Transforming Customer Experience and Service Delivery

Why It Matters

Governor Ferguson’s Executive Order directs all executive and small cabinet agencies to improve the experience of people who use state services—with a focus on accessibility, efficiency, plain language, and responsiveness. It aims to restore trust in government by making services easier to find and use.

A new office, YourWashington, will lead this work and coordinate across state government. What Agencies Must Do

What Agencies Must Do

We’re asking you to build your improvement plan in stages, not all at once. First, you’ll document how your services currently work: walk through each touchpoint, map it, and note where decisions, handoffs or delays occur. Then you’ll layer in what data you already have, what feedback customers have given, and where you see gaps or friction. This gives you a grounded diagnosis. Only after doing that do you move to the prescription: a plan of changes, training, metrics, timelines, and resources.

In that way, your improvement plan won’t be an aspirational wish list, but a well-informed, evidence-informed roadmap for real improvement. And one you can confidently implement and adapt.

Implementation Resources

The resources in the section should assist you in completing the various portions of the Executive Order. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at Your@gov.wa.gov.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a connection between the YW EO 25-06 and the EO on permitting and licensing (EO25-03) If one of our program areas is already doing work to comply with EO25-03 related to a licensing service (a “key service” for them), do they also have to do duplicative work to comply with EO25-06? Or can we exclude that key service from our EO-25-06 requirements/response and focus on other services?

If you are doing work for another executive order that also leads to customer experience improvements, you should document it in your improvement plan so that we can share the good news. You do not have to do additional work just because you are getting credit for it elsewhere. We will try to work with other enterprise-facing agencies to share data and minimize duplicate reporting, but you are responsible for ensuring we have good information on your customer experience work.

Will formal instructions on how to comply with the EO be sent to agencies?

How will YW use all the information that will be coming in from agency plans and reports required by the EO?

The information will help us in several different ways:

Broad Picture– What is happening across state government. We know customers don’t often see us as individual agencies, and looking for themes and common problems will support improvements that have the biggest impact
Examples of where things are going well – We will share lessons learned and also show the people of Washington we are listening and improving
Reporting to the governor and the people of Washington – showing we are accountable to them and building public trust

How will an agency know if they are developing and tracking metrics “focused on delivering exceptional customer service?”

What are the “enterprise-accessibility, usability, and customer experience best practices.” Mentioned in section 3.d.iii

What are “digital first services” in section 3.d.iii What if our agency has facilities where they do in person, frontline direct care type services and not digital first services.

How does an agency define “key services?” What if an agency has hundreds of key services? How do we choose?

Your key services are the services that have the biggest impact on people’s lives, impact the most people, or have the biggest effect on equity and the functioning of society. We are providing a definition, but we ask agencies to determine their key services based on their own understanding of their customers and processes. In addition we have developed Key Services guidance found here to help prioritize key services.

What is the report “form and manner” determined by YourWA for the report in section 4.b? When will we get information on the form and manner?

What format should agencies use for a Customer Experience Improvement Plan?

12. What is the “format determined by YourWA” for incorporating the XC improvement plan into the strategic plan? 4c last paragraph.

What does this section mean? “Your Washington may recommend specific actions or require collaboration when it determines that an agency’s progress requires improvement to meet customer needs.”