The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced the creation of a new customer experience (CX) office that will be led by Dana Chisnell, an internationally recognized expert in plain language, forms design, and user experience design.
Chisnell, who holds the title of Executive Director for Customer Experience at DHS, comes to the agency after nearly two years at the U.S. Digital Service. Before that, she was founder-partner at the National Conference on Citizenship, and co-executive director at the Center for Civic Design.
The Sept. 13 announcement from DHS directly responds to President Biden’s executive order enacted in 2021 to help improve the quality of CX across the Federal government.
“I am thrilled to join the talented teams working across DHS in expanding and increasing customer experience capabilities and capacity,” said Chisnell. “DHS interacts with the public more often than any other agency, so it’s critical that we build equity and reduce burden for both internal and external customers.”
The new CX office will be a part of the Chief Information Officer organization at DHS. The CIO office, DHS said, has been working for the past two years on improving CX and reducing “processing times for immigration benefits, improved timely access to employment authorization documents, and digitized additional forms.”
“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,” stated Eric Hysen, CIO at DHS.
“The Department of Homeland Security interacts with more Americans, on a daily basis, than any other federal agency,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “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,” stated Mayorkas.
