exercise in 2022, HISPs were collecting data using methods unique to each agency, resulting in data that was not standardized. This previously-reported data was collected to increase visibility and awareness regarding customer experience through feedback data. Per A-11 guidance, service providers will collect feedback in a more standardized way.
Visiting USA.gov
Service url
Description
USAGov connects people with government information more than 700 million times a year through our websites (USA.gov and USAGov en español), social media, publications, email, and phone calls to the USAGov Contact Center. Over the past 30 days, there were over half a million visits to usa.gov, offering connections to over 2,000 federal websites. This HISP was newly designated for FY22 and will identify services for customer feedback reporting by Dec. 31st, 2021.