New York State has developed its first-ever customer experience strategy, a new initiative aimed at transforming how New Yorkers interact with government services and improving government operations on a day-to-day basis.
The comprehensive strategy, dubbed the New York Experience, looks to make state agencies more efficient and equitable while reducing waste in order to be more responsive to the needs of New Yorkers.
“The New York Experience represents our unwavering commitment to improving public services, reducing bureaucratic barriers and building trust in our government,” Governor Kathy Hochul said. “The State is always focused on ensuring that all New Yorkers can access the programs they need, while creating a faster, more user-friendly experience when dealing with our state’s agencies.”
The strategy focuses on five areas of improvement:
- Minimizing Enrollment Gaps – Ensuring that government services are easily accessible to all New Yorkers, regardless of their location, socioeconomic status, or disabilities. This includes simplifying processes, offering services through multiple channels and guaranteeing that services are user-friendly.
- Reducing the Time Tax – Giving time back to New Yorkers by simplifying lengthy government processes and applications, eliminating unnecessary steps to receiving services, and removing bureaucratic hurdles wherever possible to give time back to people.
- Enhancing Operational Efficiency – Streamlining government processes to reduce wait times, minimize red tape, and make services more efficient.
- Improving the Digital Experience – Improving the quality of interactions that people have with online platforms. The state will make digital interfaces more user- and mobile-friendly, intuitive, and responsive.
- Increasing Customer Satisfaction – Advancing the overall service delivery experience by making it more personalized, responsive, and aligned with a New Yorker’s needs and expectations.
“This strategy is more than a vision; it’s a call to action, and every state agency has a role to play in making sure we deliver on our promise to create a more efficient and responsive government that continues to put New Yorkers at the center of decision making. Together, the State is building a government that truly works for the people that we serve,” Chief Customer Experience Officer Tonya Webster said.
To support the new strategy, the state is also launching the NYX Website, an interactive hub designed to be the resource for state agencies. On the website, agency leaders and teams will find guiding principles, necessary tools, and real-world best practices to integrate customer-focused principles into their daily operations.
State leaders said that agencies with larger customer bases that provide essential services – Department of Health, Department of Motor Vehicles, and Department of Labor – will lead the charge in applying human-centered design principles to streamline processes, enhance digital tools, and improve overall interactions with state services. These agencies will meet quarterly with the Office of Customer Experience and will serve as the driving force behind measurable progress in customer experience. The agencies will focus on identifying priorities, allocating resources effectively and addressing challenges that impact service delivery.
