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U.S. Federal Agencies Need to Step up Customer Service

By Carolyn J Dawson
TMCnet Contributor

The “Uncle Sam at Your Service: 2010 Federal Customer Experience Survey” surveyed around 1000 Americans online in July 2010 to study and examine American citizens’ expectations and perceptions of U.S. Federal agencies’ customer service. The results of the survey was announced by MeriTalk, the government IT network, which shows that Americans are much more satisfied with private sector customer services than those received from Federal agencies. Services offered by U.S. Federal agencies to around 307 million Americans include Federal student aid, tax processing, disaster relief, and even airport security on a daily basis. The RightNow Insured study helps identify opportunities for improvement of Federal customer services by comparing “typical” and “best” experiences interacting with both private companies and Federal agencies.

The survey revealed that around 83 percent of Americans believe that Federal agencies customer service needs significant improvement and around 42 percent are even ready to pay additional $10 in taxes for the upgraded service which amount to almost $552.3 million more in taxes annually. The report follows the release of the Office of Management and Budget’s “White House Forum for Modernizing Government” earlier this year, which urged agencies to improve and professionalize customer services across Federal agencies.

According to the report, Federal agencies can offer improved customer service by being consistent across all communication channels. Also they can provide smaller response time to customer inquires. By being compassionate and respectful towards citizen’s request will also enhance customer experiences. Compared to U.S. Feds, private companies outrank them in areas of problem solving, response time and courtesy. Although some agencies are striving hard to improve service, expanding web presence and providing online services will further complement the improvement. The study showed that about 63 percent of Americans are satisfied with the agencies online experiences.

Fifty-three percent of Americans want Feds to improve response times and streamline information since most of them believe that internal issues serve as the biggest hurdle. Americans believe that poorly trained staff, lack of communication and lack of coordination are the key challenges that impede improvement. Commenting on the survey results, Kevin Paschuck, vice president, Public Sector of RightNow said, “It’s time that all Federal agencies make customer service a priority and re-evaluate their practices to ensure citizen satisfaction.”