When it comes to customer satisfaction, courtesy and service, the U.S. Mint is the Neiman Marcus of government agencies.
In an annual survey that measures how well the federal government serves the public, the Mint earned the highest score -- 89 out of 100 -- in this year's American Customer Satisfaction Index, scheduled for release today. Indeed, a recent phone call to the Mint office at the Treasury Department revealed near-concierge service. "I'll be happy to assist you with that information," customer service representative Shunwanna Sheffield said, eschewing the cold claw of bureaucracy for personal warmth. "May I place you on hold one minute, Miss Anne?"
The ACSI has become something of a report card for government agencies. Conducted since 1999 by the University of Michigan Business School's National Quality Research Center, which has long compiled brand loyalty data and customer evaluations in the private sector, this year's index asked approximately 16,000 respondents to grade services provided by 30 federal agencies and 64 departments.
"Improving customer satisfaction has been a focus of ours," said Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore. She reports that almost every customer call to the Mint is now answered within one minute, most orders are shipped within 48 hours and the number of customer returns has been slashed by a third in the last 18 months.
Second behind the Mint on the latest ACSI report is the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., with a score of 84. Tied for third is the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Health Administration, both of which scored 81.
The Internal Revenue Service gets the lowest score. Typically, agencies that impose a burden on citizens earn lower evaluations than agencies that provide benefits and services.
"It's very difficult to maximize satisfaction with the IRS," said Claes Fornell, the University of Michigan professor who oversees the ACSI. "They are selling something that nobody wants, and they have no competition."
Still, the IRS's overall score nudged to 63 this year, up 1.6 percent from last year. More people are filing their taxes electronically, which is increasing their satisfaction with the experience of dealing with the IRS to 77.
Before the index, there were few ways to grade the services provided by Uncle Sam. "We have elections, but those are crude measurements," Fornell said. "We thought it would be a good idea to provide a feedback system to the government. In a democracy, that makes sense. We were somewhat concerned about the government's focus on the cost side only. There needed to be a way to measure the quality."
Customer satisfaction with government agencies has risen slightly, from 70.2 last year to 70.9 this year. According to Fornell, the continual rise is due in part to the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act's success in shifting the focus of government operations from process to results.
Within the aggregate increase are two smaller trends for the year, according to Fornell: Although professionalism and courtesy have improved at federal agencies, the ability to deliver services in a timely and smooth manner has declined slightly.
Web sites run by federal agencies are also ranked by ACSI and ForSee Results, an online satisfaction measurement firm. In the latest quarterly report released today, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Student Aid site, run by the Department of Education, both received the highest score of 86.
The National Library of Medicine's site (medlineplus.gov) offers health care information in English and Spanish, including tutorials and special filters for the elderly and visually impaired. In 2003, the site drew 18 million users who called up 215 million pages.
"We've spent decades servicing doctors and researchers," says Donald A.B. Lindberg, director of the National Library of Medicine. "But all of us are not educated in medicine. We've been very serious about making the site as informative and accessible as possible." Users who visit the site do not have to register, nor are they shadowed by pharmaceutical companies trying to sell drugs.
E-government is exploding, in usage and sophistication. Although ACSI surveyed only a few sites last year, 35 are rated this quarter. Most patent applications are now filed on the Web. And soon, all NIH grant applications will be electronic.
ACSI points out in its latest report that customer satisfaction with government Web sites can rival that of the private sector. A site operated by the Office on Women's Health, www.4women.gov, scored the same rate of customer satisfaction as the search engine Google.
Quelle: Washington Post, 15.12.2003
