The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today that it has established a permanent Customer Experience (CX) office to help deliver services that are simple to use, accessible, equitable, protective, transparent, and responsive for all DHS customers. The Department’s commitment to improving CX is a direct response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14058 “Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government,” which charges the federal government to reduce administrative burdens and increase equity by simplifying both public-facing and internal processes.
“The Department of Homeland Security interacts with more Americans, on a daily basis, than any other federal agency,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas.“We understand that for government to effectively serve the public, our services, resources, and support must be easily and readily accessible. DHS is committed to meeting that mandate, and our new Customer Experience Office will help ensure an effective, efficient, and customer-first approach to all our work on behalf of the American people.”
“DHS is committed to improving how we interact with over one billion people each year, to improve service delivery and strengthen our critical security missions,” said DHS Chief Information Officer Eric Hysen. “This new office will prioritize customer-focused service delivery and serve as a model within the Department to implement President Biden’s customer experience vision.”
The new office is in the Office of the Chief Information Officer to further establish CX as a Department-wide priority. In addition to establishing this new office, DHS has taken significant steps over the past two years to improve CX, including:
- Earlier this year, the Department announced it exceeded its Burden Reduction Initiative goal and improved customer experience by reducing public burden by 21,425,258 hours.
- U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services has significantly reduced processing times for immigration benefits, improved timely access to employment authorization documents, and digitized additional forms.
- The Transportation Security Administration began accepting mobile driver’s licenses at checkpoints in Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland with plans to expand to other locations in the future, reducing burden and allowing travelers to simply tap their phones to go through airport security.
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency simplified policies for disaster survivors to verify their residency or home ownership when applying for assistance. As a result, from 2021-2022, more than 100,000 survivors received $559 million in additional assistance.
The Department is hiring Dana Chisnell to lead the Customer Experience office. An internationally recognized expert in plain language, forms design, and user experience design, Ms. Chisnell brings decades of leadership experience in design and technology from across all levels of government, academia, nonprofits, and the private sector.
“I am thrilled to join the talented teams working across DHS in expanding and increasing customer experience capabilities and capacity,” said Ms. Chisnell. “DHS interacts with the public more often than any other agency, so it’s critical that we build equity and reduce burden for both internal and external customers.”
The Department is actively recruiting for roles in customer experience, product management, design, software engineering, and data science at multiple levels. To learn more, visit DHS.gov/Join-DHS-CX-Team.
