Improving Customer Service

Improving Customer Service
Issue Summary

     Private industry understands the basic rule that the success or
failure of a business depends on delivering customer service coupled
with cost-effective operations. When we in the government talk about
improving customer service, the first thing we need to do is define the
customer. Ultimately, our primary customer is the public who benefits
from government services. We also realize that most of us have secondary
customers in our own departments and in other government agencies.

Over the past year, working together, we have made progress in
instilling a customer-driven work ethic into the federal culture. The
President set the tone with his executive order requiring agencies to
develop standards for customer service. So far, more than 100 agencies
have responded by setting specific standards for delivering quality
service to the public. Are these standards workable? Are we shooting too
high or too low?

When you implement a customer-driven work ethic, you need some way of
measuring whether you are satisfying customers, and providing the
services they actually want and need. The NPR Accompanying Report also
recommends streamlined methods for collecting customer satisfaction data
and other information from the public. Over the past year, the OMB has
made it easier to conduct voluntary surveys for measuring customer
satisfaction.  Are these methods viable? Are they improving your
operations?  Your participation in this Electronic Open Meeting
will go a long way toward answering such questions and helping us
implement recommendations to improve customer service. During the next
two weeks you'll be able to connect, engage, and network with
participants across the federal workforce. By sharing experiences and
ideas on government reinvention, this Electronic Open Meeting will help
forge the enterprising and pragmatic solutions needed to create a
government that works better and costs less.