Public service experience is the experience that people have when they interact with government agencies. These interactions include receiving services like food assistance, child support or education, as well as complying with responsibilities like paying taxes, getting a driver’s license or registering a business. Interactions can be human-to-human exchanges that occur in person or over the phone and exchanges that happen in digital channels like websites, email, smartphone apps and virtual assistants.

Customer experience in public service goes well beyond completing transactions or providing services. It’s about building relationships. The digital era has influenced people’s expectations of customer experience, not just in the private sector, but for government agencies as well. And, not surprisingly, the pandemic intensified people’s expectations for convenient, digital public service experiences.

Yet customer experience expectations are complex and constantly evolving. Accenture research reveals that 72% of consumers say that external factors such as inflation, social movements and climate change are impacting their lives more than in the past. The more in tune with these shifts government agencies are, the better positioned they are to provide relevant customer experiences.