This article was originally published on LinkedIn by Cal Shintani, Chief Growth Officer at HighPoint Global.

Every year, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) reports on citizen satisfaction with federal government services.  HighPoint has been tracking the report for several years; we are interested how the federal government’s prioritization of — and investment in — citizen experience (CX) has impacted public opinion of the government’s services. The ACSI Federal Government Report for 2017 showed a sizeable uptick in citizen satisfaction, to the highest level seen since 2006. The cause of this increase in satisfaction seems to be the government’s focus on improving citizen services. The ACSI reports that timeliness and efficiency of processes, accessibility and clarity of information, and the quality of federal websites all saw significant progress.

The Departments of Justice and Interior deserve to be highlighted, both achieving satisfaction scores higher than the overall ACSI national average. The Justice Department made a sizeable jump to a score of 81, up from 74 in 2016. The Department of the Interior is a regular high scorer, due in large part to the positive experiences respondents have at national parks. Also deserving of recognition is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which consistently scores the highest of all federal agencies, but in 2017 scored a 91, higher than all private sector companies tracked by the ACSI.

Some credit for the increase in satisfaction is due to the Office of American Innovation, which has pushed modernization and efficiency efforts and has continued to prioritize CX initiatives started by the Obama Administration.

This report demonstrates the positive strides that government is making in improving citizen satisfaction. At HighPoint, we are always working to improve the citizen experience, and we applaud the government employees that are working tirelessly on these efforts.