EDD Hones Service Delivery, Plans New Deployments

The Employment Development Department’s ongoing push to modernize its suite of services, known broadly as the EDDNext project, is putting new focus on the people it serves and honing its services accordingly.

The aptly named Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is a key part of the broader EDDNext effort and aggregates internal and external feedback to do just that through a partnership with experience management firm Qualtrics.

“We've developed our platform to bring in various customer experience data sources and centralize it in one area, so we're able to bring in call center transcripts, chatbot Q&A data, email, email conversations from customers, what we're hearing on social media, as well as the various surveys we have," Customer Experience Division Director Mai Do said.

Some of the improvements this work has garnered include upgraded call centers, online self-service and claim status functionality. Since launching in November 2024, the self-service tools have been used by more than 1.2 million people.

“This has helped internally with workload, essentially bringing up our EDD representatives so that they can help customers with more complex issues,” Do said.

One prime example of the customer-focused improvements the department has in place is smoothed password resets to access benefit profiles. The old way of resetting a password required information that few claimants had — such as the last date benefits were received — and often meant they would need to call for help.

Since November 2025, call centers have seen a 58 percent reduction in calls for password reset help, Do said.

At the same time the department is smoothing the access points and overall experience for end users, it’s also doubling down on the efforts to secure the systems they rely on, said Muhammad Batvia, division chief over production services within EDD’s IT Branch.

“At EDD, we don't see security and access as competing priorities, right? They really go hand in hand for us, and because of the scale and sensitivity of the benefits that we oversee, we have to protect the system and make sure our claimants, which is millions of Californians, can actually use it without frustration,” Batvia explained.

The department is in the early stages of implementing voice authentication tools through a partnership with Verizon and Pindrop, which will help the call centers better identify fraudulent calls without adding extra work for employees or legitimate callers, Batvia said.

Another focus, he added, has been the addition of a speech-to-text fraud reporting solution that allows the public to report benefits fraud in more than 150 languages. That work was done in partnership with Verizon and Google. Do added that the reporting features have been integral to the work of the investigations team.

“At the end of the day, our approach is layered and adaptive, guided by ITD’s strategic plan, we focus on security first, but always through a customer lens, using research and feedback,” Batvia said.

That “customer lens” is helping the department to build its products through end-user surveys, research and testing, Do said. By tapping into actual user feedback, EDD has been able to improve the disability and unemployment insurance applications, simplify language, remove jargon and track satisfaction rates.

“When you talk about the EDDNext modernization, we are trying to do some cool things to protect our claimants, so amazing things to look forward to,” Batvia said.