Customer Experience Governance and Accountability

Governance supports accountability measures that incentivize and reinforce the idea that customer experience should be present in all the work that we do. Often, we use customer experience strategies and frameworks without even knowing it. The value in knowing about the strategies and frameworks is identifying what we already do and where we might be able to grow.

Creating a Shared Customer Experience Vocabulary

• Customer Experience Governance: the processes and mechanisms by which accountability measures for customer experience are outlined and overseen.
  • At USDA, we view accountability as a mechanism for tracking CX achievements within the Department.
• Customer Experience Accountability: the quality or state of being held responsible for outcomes relating to customer experience success metrics
  • At USDA, we use accountability to ensure that CX policies are implemented while using metrics to guide decision-making and goal setting to guide continued and future CX policy implementation.
• Growth Mindset: a mindset where traits and abilities are viewed as learnable and capable of improving over time through effort and practice.
• Fixed Mindset: a mindset where traits and abilities are viewed as fixed; you either have them or you don’t.
  • At USDA, we aspire to maintain a growth mindset in our work, constantly learning and improving our skills so that we can best serve our internal and external customers to the best of our abilities.

Where do the customer experience governance and accountability mechanisms come from?

• USDA Voice of the Customer Policy (2024)
• USDA Customer Experience Policy (2022) (PDF, 253 KB)
• Digital Strategy Governance Regulation
• United States Department of Agriculture Enterprise Information Technology Governance

 

Where can customer experience accountability measures be incorporated?

• Performance Planning: Customer experience performance metrics incorporated into both organizational and individual performance plans
• Budget Implications: Allowing customer experience metrics (ease, effectiveness, emotion, and trust) to have an active role in the decision-making during the allocation of resources
• Strategic Planning: Using customer experience metrics to make iterative changes to the back-end business processes that can enhance the experience of internal and external customers.

How can we apply a customer-centric approach to governance and accountability?

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the following principles are fundamental to a problem-solving approach that places humans (our customers) at the center:

We can apply these principles for our purposes including the application of customer experience governance structures at USDA.

Use the following Customer-Centric Framework Template (PDF, 275 KB) to guide your governance and accountability problem-solving needs.