OMB releases initial guidance to strengthen CX and service delivery across the federal government

Customer satisfaction with the federal government continues to steadily decline, despite millions of daily interactions between citizens and federal agencies. American citizens, businesses, lawful permanent residents, and visa-holders alike engage with hundreds of federal agencies daily. These agencies collectively have millions of employees, and often act as the sole-source service provider to diverse customer bases with varying needs.

In response to this persistent challenge, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released an updated Section 280 of OMB Circular A-11: Managing Customer Experience and Improving Service Delivery. This strategic framework positions federal agencies to transform their service delivery capabilities and rebuild public trust.

OMB Circular A-11

The OMB Circular A-11 is the federal government’s primary directive to federal agencies on the development, submission and execution of the annual federal budget. The circular, which totals over 900 pages, provides guidance related to performance management, budget planning and execution, acquisition, data, capital planning, customer experience (CX) and a host of other critical topics.

Within the OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 establishes the structured framework of government-wide practices to mature federal agencies’ capacity to manage CX and improve service delivery. This includes a streamlined approach to collecting customer feedback and integrating CX practices and human-centered design across the federal government. Recent updates also include guidance related to the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (21st Century IDEA), with the most recent update reflecting the enactment of the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act (GSDI Act)—legislation that Qualtrics helped to draft, introduce, and champion through to passage by Congress in December 2024, ultimately signed into law in January 2025.

What’s new in Section 280

This update advances multiple Administration’s commitments to deliver simple, seamless, and secure services that meet the public’s needs and build trust in government.

• Implements the Government Service Delivery Improvement (GSDI) Act: Clarifies roles and accountability for service delivery across government, including the Federal Government Service Delivery Lead at OMB, agency heads, newly designated Lead Agency Service Delivery Officials, and agency Chief Information Officers. Mr. Gregory Barbaccia, Federal Chief Information Officer, will serve as the inaugural Federal Government Service Delivery Lead, as established under GSDI Act.
• Clear timelines for High Impact Service Providers (HISPs): Establishes FY2026 milestones for capacity assessments, priority service designation, action planning, and continuous feedback collection.
• Stronger use of customer feedback: Reinforces post-transaction feedback collection using a common governmentwide survey framework to generate timely, actionable, and comparable insights.
• Streamlined Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) pathways: Reaffirms use of a three year umbrella clearance to reduce burden and speed responsible customer research and feedback collection, while outlining PRA flexibilities for common engagement activities.
• Cross-agency improvements: Establishes a focused approach for tackling service journeys that span multiple programs and levels of government, including piloting, evaluation, and scaling solutions that work.

Who is required to act?

• All agencies (as defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502) share responsibility for improving and enhancing services to achieve mission outcomes and public trust.
• Executive agencies (5 U.S.C. 105) must continue implementing the 21st Century IDEA as part of their service delivery strategy.
• OMB will provide additional guidance to help agency heads designate a Lead Agency Service Delivery Official to coordinate improvements.

Key dates for High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs)

• Spring 2026: Conduct and review annual Capacity Assessments for each HISP and any HISP-maintaining department with OMB.
• Summer 2026: In collaboration with OMB, designate at least one priority service per HISP and identify targeted improvement actions.
• September 2026 (with the FY 2028 Budget submission): Submit action plans that outline calendar year 2027 improvements and budget requests tied to customer experience and service delivery for the FY 2028 Budget.
• Ongoing quarterly: Deploy post-transaction customer feedback surveys for each designated service and submit datasets by the last business day of January, April, July, and October for governmentwide aggregation and public sharing on Performance.gov.
• Ongoing: Implement customer-focused improvements and embed user-centered practices into service design and delivery.

Customer feedback: Common standards, better outcomes

• HISPs will deploy post-transaction surveys at key touchpoints—ideally near service completion—using OMB-provided question wording and response structures to reduce burden and generate comparable metrics.
• Quarterly data submitted to OMB will support benchmarking and transparency, enabling agencies to prioritize improvements with the greatest impact for their customers.

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) support

• Agencies can use department-level umbrella clearances (renewed every three years) to streamline survey approvals under the PRA, with OMB’s Office of Performance and Personnel Management and OIRA collaborating on reviews.
• Agencies can also use PRA flexibilities for many forms of customer engagement, such as small-group listening, open-ended feedback, and common usability tests.
• Where appropriate and permissible, agencies are encouraged to compensate research participants for their time and expertise, following agency legal and financial guidance.

Cross-agency priorities

• OMB will continue to coordinate a limited set of cross-agency service delivery priorities that address life events and tasks requiring multiple programs or levels of government.
• These efforts will emphasize discovery research, rapid prototyping, piloting, and evidence-based decisions to scale what works. Agencies are asked to sustain successful pilots and prioritize resources to adopt proven solutions.

The strategic opportunity

Federal customer experience has transformed from a compliance requirement into a core strategy for making government services more efficient, accessible, and responsive to the needs of all Americans. Congress and the recent administrations have elevated customer experience as a priority, creating clear expectations that agencies must deliver faster, more accessible, and more responsive services.

The updated Section 280 strengthens the government’s ability to listen and measure what matters to the public, act quickly on feedback, and sustain improvements. By clarifying roles, standardizing feedback, and focusing on high-impact services, agencies will deliver more equitable and trustworthy experiences. Together, these updates move us closer to a government that delivers with the speed, ease, and dignity the public expects.

Where to learn more

• Read the updated Section 280 in OMB Circular A-11 (2025 edition).
• Explore current High Impact Service Providers and follow progress on Performance.gov.
• Agencies will receive additional implementation guidance from OMB on survey standards, templates, and the designation of Lead Agency Service Delivery Officials.