Council Established to Improve Federal Customer Service

The administration is striving to implement world-class customer service within federal agencies.  To that end, customer service is a fundamental management goal of the administration’s Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goals launched as part of the FY 2015 budget. Through the CAP goal program, the administration committed to streamline transactions, develop standards for high impact services, and utilize technology to improve the customer experience.

 

The first quarter FY 2016 Customer Service CAP goal update established four strategies and an action plan for FY 2016-2017.  The strategies include: 

• Improve top customer interactions 
• Develop tools and resources
• Use feedback data
• Focus on the frontline   

According to OMB’s recent memo, establishing the Council is a critical part of implementing the customer service CAP goal. The Council will be comprised of major federal programs that provide transactional services directly to the public at high volumes.  “The Council will identify challenges in improving customer service for their programs, share best practices to address these challenges, ensure use of customer feedback data, and identify strategies, including policy recommendations, to improve the customer experience for core Federal programs.”

Federal programs identified by OMB for the Council are as follows:

Department of Agriculture 

• U.S. Forest Service  
• Farm Service Agency 
• Natural Resources Conservation Service

Department of Commerce 

• Patent Approvals, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office  
• Trademark Registration, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Department of Education 

• Student Financial Aid, Federal Student Aid 

Department of Health & Human Services  

• Health Insurance Marketplace, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 
• Medicare, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Department of Homeland Security 

• Airport Security Screening, Transportation Security Administration  
• Immigration and Customs Inspections, U.S. Customs and Border Protection  
• Citizenship and Immigration Services  
• Emergency and Disaster Relief, Federal Emergency Management Authority

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  

• FHA Single Family Loans and Resource Center

Department of Interior  

• Trust Beneficiary Call Center, Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians  
• Visitor Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Department of Labor  

• Occupational Safety & Health Administration 
• Workers' compensation programs, Office of Worker Compensation Programs

Department of State  

• Passport Issuance & Processing, Passport Services Office, Bureau of Consular Affairs

Department of Treasury  

• Online services, Internal Revenue Service

Department of Veterans Affairs  

• Veterans Health Care Benefits, Veterans Health Administration  
• Veterans Pension Benefits & Veterans Disability Benefits through the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Veterans' Experience  

Office of Personnel and Management  

• Federal Employment Services, USAJobs

Social Security Administration  

• Social Security Card Issuance/Processing, Office of Operations  
• Social Security Retirement Benefits, Office of Operations  
• Social Security Disability Benefits, Office of Disability and Adjudication Services

Small Business Administration  

• Field Operations, Small Business Administration

The Council will meet quarterly and consist of senior agency representatives from each federal program identified. Agencies were directed to submit the names and contact information for each designated Council member from their identified programs by April 8^th.