When the pandemic hit, governments around the world rose to the challenge by accelerating the rollout of digital services, but many are losing momentum on this front and users are increasingly frustrated by the level of service compared with the private sphere. Today, satisfaction with digital government services in the US is 64%, meaning the US ranks 17 out of the 41 countries included in BCG’s 6th biannual survey on digital government services across the globe. And California finds itself below the US national average for satisfaction at 62%, behind states like New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
By taking additional steps to enhance digital services, California could greatly improve the experience and engagement of those who use its digital services and lower the costs to serve them. Our global survey uncovered some best practices for digital transformation in other countries and state governments that California can look to for inspiration. It’s well worth the effort given that 40% of surveyed Californians aged 18 or older access digital government services at least once a week.
To be clear, California officials know they need to improve the state’s digital government services and have taken steps to do so. In 2021, the California Department of Technology (CDT) launched Vision 2023, and since then California has made significant investments in improving digital services. By January 2023, 142 digital services were available on CA.gov (an 11% increase from 2020). Additionally, California started a Technology Modernization Fund and a Data & Innovation Fund to modernize digital services and spur their deployment and use.
So why, given this focus and investment, is the state below the national average for satisfaction? A big reason is that people’s needs and expectations have risen: 77% of Californians we surveyed now demand the same level of service they find in the private sphere, including from companies that are digital natives. (See Exhibit 1.) People increasingly compare their online experience renewing a license at the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) with completing a search on Google or making a purchase on Amazon, so it’s hardly surprising that some are disappointed. And with the increasing integration of AI and other innovations into digital services, expectations will only continue to rise.
Recent BCG and Salesforce global research shows a strong relationship between improving service quality and improving trust. And as people’s trust grows, they are more likely to share data, which in turn allows governments to offer more personalized services. Our survey identified six ways that the public wants California to improve its digital services. All six offer a variety of other benefits, including improved productivity (resident and employee), service innovation, speed to value and responsiveness, employee engagement, and cost to serve:
But identifying what needs to change is almost always easier than actually making the changes—especially in an enormous state such as California with a sprawling bureaucracy of more than 230 agencies that have a significant say in the development and deployment of digital services within their domains. Success depends not only on delivering digital services in a cost-effective manner but also on getting buy-in and collaboration from leaders across agencies (and accommodating a varied set of user preferences).
Today, there are two prevailing approaches to delivering digital services in the public sector. One is to create a digital front door that serves as an online portal for users to access aggregated services developed and provided by different agencies. California has taken this approach with CA.gov, its front door for digital services. The key benefit of this approach is the ability to add new services relatively quickly. But this speed comes at a cost. Without one owner of digital service offerings and delivery, it’s difficult to direct the pace and scope of digitization efforts, provide integrated offerings across agencies, or leverage resources across agencies.
The other approach to delivering digital services is to task one government agency with service delivery across channels. This new organization doesn’t replace the home agencies but is responsible for designing, managing, and supporting their digital services (or at least a subset of them) across channels. This approach—recently adopted by Oklahoma—facilitates coordination and integration across agencies, maximizing domain control. The downside to this approach is that it takes longer to launch and scale, requiring a greater degree of coordination and sustained stakeholder buy-in.
By deploying the front-door approach for digital service delivery, California rapidly expanded access to digital offerings during the pandemic. To maintain momentum in service improvement, the state might consider these four steps to capture near-term gains and support long-term enablement:
By providing more proactive, integrated, and personalized digital services in an easier to navigate, seamless, and omnichannel way, the government of California could improve the public’s engagement and satisfaction, drive down costs, and reduce errors. The state knows this and is moving in the right direction to elevate its digital services. But more needs to be done in a more systematic way across agencies so that California can move quickly to capture the benefits.
Managing Director & Partner
Los Angeles
Principal
Los Angeles
BCG, through our Center for Digital Government, unlocks the potential for greater effectiveness, impact, and public value. We partner with leaders in government and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities.
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