Designing Better Experiences: A Customer-Driven Approach to Improvements Across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Grants Management Lifecycle

OBJECTIVE: This manuscript aims to describe methods used to measure satisfaction among Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) jurisdictions throughout the grants management lifecycle. We also illustrate how CDC's development of a customer experience model was used to engage staff in consideration of agencywide improvements to strengthen grantmaking systems, operations, and procedures. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology was used to assess strengths and opportunities for improvement in operational support and customer service provided to CDC-funded STLT jurisdictions. In May 2024, a survey was sent to 2032 principal investigators or project directors for directly funded CDC grants and cooperative agreements to STLTs, active in December 2023. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Survey data were used to create a CDC-specific cause-and-effect model that measured customer experience across the grants management lifecycle. The model identified 7 satisfaction drivers (partnership, flexibility, monitoring and reporting, communication, application process, overall support and guidance, and training and technical assistance), a customer satisfaction index measure, and 2 future behaviors linked to satisfaction. RESULTS: The satisfaction survey response rate was 47% (n = 947). On a 100-point scale, overall satisfaction with the agency's services and support, as measured by customer satisfaction index, was 70. Satisfaction driver scores ranged from 65 (application process) to 77 (training and technical assistance). Segmenting findings by subgroups yielded insight into sources of variation. Results of modeling suggested that recipient satisfaction might be best improved by prioritizing actions in 4 areas: partnership, flexibility, monitoring and reporting, and application process. CONCLUSIONS: CDC benefited from undertaking an intentional process to learn from its STLT-funded recipients. The structured approach used in this study has produced valuable data to examine recipients' experience and opportunities not just with individual CDC programs but across broader agency systems and practices.