On March 31, 2026, the New York Experience (NYX) Task Force reconvened in Albany to share their progress towards raising the bar for customer experience for New Yorkers. Huddled in the Capitol, the Office of Customer Experience and agency leadership took turns sharing their accomplishments from across the State, asking provoking questions, and brainstorming ideas with CX at the center.
Agencies are committed to embedding customer experience within their mission. Strong customer experience is a team effort, and The Office of Customer Experience (CXO) continues to lead the charge. The Office was excited to report on how New York is answering the call to make contracting easier for not-for-profit organizations across the state. Cross-agency teams are taking the lead to standardize policies, simplify workflows, and co-design solutions with one goal in mind: serving our NFPs to better serve our communities.
The Digital Innovation Lab, hosted by the New York State Digital Service, has continued to bring together customer experience principles and digital strategies, emphasizing how they go hand in hand at their most recent session in Albany. Over one hundred attendees across 44 state agencies joined the lab to learn about social media strategy and storytelling, where service emerged as the central theme. Attendees learned how to use social media as a tool to improve collaboration, better understand our customers, and deliver results.
The Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) continues to be responsive to the needs of agencies, using insights from teams across the State to drive ideas. Agencies are increasingly looking to ITS for guidance on AI and automation, and ITS is working on digital solutions to address their biggest challenges: application backlogs, call center capacity, and limited time. Their changes will support new payment processes, workflows, and centralized systems that will help accelerate service delivery for New Yorkers. With a shared foundation in place, agencies will have the support they need to focus on the work that matters most.
Across agencies, teams are scaling their customer experience efforts, and team members are stepping up to shepherd change. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) understands the value of building a CX culture, and this was at the heart of their DRIVES initiative. The agency brought culture change into the conversation at Task Force, emphasizing the importance of improved communication, shared “culture habits,” and dedicated leadership. Through focus groups and staff engagement at all levels of the agency, the DMV was able to identify the agency’s growth points, using insights to introduce a new, consistent, and customer-centric model. The DMV has implemented new communication standards that improve accountability, transparency, and performance, and their Change Ambassador Network is tasked with making sure these changes are here to stay. With their initiative, they are modeling how customer experience is a shared language.
At the Department of Labor (DOL), the agency is providing their employees with the tools they need to scale customer experience. With a network of “CX experts” at the helm, DOL is ensuring CX practices are being integrated into their processes, projects, and decision-making. The agency recently launched its own centralized CX hub, a collection of resources to make CX accessible and actionable for its employees. The resources include training materials, CX 101 guides, and podcasts to help engage staff and move the needle on customer experience. With a better understanding of CX, they will be able to improve service delivery for New Yorkers.
Among the wins shared, the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) provided an update on the Human Services Call Center and its efforts towards improving customer service for New Yorkers across the state. Since the center’s launch in 2013, the call center has expanded, now supporting over 11 million calls and several program areas. A tiered model has enabled their staff to address more calls and speed up interactions, and the agency is committed to expanding system access for its employees to improve first-call resolution rates, eliminating the need for customers to navigate multiple interactions for a single issue. The call center’s QA team is also leveraging its data and direct input from New Yorkers to continue to develop staff and refine their priorities. These efforts are improving efficiency, reducing time burden, and enhancing customer satisfaction, and the results are helping us to expand our reach across the state.
At Task Force, the accomplishments of CXO and our agencies across the State were many, but one idea was clear. Our change agents are committed to making government better for New Yorkers, and they will continue to draw on CX principles to push service excellence.