The Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has launched a government initiative aimed at producing a new CX model for transacting business with government authorities.

The initiative, called the Abu Dhabi Program for Effortless Customer Experience, was unveiled in late March to enable the emirate to provide what it calls “world-class, effortless customer experiences” for anyone who interacts with the Abu Dhabi government, building on “a human-centric approach” to carry out its mission, according to an official statement from the emirate.

The program is being launched by Sheik Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, from the Al Nahyan royal family ruling Abu Dhabi—one of the six dynastic houses that govern the seven emirates of the UAE. Sheik Khaled is also a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, the local executive authority that assists the emirate’s ruler in carrying out his duties and powers; and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, the government supervisory body monitoring the implementation by federal agencies of strategic plans for the emirate.

Saeed AlMulla, CX executive director at the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, says the launch of the program, the first of its kind in the Middle East, reflects an official commitment to transform CX across government levels and agencies in the emirate. “The Abu Dhabi government has always put people at the heart of everything it does,” says AlMulla. “The launch of the program is an extension of those efforts, making it even easier for people—whether they live here or are visiting—to carry every task quickly, conveniently, and effortlessly.”  

The new model, said to be benchmarked against international standards, is supported by 80 toolkits and case studies from 20 different countries. It uses a holistic and collaborative approach to address CX, doing so from the perspectives of direction, design, development, and delivery. The program cites five strategic “thrusts,” or areas of execution: standards pertaining to roles and the delivery of services, set out in a CX policy guidebook; a system of priorities, underscoring the areas that need improvement most in order to concentrate efforts and resources; a design lab, to be set up in collaboration with best-in-class partners; CX capabilities, targeted for development in agents, enabling them to provide world-class service; and a measurement model, established to gauge CX success.

The launch of the new initiative follows in the wake of a successful pilot phase conducted earlier in three government entities in the emirate—the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT), the Department of Economic Development (DED), and the Department of Community Development (DCD). Results from the testing performed during that stage showed greatly streamlined CX, marked by an improved performance of nearly 50% because of quicker completion times and fewer touchpoints. 

The launch also follows an extensive and full-maturity review of the program at whole-of-government levels—efforts coordinated among multiple levels of government as well as private enterprise, nonprofits, and community organizations—to assess current CX performance and to set suitable targets for the future.

To ensure long-term CX sustainability of the new initiative, the emirate will implement a comprehensive training program across official channels, enabling agencies to work in collaboration with stakeholders to deliver enhanced CX, the emirate statement adds.