Archive

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Document Name: App A: Executive Order 12862 (13 of 23)
Date: 09/01/94
Owner: National Performance Review
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Title: Appendix A: Executive Order 12862 (13 of 23)

Author: Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review

Date: September, 1994

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Appendix A:

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Executive Order 12862

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Executive Order 12862

Setting Customer Service Standards

September 11, 1993

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 service 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:

(a) identify the customers who are, or should be, served by the

agency;

(b) survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services

they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services;

(c) post service standards and measure results against them;

(d) benchmark customer service performance against the best in

business;

(e) survey front-line employees on barriers to, and ideas for,

matching the best in business;

(f) provide customers with choices in both the sources of service

and the means of delivery;

(g) make information, services, and complaint systems easily

accessible; and

(h) provide means to address customer complaints.

Section 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.

Section 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.

Section 4.

Independent Agencies. Independent agencies are requested to adhere to

the order.

Section 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.

The White House

September 11, 1993

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