Conversations with America

Conversations with America was a reinventing government initiative to engage federal workers in two-way conversations with their customers, the American public, on how to improve customer service. A "conversation" took place in many settings-town hall meetings, focus groups, electronic chat rooms, e-mail, customer surveys and comment cards, call-in radio and television shows, toll-free call centers. The list goes on.

Federal workers have been focusing on customer service since President Clinton asked Vice President Gore to lead a reinventing government initiative in March of 1993. Bolstered by a Presidential order, federal agencies created more than 4,000 customer service standards 1997. Now they are working to measure their success in meeting these standards.

Vice President Gore announced the Conversations with America effort when we celebrated the fifth anniversary of reinventing government in March, 1998. President Clinton issued another directive to mark the 5-year milestone: "It is time to increase efforts to engage customers in conversations about further improving Government service," The point of Conversations with America was to have government produce results that Americans care about. That means all federal workers--from the head of the agency to front line staff--talked with customers about improving service.

Dozens of federal agencies partnered with NPR in this one year concentrated effort. We asked them to plan and publicize Conversations with America events and to share them with us. Many agencies continue posting their Conversations with America schedules on their web sites.