Executive Order 12862: Setting Customer Service Standards

Executive Order 12862: Setting Customer Service Stds

Title:Executive Order 12862: Setting Customer Service Stds.

Author: The White House

Date: 11 Sept 1993

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 11, 1993

EXECUTIVE ORDER

SETTING CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS

Putting people first means ensuring that the Federal Government provides the

highest quality service possible to the American people. Public officials must

embark upon a revolution within the Federal Government to change the way it does

business. This will require continual reform of the executive branch's

management practices and operations to provide service to the public that

matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector.

NOW, THEREFORE, to establish and implement customer service standards to guide

the operations of the executive branch, and by the authority vested in me as

President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, it is hereby

ordered:

Section 1. Customer Service Standards.

In order to carry out the principles of the National Performance Review, the

Federal Government must be customer-driven. The standard of quality for services

provided to the public shall be: Customer service equal to the best in business.

For the purposes of this order, "customer" shall mean an individual or entity

who is directly served by a department or agency. "Best in business" shall mean

the highest quality of service delivered to customers by private organizations

providing a comparable or analogous service.

All executive departments and agencies (hereinafter referred to collectively as

"agency" or "agencies") that provide significant services directly to the public

shall provide those services in a manner that seeks to meet the customer service

standard established herein and shall take the following actions:

identify the customers who are, or should be, served by the agency;

survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and

their level of satisfaction with existing services;

post service standards and measure results against them;

benchmark customer service performance against the best in business;

survey front-line employees on barriers to, and ideas for, matching the best

in business;

provide customers with choices in both the sources of service and the means of

delivery;

make information, services, and complaint systems easily accessible; and

provide means to address customer complaints.

Sec. 2. Report on Customer Service Surveys.

By March 8, 1994, each agency subject to this order shall report on its customer

surveys to the President. As information about customer satisfaction becomes

available, each agency shall use that information in judging the performance of

agency management and in making resource allocations.

Sec. 3. Customer Service Plans.

By September 8, 1994, each agency subject to this order shall publish a customer

service plan that can be readily understood by its customers. The plan shall

include customer service standards and describe future plans for customer

surveys. It also shall identify the private and public sector standards that the

agency used to benchmark its performance against the best in business. In

connection with the plan, each agency is encouraged to provide training

resources for programs needed by employees who directly serve customers and by

managers making use of customer survey information to promote the principles and

objectives contained herein.

Sec. 4. Independent Agencies.

Independent agencies are requested to adhere to this order.

Sec. 5. Judicial Review.

This order is for the internal management of the executive branch and does not

create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by a party

against the United States, its agencies or instrumentalities, its officers or

employees, or any other person.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

September 11, 1993.