Improving Service Quality
Global Entry (GE) Service Design
What I did: User interviews, user personas, process mapping, service blueprint, design workshop, prioritization
Stakeholder feedback
“The opportunity to participate in this session is very valuable and necessary. Also, sharing ideas and feedback between all the stakeholders allows us to make the Trusted Traveler Programs more efficient.”
“I think this workshop format should be used to review other CBP products and processes.”
Traveling abroad is exciting, but it can also be tiring. After a long flight coping with time zone changes, experiencing long lines upon entry can be extremely taxing. In these scenarios, the best experience a user can have is a seamless and unobtrusive one. Global Entry (GE) is a paid service that allows for expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the U.S. Global Entry applicants undergo comprehensive background checks, must complete an interview and if deemed eligible, become members. These trusted travelers are then able to bypass the general primary processing line and experience a more streamlined processing using enhanced technology.
The program fulfills its mission, but there are still opportunities for meaningful improvements to enhance the standard of service. While travelers appreciate the expedited processing experience when using their benefits after an international flight, interviews with stakeholders revealed several areas where the experience for both travelers and officers could be improved across the core processes of enrollment, re-entry, and renewal.
We established a baseline for the future vision by thoroughly mapping the current process, including each phase of the experience, the interactions between officers, travelers, and systems, task completion times, and recurring pain points in both the officer and traveler experiences. We also created 8 user personas to capture traveler attitudes and personnel needs. As we gathered more insights throughout our research, we refined the workflow with new details, nuances, and decision points. We continuously validated our findings with product owners and CBP personnel, earning their trust to later guide the visioning process for the future state.
With this in-depth program knowledge, we invited 19 stakeholders from 3 program offices to spend the day with us envisioning the future of administering and participating in Global Entry. We facilitated structured discussions to ideate and prioritize potential improvements based on feasibility and impact.
We explored ways to reduce applicant inquiries by providing better visibility into their enrollment status and the steps needed to reduce interview and vetting queues. We also considered how to prevent human interactions in the Customs arrival area from interfering with the technological efficiencies provided by the portals and mobile app. Additionally, we brainstormed app optimizations, such as multi-functional features (e.g., port navigation, smart queuing, etc.) and the delivery of real-time, relevant information during re-entry.
14M – Trusted Travelers with GE membership
3.5 seconds – time it takes for GE members to be processed for re-entry
31 – stakeholders engaged
8 – user personas created
119 – ideas generated through the design workshop
Takeaways:
Co-created experience principles.
Linked parent and child applications.
Expanded enrollment options.
Co-created experience principles.
We brought front-line personnel and IT teams together to imagine a future state that leverages modern technology, process standardization, and increased communication to strengthen CBP’s mission and reduce administrative burden. These program improvement goals promote program expansion, encourage continuous innovation, and streamline the program’s core processes for stakeholders.
Reduced Administrative Burden: Process automation and optimization decreases the administrative and cognitive burden on CBP personnel and travelers.
Returned Time to Mission: Fewer administrative tasks free up CBP officers to focus on high-risk travelers and lessens time requirements of travelers.
Cost Avoidance: Reduced and streamlined administrative work enables CBP to reprioritize funds that would be spent on resolving inquiries and processing applications.
Increased National Security & Integrity: Enabling the expansion of the Global Entry program captures data from more applicants – both high and low risk.
Increased Communication & Transparency: Targeted improvements to communicating the process, expectations, and progress to trusted travelers demonstrates CBP’s commitment to facilitating a supportive and trustworthy program.
Modernized Technology: A simplified, streamlined process with enhanced technology makes compliance easier for participants in the process and reduces administrative burden.
Linked parent and child applications.
During interviews with GE members who had enrolled their families in the program, we discovered that parents had to create separate Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) accounts for their children, filling out individual applications on their behalf. For parents of young children with no travel history, answering these background questions was a redundant and time-consuming process. Additionally, parent and child applications entered the vetting queue separately, meaning parents did not always receive conditional approval and interview invitations at the same time. This resulted in two trips to the airport and extended status monitoring.
Reducing pain points for families is crucial, as, like MPC, the efficiencies created in the Customs arrival area by families using GE are significant. Since our workshop, CBP has linked parent and child applications in the system and removed the requirement for children to attend an enrollment interview. As a result, benefits are now granted to both parent and child simultaneously, allowing families to stay together in the Customs line.
The journey map follows a target GE persona—the parent traveler—as she successfully navigates the future service experience, from enrollment to receiving and using benefits at the airport, and through to renewal. The journey map provides valuable insights by highlighting the user experience, fostering empathy, and informing the creation of user-centered solutions that align with stakeholder goals.
The journey map follows a GE target persona, the parent traveler, as she successfully navigates the future state service, from enrollment to receiving and using her benefits at the airport to renewal. The creation of a journey map provides valuable insights by illuminating the user experience, fostering empathy, and informing the creation of user-centered solutions that align with stakeholder goals.
Expanded enrollment options.
Enrollment on Arrival (EoA) allows travelers to complete their enrollment interview during the re-entry process, eliminating the need for an additional trip to the airport. Travelers who used this option had positive feedback, but many others were unaware of it and found it difficult to find clear information about the requirements. To address this, a marketing campaign for EoA was proposed to reduce the administrative burden on separate Enrollment Centers. Additionally, the workshop group included Enrollment on Departure (EoD) in their future state vision, and the program has since been piloted at Dulles Airport.