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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 26, 1999

Vice President Launches First Government-wide Customer Satisfaction Survey

The Committee for Excellence in Customer Satisfaction, composed of industry, academic, consumer group and government agency leaders, will meet Thursday, May 27, 1999 to create a plan for institutionalizing a culture of customer service in the federal government. The committee's recommendations will be reported at 3:15 p.m. in the Indian Treaty Room of the Old Executive Office Building.

Vice President Al Gore announced plans for the survey in January during an international conference sponsored by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR). "In 1993 NPR set the goal of delivering federal services equal to the best in business. Agencies have been working for the last five years to find out how best to serve customers. Now its time to measure their performance," the Vice President stated.

The survey is being sponsored by the President's Management Council, the chief operating officers of the cabinet agencies. General Services Administration Administrator David J. Barram has been designated by Vice President Gore to serve as the executive agent for the initiative. Today, GSA announced the award of a $867,000 contract to Arthur Andersen LLP for the development and delivery of the government-wide customer satisfaction survey. The contract period is one year with a one-year option.

Survey results will be used in conjunction with completed, ongoing, and/or planned surveys at agency or program levels to target opportunities to better serve the American Public and other customer service initiatives agreed on by the federal advisory committee. Committee members are:

• Clarence E. Anthony, President, National League of Cities and Mayor of South By, Florida
• Peter Block, President of Peter Block, Inc.
• Ann Brown, Chairman of the U.S.Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Gail C. Christopher, Director of the Alliance for Redesigning Government
• Philip N. Diehl, Director of the United States Mint, U.S. Department of the Treasury
• Bobby L. Harnage, Sr., National President, American Federation of Government Employees
• William J. Henderson, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Postal Service
• Ronald M. Hutchinson, Vice President of Harley Davidson Motor Company
• Patricia W. Ingraham, Director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Charles N. Jeffress, Assistant Secretary, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
• Rhoda H. Karpatkin, President of the Consumers Union
• Colleen M. Kelly, National Executive Vice President, National Treasury Employee Union
• Nancy Killefer, Assistant Secretary for Management and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of the Treasury
• Cathy E. Kramer, Executive Vice President of the Association for Quality and Participation;
• Patricia McGinnis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Council for Excellence in Government
• Constance Swank, Research Director of the American Association of Retired Persons
• William C. Taylor, Founding Editor of the Fast Company
• David J. Vidal, Research Director, Global Corporate Citizenship, of the Conference Board.