Leaders supporting the design and experience of Recreation.gov found they had a large and growing help center on their site for newer users, who reported lower-than-average satisfaction with their use of the popular site. In a key shift, designers are moving some of the most frequently referenced help center content to the primary webpages, so users do not have to constantly refer to a frequently asked questions page or other resources. And a new, simpler landing page welcomes first-time users. These moves, driven by new-user testing, are welcome. The opportunity now: how can Recreation.gov evolve to address customer needs from the start, and how might the underlying issues that diminish the experience be addressed?
34-MINUTE READ
In brief
Harnessing the momentum
The challenges: Distrust in government and inequity in service provision
“When we don’t meet their expectations, it actually undermines their trust in government. We undermine trust both in our competence and the extent to which we understand and care about those in need of our service.”
Customer experience feedback: Average ratings across agencies, Oct. 2020-March 2021
“Equity isn’t additional work. Equity is actually meeting our respective mission.”
Four key recommendations
1. Inclusive and ongoing customer research and listening
2. Integrate services for a more seamless customer journey
Customer experience feedback
63%
Online average
68%
Online weighted average*
71%
Phone/in-person average
79%
Phone/in-person weighted average*
“We're looking at all of our services from an omnichannel perspective. Whereas in the past we might have created individual solutions for each channel, that would breed discrepancies between the outputs.”
3. Improve access and reduce burden by designing from the customers’ perspective
“We think it’s just good government. It is a way for us to be able to again make sure that we are protecting that data, but also offer that opportunity for people to be able to authenticate.”