Every day, millions of customers rely on federal contact centers to navigate life’s most important needs. From healthcare and disaster assistance to retirement benefits and beyond, these touchpoints go beyond service interactions. They are moments where government can earn or lose public trust.
“Contact centers are the most important channel in government, because they are often the first interaction a customer has with an agency,” said Meghan Daly, senior director of federal strategic growth at Maximus.
Good first impressions are crucial, and positive customer experiences with government agencies help to foster trust in government overall. In fact, according to data from the U.S. government’s Performance.gov, customers who reported high trust ratings with the U.S. government associated those feelings of trust with customer experiences that were effective, transparent, and user-friendly.
Fostering trust in government is only becoming more critical. One survey from the Partnership for Public Service, issued in Spring 2024, reports that only 23% of Americans state they trust their government, underscoring the need to make every touchpoint with government as smooth and dependable as possible.
Introduction
A unified system optimizes staffing, technology and processes, giving customers one number to call for a more seamless experience.
Meghan Daly, Senior Director of Federal Strategic Growth
Maximus
Learn more about how Maximus can help your organization revolutionize the contact center experience.
Building trust through better CX: Consolidation transforms government contact centers
IMMERSIVE ARTICLE
While government contact centers serve the public as best they can, meeting rising customer expectations while responding to rapidly evolving mission demands is a tall order.
“Customers are expecting the experiences they have with commercial organizations to mimic those they have with their government, but unfortunately, many agencies are still very manual or reliant on outdated systems and paper-based processes,” Daly explains. “At the same time, agencies are struggling with new mandates and policies, all while trying to deliver consistent and reliable service delivery.”
A combination of legacy systems, complex government budgeting, and procurement processes that don’t allow for innovation is creating a landscape where many government contact centers simply can’t keep up, much less plan for future needs. As a result, today’s government contact centers tend to be fragmented, with siloed systems, disconnected data and fragmented service delivery.
These disparate systems and processes not only hinder responsiveness but obscure the valuable insights agencies need to better understand their customers and improve the experience. As a result, agencies are leaving behind one of their most powerful and untapped assets: the intelligence embedded in every customer interaction.
A dual challenge
"Customers are expecting
the experiences they have
with commercial organizations
to mimic those they have
with their government."
Meghan Daly,
Senior Director of Federal Strategic Growth,
Maximus
To better serve the public and employees, agencies can look to centralized and consolidated systems that support a more seamless contact center experience. When powered by AI, analytics and a standardized operational framework, consolidated contact centers can transform service touchpoints into a strategic advantage.
“Consolidating contact centers helps agencies cut costs while improving customer satisfaction. A unified system optimizes staffing, technology and processes, giving customers one number to call for a more seamless experience,” Daly said. “The result is faster scalability, clearer accountability, and an improved customer experience through omnichannel capability. It also opens the door to integrated analytics and cross-agency insights, empowering agencies to plan and deliver predictive service improvements.”
By unifying contact centers, agencies can also establish a single source of truth for data, leading to better decisions and simpler experiences for contact center staff. For example, intelligence from Medicare beneficiary inquiries can provide meaningful insights into how the Social Security Administration can better tailor and personalize services.
“By putting all contact centers and information under one umbrella, agencies are able to access rich data they’ve never been able to access before, which allows them to make more informed decisions,” Daly said.
The power of consolidated CX
Contact centers aren’t just problem-solving hubs. They can also be rich sources of insight into what customers need and how agencies can continuously improve, both now and in the future. By leveraging AI for analytics and consolidating all data into a single source of truth, agencies can gain valuable insights through the data gathered by contact centers and the feedback provided by the public.
These insights allow agencies to move from being reactive to customer needs, addressing issues only after customers reach out, which typically leads to higher call volumes, repeat calls, and more frustration overall. By contrast, proactive service delivery anticipates customer needs using tools like data analytics and automated outreach campaigns. This reduces call volumes and live-agent costs while building trust and improving customer satisfaction.
“AI-driven analytics allow agencies to consolidate data from chats, calls, screen captures, and performance metrics into real-time dashboards. This gives a 360-degree view that identifies inefficiencies early, optimizes staffing, and improves agent performance,” Daly said. “Just as importantly, the insights from contact centers inform service improvements, training, digital experiences and website improvements, enabling agencies to continually adapt and enhance the customer journey across agency touchpoints.”
Intelligent insights
How can agencies begin to transform their contact center experience? Maximus has developed a transformation roadmap to guide government contact centers from fragmented operations toward full consolidation.
The roadmap moves agencies through three stages — standardize, optimize and maximize — each built around four core workstreams: governance, workforce, operations and technology. This phased approach integrates AI-enabled innovation early alongside careful planning, ultimately allowing agencies to learn as they go so, they can iterate and scale sustainably.
“We emphasize change management, communication, feedback and testing at every stage to minimize disruption for staff and customers,” Daly said. “The result is faster scalability, stronger accountability, improved workforce performance, and ultimately better customer experiences.”
While many agencies may be hesitant to embrace consolidation, Daly emphasizes that they do not need to take on the challenge alone or move at a pace that does not align with their readiness. With the right partner, agencies can be supported from their current state and guided forward at a pace that ensures stability and progress.
“We’re here to be your partner, to help you as you implement the tools and processes that are going to help you not only make today’s contact centers better but look down the road and meet the needs of the future,” she said.
Transformation roadmap: Standardize, optimize and maximize
To serve both agencies and customers effectively, contact centers must be built on several essential elements that drive optimal performance:
Omnichannel: Customers can reach out via chat, text or phone so they can interact with an organization via their channel of choice with connected touchpoints that enable continuous communication.
Informed: Agents are armed with the right information to answer questions and view previous interactions, like call history, so a person doesn’t have to restate their need every time they reach out or are transferred to a new department. Similarly, if there’s a chatbot or virtual assistant involved, those need to provide the correct information or provide the option to transfer to a human agent when they can’t.
Responsive: Customers have the ability to provide feedback on their experience (especially when it’s not an optimal one). More than just a place to vent, this is vital information that agencies can use to address pain points and improve experiences going forward.
Trusted: Customers know that the information they are providing (which can often be sensitive) is being kept secure and confidential.
Fast: Short wait times and timely answers on first contact are essential.
The ideal government contact center
"We emphasize change management, communication, feedback and testing at every
stage to minimize disruption for
staff and customers."
Meghan Daly,
Senior Director of Federal Strategic Growth,
Maximus
When approaching a major transformation, it’s important to have the right partner. As the largest provider of contact center services in government, Maximus has the technology, experience and, most importantly, the expertise necessary to help government agencies strategically meet current and future contact center needs.
Maximus revolutionized contact center operations at several government agencies. At the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for example, Maximus implemented its Intelligent Virtual Assistant, which saved the CDC $6.2 million in live agent costs. At the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Maximus quickly scaled support of over 3,000 call center agents for COVID economic impact payments within 30 days. And at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Maximus manages 30 million calls a year while maintaining a 95% CSAT customer satisfaction rating.
Beyond operations, Maximus offers advanced technology with its FedRAMP Moderate, AI-enabled Total Experience Management (TXM) platform, which is modular, scalable and integrates with the commercial tools many agencies already use. Coupled with Maximus’ continuous innovation ecosystem of teams specializing in responsible use of AI and CX technology and processes, and partnerships with leading tech providers, enabling company to fast-track new solutions through readiness assessments, prototyping, and pilots. The bottom line: Maximus’ experience and innovation position the company to lead the consolidation and modernization of government contact center operations.
The Maximus difference
