Customer experience has become the real performance metric
Successful information technology service delivery in the federal space is driven by metrics tied to positive customer experience, and that experience is driven by empathy and soft skills, not high-end technical chops as many assume.
My perspective comes from both sides of the federal equation. I previously served in digital services at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where I helped define what the metrics needed to be. Now, having stepped into IT service delivery and user experience as a contractor, I had to meet them. Much of that work meant training delivery technicians, because positive customer surveys satisfy the contracting officer representative (COR). Happy CORs mean the contract continues, and people stay employed. This is not just a personal observation. The federal government has elevated customer experience (CX) from a “nice to have” into a contractual and statutory obligation.
As Federal News Network has reported, the Office of Management and Budget is bringing agencies together to advance their CX improvements, and is tying funding from the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) directly to projects that cut wait times and reduce friction in federal services. The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience (IDEA) Act and the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act have made clear that how a federal customer feels about an interaction is now part of how performance is judged.
For any contractor supporting a federal agency, the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) rating depends on this.
Negative trends
These training sessions covered process improvement, empathy and soft skills. I personally read every negative survey that came in, and this is what I found: Customers were rarely upset when a tech issue could not be solved as expected. They mostly complained when they had a bad experience.
When a network admin had to escalate a problem to the vendor, customers were understanding. When a desktop tech had to image a laptop and rebuild a profile from scratch, customers were patient. But when that same tech failed to send a status update, never introduced themselves on the first contact, or closed a ticket without checking in first, the survey came back red and the COR was on the phone the next morning. The interface mattered just as much: When customers could not navigate the ticketing system, we received negative feedback with scathing comments.
The technical work itself was rarely the issue. The relationship around the technical work was almost always the issue. Once that pattern emerged in the data, I stopped hassling site leads and started developing more focused training.
Communication basics are anything but basic
I coached technicians on how to address customers. So many had fundamental communication gaps. Properly introducing themselves over Microsoft Teams or in an email seemed foreign, and the basic courtesy of addressing a person by name or including a signature block was often missing.
Opening lines were a major focus. Something as simple as, “Hi Mr. Banks, my name is Henry and I have been assigned your ticket regarding the printer issue. I would like to schedule 15 minutes to take a look. Does 2 p.m. today work for you?” That one sentence covers introduction, ownership, scope and respect for the customer’s time. It sounds obvious, but it was rare to find that when doing quality checks of the tickets.
And the closing message mattered just as much. Before marking a ticket completed, a short note: “I have tested the fix on my end. Can you confirm everything is working on yours before I close this out?” That single habit moved our survey scores significantly. The customer felt seen and respected, even when nothing about the technical fix had changed. They had been part of the resolution rather than something the resolution happened to.
The biggest realization: I found that technicians expected to just do their jobs and close tickets. I changed that perception and helped them understand that customer service was just as much a part of their job as the technical work.
Federal CX success
To make sure the lesson landed, I pointed technicians to a federal CX success story I had a front-row seat to. The Department of Veterans Affairs, designated as a High-Impact Service Provider (HISP) and a lead agency for governmentwide CX improvements, has grown veteran trust from just over half of users in 2016 to more than 80% in recent surveys. VA leaders have credited that turnaround to investments in employee experience and training that covers not only job-specific skills, but also soft skills like communication and emotional intelligence (EQ). Staff are taught to genuinely care about the veteran’s experience, and that intentional focus on how an interaction makes someone feel is what separates the outliers from everyone else.
The path forward
For federal contractors in IT service delivery, empathy and EQ may very well outweigh raw intelligence quotient (IQ). Why? Because understanding customers is what drives great experiences.
Customer experience is the total impression a person walks away with after every touchpoint with the contract, from how the ticketing portal is designed to how fast tickets get routed to whether the fix actually held. User experience (UX), the design of the digital tools and interfaces customers actually touch, is one slice of that journey. Customer service, the direct human interaction when a customer needs help, is another. Both are levers that move CX scores in IT support contracts. Technical skills still matter, but training the next generation of federal IT professionals must center on empathy and soft skills. Those are the real revenue drivers in this market.
Hire for attitude. Design with the customer in mind. Train for skill.
Dr. Tori Reddy Dodla, former chief of digital at the Department of Veterans Affairs, is the founder of Dodla Digital, a federal IT services firm.
Copyright
© 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
