Service Standards Unveiled

A new report by the National Performance Review says that agency efforts to improve customer service are on the rise.

The report, "Putting Customers First '97," includes a summary of the government's recent efforts to increase the quality of customer service, as well as a searchable listing of 4,000 customer service standards for 570 federal departments and agencies.

In 1993, President Clinton issued an executive order that called for a customer-driven government that "matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector." In the first year after the order, only three agencies agreed to commit to service standards--The Social Security Administration, the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service.

Now, the NPR report says, all 14 Cabinet departments and 37 independent agencies have set customer service standards, and are continuing to add more every year. The Transportation Department has more than 500 standards at 10 agencies, and the Commerce Department has more than 300 standards at 13 agencies.

This report lists standards for agencies ranging from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Miami Animal Import Center. The report is organized by customer groups, such as beneficiaries, veterans, businesses and the general public.

Each section provides detailed agency standards and reports on the agency's success or failure in meeting them. For example, under the Veterans section, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service lists the following standard: "We will make initial retiree/annuitants payments within 30 days of retirement." The agency reports this happened 94 percent of the time.

The report lists several examples of service improvements due to new standards, such as:

• The New York Passport Office eliminated lines and doubled the number of customers it served by instituting an automated appointment system.
• The Bureau of Land Management now processes permit applications in minutes by using a fax machine and allowing credit card payments.
• Pittsburgh's Veterans Affairs Medical Center increased its number of new customers served by 16 percent after implementing a valet parking system.