Description

Many users interact with government when they are experiencing a significant life event – such as the birth of a child, marriage or divorce, financial hardship or the loss of a loved one – and frequently, these experiences lead them across Federal agencies in a disconnected journey of discrete tasks. Because we already have content on dozens of common tasks and are not affiliated with any particular agency, USAGov is ideally positioned as a navigational aid for these users.

Through experimenting with our homepage, developing and integrating interactive features offering personalized recommendations, and helping users connect tasks that are often related during life experiences, we hope to reduce the cognitive and emotional load for users during times of stress and reduce the overall time required to access the benefits and services they qualify for. As we develop a greater understanding of how people use our service during life experiences, we’ll then be able to share that insight with other Federal agencies to build more connected experiences across agencies in coming years.

Why this service was designated

“Life experiences” are designated in the CX EO as a unifying organizational framework for Federal agencies to better integrate and streamline service delivery around how people actually experience government. USAGov data indicates that our users often seek information on tasks that are required in the course of many life experiences. Web and contact center analytics show that accessing benefits with financial assistance are one of our most common tasks.

Description

Within this service designation, USAGov is focused on serving customers who do not know where to start, or who may be confused or frustrated by their government interactions to date. We equalize government for everyone by providing a trusted starting point, where we can both affirm users’ efforts to date or help them find a more appropriate course of action. We also offer a referral to the proper agency that can help an individual complete their task.

Why this service was designated

In FY21, USAGov interacted with the public more than 117 million times to handle inquiries from customers trying to find the right place to complete a variety of government tasks. USAGov provides information and assists our customers in getting to the right agency to make task completion easier. This builds trust with the public and ensures they are on the right path and in contact with the right agencies to get their tasks accomplished.

USAGov data shows the needs of our Spanish language audience differ in some significant ways from those of visitors to the English-language USA.gov. In FY21, our Spanish-speaking audience looked more for information on processes for entering and exiting the U.S., green cards, citizenship, and joining the military. USA.gov en Español is not a mirror image of the English site. In fact, we do significant research to more deeply understand the needs of the Spanish-speaking population and curate an experience for this community with better information and assistance to help in the areas that are most important to them. On our digital channels alone in FY21, USAGov en Español interacted with nearly 15 million people needing information and services from the government. It is vital that the offerings available to Spanish speakers provide the same high-quality, easy to navigate experience as our English-language service offerings.

Description

USAGov connects people with government information more than 700 million times a year through our websites (USA.gov and USAGov en español), social media, publications, email, and phone calls to the USAGov Contact Center. Over the past 30 days, there were over half a million visits to usa.gov, offering connections to over 2,000 federal websites. This HISP was newly designated for FY22 and will identify services for customer feedback reporting by Dec. 31st, 2021.