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Transform Public Services: Use the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act
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It's time to rethink public services. Delivering straightforward, reliable, and efficient services isn't just good governance—it's smart business. The Government Service Delivery Improvement Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025 is improving coordination, transparency, and service delivery across federal agencies.
But the benefits go beyond the federal level. Local, city, county, and state governments can use this act’s principles to save money, reduce waste, and improve services.
Bringing Efficiency to Service Delivery
For decades, many believed government efficiency required reducing costs at the expense of customer experience (CX). But this view is outdated. Improving CX and creating more efficient systems work together.
This act suggests a larger idea: Government efficiency isn’t about cutting corners; it’s about optimizing processes.
By designing systems that prioritize users, agencies can remove inefficiencies that come from miscommunication, redundant processes, or fixable errors. Below, we explore the act’s 4 key principles and practical steps.
1. Empower Customers with Self-Serving Tools
One of the best ways to increase efficiency is by helping customers address their needs independently. Self-service tools do this by simplifying processes and putting the user in control. Intuitive, user-friendly designs also reduce repetitive employee tasks, limit errors, and create a better experience.
When digital tools are hard to use or forms are unclear, agencies waste time troubleshooting or answering repetitive questions. By redesigning with the user in mind, governments can enhance trust and efficiency at the same time. To do this, the first step is understanding users’ challenges through discovery research, like surveys, interviews, and testing.
Steps to Empower Citizens
- Map customer journeys to find areas of frustration
- Use simple, accessible language in instructions and forms
- Consolidate processes and tools into centralized digital hubs
When customers can solve their issues easily, employees can focus on high-priority initiatives and tasks, leading to internal efficiency and a better customer experience.
2. Consider the Entire Ecosystem
Most people don't interact with just one government agency. Whether they need housing assistance or business permits, their experiences span multiple departments. Yet these systems are often disconnected, creating bottlenecks and barriers for citizens.
The act addresses this by promoting collaboration among agencies. It creates a Federal Government Service Delivery Lead and selects service delivery leads within each agency. These leads work closely with each other, encouraging thinking across systems. This approach allows agencies to create solutions that simplify the entire service experience.
Steps to Encourage Ecosystem Thinking
- Break down silos with cross-agency collaboration
- Use consistent language, design, and processes across services
By focusing on the bigger picture, agencies can find and remove redundancies while putting customers first.
3. Use Existing Resources
It’s a myth that innovation needs big budgets or brand-new strategies. Often, the solutions already exist within current teams and data. Employees on the front lines know where inefficiencies are and what users struggle with. Similarly, existing feedback, surveys, and service metrics provide unused insights.
This act emphasizes using what agencies already have, encouraging leaders to creatively adapt without massive reinvestments. Collaboration with internal teams turns employees into contributors rather than just process followers, fostering engagement and resourcefulness.
Steps to Maximize Resources
- Ask frontline employees about their expertise on customer frustrations
- Analyze existing data for patterns and actionable insights
- Include internal teams as partners in design processes, not just users
By being resourceful, agencies can make a difference without stretching budgets or staff thin.
4. Choose Metrics That Clarify Progress
Setting clear, practical goals is key to accountability and success. The act requires leaders to define and track performance metrics tied to customer experience outcomes. Metrics go beyond the basics by evaluating factors like fairness, accessibility, and service speed.
Martha Dorris, a leading customer experience advocate and founder of Dorris Consulting International, recommends choosing a “North Star that unites a vision for customer experience across the ecosystem.” This becomes a guiding principle for change, revealing achievements and areas that need improvement.
Steps to match Metrics to Goals
- Define key metrics such as simplicity, transparency, and accessibility
- Ensure metrics reflect both qualitative and quantitative customer outcomes
- Share progress openly with customers, stakeholders, and employees
By choosing strong performance indicators, agencies can align customer experience improvements with long-term organizational priorities.
Delivering Efficiency and Customer Impact
The Government Service Delivery Improvement Act isn’t just a policy update; it’s a guide for smarter, leaner, and more effective government services. By providing self-service tools, encouraging ecosystem thinking, creatively using resources, and measuring progress, agencies can remove inefficiencies, build trust, and significantly improve outcomes.
Whether you’re at the federal, state, or local level, now is the time to act.
When people feel heard, employees feel empowered, and agencies are efficient, service delivery changes from transactional to transformational. That’s the real promise of customer-focused governance.