US citizens are to be directed to a single "customer services centre" for contacting federal agencies by internet, email, and telephone. Known as the USA Services initiative, it aims to respond to questions from the public within two days, handling information from the first 11 departments to be involved.
It is among the last of the Bush administration's 25 main e-government initiatives to be available and aims to consolidate information sources, including the US Government's main website Firstgov.gov, under one roof.
The idea is that questions sent to the wrong agency can be redirected to USA Services staff who will then answer them and also to have frequently asked questions handled by the call centre staff, freeing up time for the agencies involved.
Services covered by the contact centre include: passport applications, birth certificate information, tax enquiries, social security and medical insurance.
The telephone service starts with a friendly female voice saying: "Hello, welcome to the federal citizen information centre...lets get started." It then lists nine services divided into sets of three, before giving the option to "speak with an agent".
Emails can be sent through the Firstgov website, the telephone number is 1-800-FED-INFO.
In a test run of the service beginning on 1 July 2003, staff were able to answer roughly 95% of enquiries, according to the General Services Administration which runs the centre. The remaining questions were referred on to agency experts.
Quelle: Kablenet
