Form 456 USDA Rural Developmetnt Questionnaire Rural Electrificat

USDA Rural Development RUS Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire

USDA Rural Development – (RUS) Rural Utilities Service

Rural Electrification Loan Applicants

Customer Satisfaction Survey 2011

Final Version

First Draft

Introduction

Thank you in advance for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. USDA Rural Development’s mission is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for all rural Americans. Gathering your feedback helps to ensure that we are delivering on our mission to you and to all of Rural America. This survey asks about your experiences with the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and with Rural Electrification Loans.

This survey is being administered by CFI Group, an independent third-party research group. This brief survey asks about your satisfaction with our products and services as well as ways that we can improve our service to you. Your answers will remain anonymous and will be combined with those from other respondents for research and evaluation purposes only.

This survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes and is authorized by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Control No. 1090-0007.

Pre-loan Planning

Think about the planning process and the interactions you had with the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) before you applied for a Rural Electrification Loan.

Please use a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent” to rate RUS on the following:

1. Providing you with valuable input during the planning phase of your project on issues such as management, environment, financing, and engineering.

2. RUS willingness or ability to adapt to changes in the industry

3. Clearly communicating with you during the planning phase of the project about the types of information you needed to provided

General Field Representative

4. Have you had contact with a general field representative from RUS in the past year?

1. Yes (CONTINUE)

2. No (SKIP TO NEXT SECTIONQ12)

3. Don’t Know (SKIP TO Q12)

(SKIP TO NEXT SECTION)

Thinking about the customer service that you received from the RUS general field representative, please rate the them on the following using a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent.” If a particular question does not apply please select N/A.

5. Courtesy and professionalism of the USDA general field representative

6. Knowledge of USDA general field representative with respect to laws and regulations of their program

8. Timeliness in responding to your question or request and providing follow up

9. Usefulness of information provided by the general field representative

10. Could you benefit from other RD financing programs?

1. Yes (ASK Q10)

2. No (ASK Q11)

11. Please rate the ability of GFR to answer questions regarding other RD programs. If this question does not apply, please select “N/A”.

12. Are you aware of the other RD programs available?

1. Yes

2. No

Other Staff – Loan Specialist

13. Have you had contact with an RUS loan specialist in the past year?

1. Yes (CONTINUE)

2. No (SKIP TO NEXT SECTIONQ17)

3. Don’t Know (SKIP TO Q17)(SKIP TO NEXT SECTION)

Thinking about the customer service that you received from the RUS loan specialist, please rate them on the following using a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent.” If a particular question does not apply please select N/A.

14. Courtesy and professionalism of the loan specialist

15. Ability to answer your questions

16. Technical knowledge of the loan specialist with regard to regulations and requirements

17. Timeliness in responding to your question or request and providing follow up

Other Staff – Engineer

18. Have you had contact with an RUS engineer in the past year?

1. Yes (CONTINUE)

2. No (SKIP TO NEXT SECTIONSKIP TO Q22)

3. Don’t Know (SKIP TO Q22)(SKIP TO NEXT SECTION)

Thinking about the customer service that you received from RUS, please rate the representative on the following using a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent.” If a particular question does not apply please select N/A.

19. Courtesy and professionalism of the engineer

20. Technical knowledge of engineer with regard to regulations and requirements

21. Ability to answer your questions

22. Timeliness in responding to your question or request and providing follow up

Application/Loan Processes

Think about the loan application process for the Rural Electrification Loan program, please use a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent” to rate the loan application process on the following:

23. Ease of submitting application and supporting paperwork

24. Responsiveness/communication regarding the status of your application

25. Timeliness of decision

26. How burdensome was the supporting paperwork you had to submit (financials, construction plan, etc.)? Please use a scale from “1” to “10”, where “1” is “very burdensome” and “10” is “not very burdensome.”

27. Did the RUS office communicate with you timely on what items are needed on your application?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don’t Know

Information/Communications

Thinking about the information that you receive or access concerning the Rural Electrification Loan program from USDA Rural Development, please use a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent” to rate the information on the following. If a particular question does not apply please select N/A.

28. Ease of accessing outstanding debt information from RUS

29. Clarity and ease of understanding information from RUS about the loans program

30. Timeliness of getting decision from RUS on non-loan related matters

31. What I/T enhancements can be made to how information is reported? (Open end)

32. What I/T enhancements can be made in providing borrower debt information? (Open end)

33. What I/T enhancements can be made to enhance communications with RUS? (Open end)

Funding

Thinking about the funding process after you were approved for a Rural Electrification Loan, please use a scale from “1” to “10” where “1” means “poor” and “10” means “excellent” to rate the following. If a particular question does not apply please select N/A.

34. After receiving approval, timeliness of receiving loan documents and paperwork

35. Ease of filling out paperwork for funding (e.g. Inventory of Work Orders, Advance Request Form)

36. What I/T enhancements can be made to the post loan approval process?

37. Timeliness of reimbursement

ACSI

38. Overall, how satisfied are you with the Rural Electrification Loan program from USDA Rural Development? Please use a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is very dissatisfied and 10 is very satisfied?

39. How well does the Rural Electrification Loan program from USDA Rural Development meet your expectations? Please use a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means falls short of expectations and 10 means exceeds expectations.

40. How does the Rural Electrification Loan program from USDA Rural Development compare to the ideal program or organization that promotes economic opportunity and improvement of the quality of life for in rural Americans? Please use a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means not very close to the ideal and 10 means very close to the ideal.

Outcomes

41. Using a 10-point scale where “1” means “Not very likely” and “10” means “Very likely”, please rate the how likely are you to recommend the Rural Electrification Loan program from the USDA Rural Development to others, if you were asked?

42. Do you plan to apply to the Rural Electrification Loan program again in the future?

1. Yes (SKIP TO NEXT SECTIONQ43)

2. No (CONTINUE TO Q42)

3. Don’t Know (SKIP TO Q43)

4. (SKIP TO NEXT SECTION)

43. (IF NO) Why would you choose not to apply again in the future?

Open End

44. What is the one thing with which you are most dissatisfied?

45. Which processes and/or requirements, if any, within the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) program should be (1) eliminated; (2) simplified; or (3) streamlined?

46. Please share any other comments that you have about the Rural Utilities Service (RUS).

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May June 2011 First DraftFinal Version