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The challenging rollout of the Affordable Care Act at moved more services online, modernized Web sites,
the federal and state levels focused national attention or driven service improvements through better use of
on the issue of citizen satisfaction with government data.1 But most governments still have a long way to go
services. Technology failures and overwhelmed call before they provide a citizen experience that matches
centers have highlighted the need for well-performing todays customer experience.
infrastructure to deliver services. At the same time,
In our conversations with public sector leaders, three
the anxieties expressed by citizens struggling to
main obstacles emerged to meeting citizens rising
access services and the frustrations experienced by
expectations for service quality:
government employees trying to help them showed
the consequences at a human level. First, government agencies tend to focus on
individual touchpoints in their interactions with
While those experiences received a lot of press,
citizens (for example., accepting an application),
challenges like these regularly occur at all levels
rather than considering a citizens end-to-end
of government and throughout a broad range of
journey through a process (such as obtaining
government services. In fact, tighter budgets and
a license). In our research and consulting on
increased demand from citizens have made it even
customer journeys in the private sector, we have
harder for governments to deliver high-quality services
found that organizations able to skillfully manage
to citizens in recent years.
the entire end-to-end journey achieve higher levels
Citizens have encountered these constraints on service of customer satisfaction. They also develop more
delivery just as technological advances including effective ways to collaborate internally across
smartphones and apps have opened up new frontiers functions and levels to deliver their services.
of convenience, speed, and transparency in the Second, many government leaders lack data-driven
private-sector customer experience. Innovations allow insights about citizen satisfaction. Although leaders
consumers to use their mobile devices to conduct a often recognize that citizens are not satisfied, they
variety of complex business interactions at the time do not know the specific services citizens are
and place of their choosing, whether downloading a dissatisfied with, the extent of their dissatisfaction,
boarding pass, self-scanning grocery checkouts, or the factors driving it, or, importantly, what is working
conducting banking and payment transactions, to well and how to replicate that across agencies.
name only a few. For many people, innovations like
these have created stark differences between their
service experience as customers and their service
1 See articles in the McKinsey series, Government
experience as citizens.
designed for new times, http://www.mckinsey.com/
Many government leaders have sought to meet client_service/public_sector/latest_thinking/government_
citizens rising expectations. For example, some have designed_for_new_times
Third, designing new programs or adapting current A joint research effort with one large state to
practices can be difficult for governments that understand how citizens perceived the quality of
have traditionally measured success in terms of different state services, test the potential of specific
other performance goals such as compliance with agency-level changes, and co-design a vision for a
regulations, tasks completed, budgets met, or total state-wide citizen experience transformation.
number of citizens served, rather than customer A review of our own work supporting clients in the
experience. public and private sectors in their efforts to improve
During the past year, the McKinsey Center for the citizen or consumer experience.
Government conducted research to help government In this paper, we present our results, insights, and
leaders identify ways to improve citizen experience. Our recommendations for how state leaders can seize the
research had four major elements: opportunity to improve service delivery.
An online Citizen Satisfaction Survey of
approximately 17,000 citizens in 15 states. The A DATA-DRIVEN ASSESSMENT OF
survey, which included more than 100 questions, CITIZEN SATISFACTION
yielded more than three million data points.
The approximately 17,000 citizens who participated in
Interviews with state government leaders and focus
our survey were distributed roughly equally among 15
groups with citizens to enhance our understanding
states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland,
of participants perspectives on the sources of
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New
satisfaction and dissatisfaction with state services.
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and
Virginia. These 15 states represent 70 percent of the
U.S. population.
Public safety 50
Citizen Satisfaction Score (CSS) by state
service, 15-state average1
Sporting licenses 50
Top state
Environmental protection 47
Bottom state
Higher ed 35
Professional licenses 35
DMV 34
Taxes 30
Public transport 25
Business regulation 19
K-12 16
Medicaid 9
Job programs 2
Unemployment benefits 1
Food stamps -9
1 Scores the responses of all citizens who
responded to the survey -13
SOURCE: McKinsey CSS Database Public housing
(November 2013)
73 Score from
64
users
62
56
51
48
44
39
36
32 33
31 31
29 49 51 Score from
22 26 non-users
38 39
16 17 17
30 30
24 24
19
16 15
6 7
4
-1
-5 -7
-23 -21
Small Job Unem- Food Busi- K-12 Public State- Taxes Public DMV Medi- Higher Pro- Public Environ- Sporting Cultural State
busi- pro- ploy- stamps ness Educa- housing run Trans- caid Ed fess- Safety mental licenses facilities parks
ness grams ment regula- tion health porta- ional protect-
assist- benefits tion care tion licenses ions
ance facilities
12% 18% 22% 45% 10% 23% 52% 24% 13% 18% 12% 46% 14% 24% 2% 26% 24% 25% 22% Perception
gap
State government leaders can use these data and 2. Set priorities for improving the citizen
insights on citizen satisfaction to identify potential experience
improvements that could make a difference for the Leaders at the highest levels of state government
citizens they serve. Our experience suggests that (for example, the governor, lieutenant governor,
leaders can start with four steps to make citizen-centric department and agency leaders, and top civil servants)
improvements: need to identify their highest priorities for improving
the citizen experience. Although leaders can and
1. Put citizen experience on the leadership
should encourage all agency- and department-level
agenda
executives to improve their performance, they also
From our research and work in the public sector, we
need to avoid spreading their attention too thin. The
know that changing the way a government interacts
key to maintaining the right focus is to identify the
with citizens is complex and challenging. For many
citizen-experience journeys that offer the greatest
governments, making meaningful improvements
opportunities to improve citizen satisfaction. Some
in citizen satisfaction requires transforming how
experiences matter more to citizens than others, so
they operate their processes, the mindsets and
prioritizing these high-impact journeys can drive a
capabilities of their employees, and their culture.
disproportionate improvement in overall satisfaction.
A key to success is for leaders to make the
For states included in our survey, the results presented
transformation a central part of their management
in this paper offer initial guidance on the highest
agenda. This entails personally investing in the effort
priorities for improvement. State leaders can use four
by setting high aspirations, establishing a process for
criteria to prioritize the agenda:
reviewing progress, holding the team accountable
for delivering results, and sharing and replicating R
each: the number of citizens who benefit from a
best practices with others. A number of state and service
local leaders have made citizen service prominent on R
esonance: the importance of a service to
their leadership agendas. For example, California Lt. citizens overall satisfaction
Governor Gavin Newsom has promoted a more user- C
urrent performance baseline: how well the
friendly Government 2.0, including with a 2013 book service is meeting citizens needs today
entitled, Citizenville. Former Indiana Governor Mitch
F
easibility: how readily and easily the government
Daniels talked to voters about his ability to reduce wait
can make changes to a particular service
times at the DMV. At the city level, citizen service has
also been a rallying cry for mayors: for example, Los State leaders also need to prioritize their agenda for
Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launched his Back to improving the citizen experience in the context of other
Basics agenda in 2013 with a citizen service focus, and priorities on their management agenda.
former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg put
3. Focus transformation programs on service
citizen service at the center of his agenda (for example,
launching the 311 phone line and Web site, through elements that matter most to citizen satisfaction
which citizens can make non-emergency service Having decided which government services to
requests). prioritize, state leaders next face the difficult task of
determining how to improve these services.
Simplicity 66 -50
SOURCE: McKinsey CSS Database
(November 2013)
46
Aware of where 23
to go or who to
contact