DHS stands up permanent customer experience office

The Department of Homeland Service on Wednesday announced it has created a permanent customer experience office to oversee the delivery of services that are “simple to use, accessible, equitable, protective, transparent, and responsive.”

The new office will report to DHS’s Office of the CIO and be led by Dana Chisnell, who’s been serving as executive director of customer experience at the department for the past year. She also served two separate tours of service with the U.S. Digital Service.

“The Department of Homeland Security interacts with more Americans, on a daily basis, than any other federal agency,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. “We understand that for government to effectively serve the public, our services, resources, and support must be easily and readily accessible. DHS is committed to meeting that mandate, and our new Customer Experience Office will help ensure an effective, efficient, and customer-first approach to all our work on behalf of the American people.”

Following the Biden administration’s 2021 customer experience executive order, CIO Eric Hysen has made improving service delivery a top priority for his office.

“DHS is committed to improving how we interact with over one billion people each year, to improve service delivery and strengthen our critical security missions,” Hysen said. “This new office will prioritize customer-focused service delivery and serve as a model within the Department to implement President Biden’s customer experience vision.”

In August 2022 at FedScoop’s FedTalks, Hysen announced an initiative to ramp up the hiring of customer experiences specialists across DHS. And now with the new CX office opened, DHS is continuing to recruit such personnel.

The White House’s 2024 budget proposal requested more than $500 million to support customer experience initiatives, including standing up CX offices at large departments that deliver important services to the American public. DHS was listed as one of those agencies in the request.