Citizen Experience

Governments continue to pursue both providing high-quality delivery of services to users of government services and striving to meet rising public expectation. To do so, government agencies can modernize service delivery as well as the underlying technology, which can unlock a set of compound wins.

Customer experience can be critical to public trust and confidence because it can focus attention on service delivery that is seamless, simple, secure, and equitable. Satisfied customers are nine times more likely to agree that government agencies achieve their mission and nine times more likely to trust the agency providing good service. At the same time, government employees want to work in agencies where they can deliver on agency missions and where customers are satisfied. In agencies with satisfied customers, there is a 40 percent increase in employee satisfaction over two years, underscoring the bidirectional value of positive customer experience for government employees and customers alike.

How we can help

Define aspiration and purpose

Define prioritized end-user experiences, redesign journeys, and create a winning talent strategy focused on employee needs and management.

Deliver reimagined end-user experience

Break down silos and integrate cross-functional teams to engage end users and employees in a two-way journey feedback loop designed to measure performance and deliver scaled customer experience.

Scale long-term adoption

Establish an agile and cross-functional operating model equipped with modernized technology solutions, data, and analytics, and deploy measurement systems for customer experience operations and performance management.

Case studies

Frontline transformation

Addressed backlogs at a US state department by transforming frontline operations

A US state department faced large and rising transaction volumes, worsened by outdated and inefficient processes, an inflexible organizational model, and low end-user centricity. We conducted a quantitative baseline due diligence to define an organizational aspiration and prioritize the highest-impact end-user-backed journeys. We then introduced agile methodology to build an end-user-centric approach to reimagining prioritized journeys. The frontline was deeply integrated into the transformation as they became champions and collaborators, and extensive capability building of more than 5,000 employees prepared the organization to support modernized services and new ways of working. As a result, processing time improved by 58 percent.

Back-office transformation

Launched an operational transformation to improve productivity and employee morale for a North American federal agency

We partnered with an agency hoping to re-establish the strength of its back-office functions amid public scrutiny and low employee morale. We helped them establish a performance-oriented culture, undertake a comprehensive employee capability-building program, and leverage light-tech tools and standardized processes to improve employee productivity and experience. The transformation resulted in a more than 35 percent average improvement in team productivity, a five- to ten-percentage-point improvement in quality, and a four-percentage-point improvement in employee well-being.

Service retention improvement using predictive analytics

Helped a large government agency forecast retention for every constituent

We helped a large government agency reach its aspiration to be a leader in citizen trust while maximizing retention. Together we built a first-of-its-kind predictive-analytics tool to forecast retention for every constituent. The agency successfully connected survey, operational, and call data for the first time, and executive-level dashboards helped leaders understand current-state experience, its drivers, and the value of improvements. The agency can now predict service retention and is exploring possibilities in automated scheduling, preemptive outreach, and activation of citizens who are not leveraging their benefits.

Paperless operations

Helped a city state go paperless across all government institutions

A government office of a city state was tasked with eliminating the use of paper across all government institutions within three years. We helped map about 1,600 services onto about 70 user journeys and prioritize two end-to-end journeys to digitally redesign. Using design-thinking principles, we helped create future state prototypes for a “single government app” to support future paperless journeys and designed an accelerator lab to continue to deliver solutions. The office was able to achieve 150 percent faster processing times, a 62 percent reduction in costs to individual users, and a 61 percent reduction in the number of visits users needed to make to government locations.

Featured capabilities

Experience Essentials

A suite of ready-to-deploy, tech-enabled, and expert-driven customer experience capability-building programs designed to embed best-practice approaches at every level in the organization.

End-to-End Journey Redesign

We help digitize end-to-end business processes and services to power excellent customer journeys.

McKinsey Academy

McKinsey Academy accelerates professional growth to sustain transformational change

Experience Accelerator

Assess the current adoption of customer experience, quantify the link of customer experience to business value, benchmark satisfaction performance by customer journey, identify what matters most within the journey, prioritize customer journeys for redesign, and develop a road map for CX transformation.