Archive
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Document Name: Tourists & Outdoor Enthusiasts (10 of 23)
Date: 09/01/94
Owner: National Performance Review
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Title: Standards for Our Customers: Tourists & Outdoor Enthusiasts (10 of 23)
Author: Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review
Date: September, 1994
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CUSTOMER GROUP: Travelers, Tourists, and Outdoor Enthusiasts
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Sometimes having a customer's perspective requires that you literally
take his or her point of view. That's what happened when the National
Park Service surveyed the customers who take tours of the White
House. They found that the signs were a real problem. One third of
the visitors were children, many of whom couldn't see the exhibit
signs. And adults couldn't figure out where to go to get tickets or
gain entrance. As a result, the Park Service and the Executive Office
of the President lowered some exhibit signs to a child's eye level
and posted a map and directions near the White House gates.
The White House tour is one of the best-known services that the
federal government offers, but it is only one of the thousands of
services that are used every day by Americans on the move -- millions
of travelers, tourists, campers, boaters and others. Visitors go to
National Parks 273 million times a year. Twenty-six million hunters,
hikers, and other outdoor people use Forest Service land every year.
Americans take 45 million trips abroad annually, and the State
Department issues more than 4 million passports a year. Eighty-two
thousand boaters use the Coast Guard's search and rescue services
annually -- a small but grateful percentage of the 55 million people
who benefit in other, less direct ways from the Coast Guard's
services.
Tourists and Outdoor Enthusiasts
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The federal government manages millions of acres of land, thousands
of forests and lakes, and a vast network of traveling exhibits,
museums and historic sites. Just think of Grand Canyon National Park.
The Washington Monument. Mesa Verde. The Outer Banks. Lincoln's home.
Muir Woods. Yellowstone. Across the country, vacationers and
weekenders, hikers and campers enjoy the beauty and history of our
nation.
The National Park Service has a long tradition of hosting visitors at
such sites. Trails, visitor centers, educational programs, and guides
have made many a vacation and weekend enjoyable and memorable. Now
the Park Service is going further -- talking to its customers,
setting standards, and improving service.
The Park Service is proving the wisdom that only the customer knows
what the customer wants. "After 20,000 interviews, I am convinced
there is no way to know what park visitors want except to ask them,"
says Gary Machlis, who is expanding the visitor survey program begun
in 1988.
As a result of what its customers have said, the Park Service is
offering special programs for children in many parks. It also changed
the planned location of an information center in Grand Teton National
Park. And it is working to make sure that every visitor who wants one
gets a brochure.
One of the biggest surprises the Park Service got was from surveying
visitors at Death Valley. It found that 75 percent of all visitors
are foreign -- primarily Germans, French, and Italians. The Park
Service quickly translated the posted directions for emergency car
breakdowns -- potentially saving lives as well as serving customers.
The Death Valley survey results underline an additional reason for
federal facilities to be customer-driven. Parks and other sites are
significant tourist attractions with clear benefits to local hotels,
motels, restaurants, and other businesses. They also draw foreign
visitors and revenues to the United States.
Other federal agencies are surveying their customers and setting
service standards. The Forest Service manages 191 million acres of
national forests and grasslands on behalf of the American people. In
the past year, the Forest Service has conducted a national public
opinion poll and held town hall meetings, focus groups, and local
forest planning meetings to listen to its diverse customers,
including boaters, campers, and other recreational users of 156
national forests and 19 national grasslands from Maine to Alaska.
The Forest Service is responding to what its customers said. It is
changing the way it does business and setting service standards. For
example, Americans told the Forest Service that they "want to be
fully informed and advised as owners of the public land. Communities
want to participate in local decisions that affect their well-being."
The Forest Service is publishing its commitment to open
decisionmaking, involving its partners, its customers, and diverse
communities across the nation.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
National Park Service
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The National Park Service has developed individualized brochures for
each of the 360 areas it manages. It is also posting customer service
standards in 323 visitor centers. Some nationwide standards are:
--- To keep the centers open during peak hours and seasons and
provide alternative sources of information when the center is closed.
--- To maintain the facility in a clean and safe condition.
--- To provide and maintain exhibits and audiovisual programs that
impart understanding and stimulate appreciation of the park and its
significant natural, historical, cultural, and recreational values.
--- To display schedules of programs and activities available
throughout the park.
--- To offer a wide variety of quality, park-related educational
items at fair market value sold in well-maintained outlets.
U.S. Coast Guard
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The Coast Guard has set standards for the services it provides to
recreational boaters. It will provide customers with:
--- 24 hours/day, 7 days/week search and rescue services on demand.
--- 24 hours/day, 7 days/week radionavigation service.
--- Toll-free, 24 hours/day, 7 days/week Boating Safety Hotline.
--- Boating safety classes and courtesy inspections.
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Americans also told the Forest Service that they want customer
service "equal to the best in business -- simple rules, reasonable
choices, flexibility, and less red tape." So the Forest Service is
setting service standards for its customers that respond to their
concerns and has promised to ask its customers, regularly for ways to
improve services and business practices.
The Coast Guard has joined in, too, setting standards to help keep
recreational boaters safe along its coasts. For its part, the
National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-tration is taking a second
look at its educational exhibits and is setting standards that pay
attention to the needs of people with a variety of physical and
intellectual capabilities.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers first opened locks in 1839 on
American waterways. Since then, the Corps has played a major role in
the development of the nation's water resources and infrastructure.
Today, one out of 10 Americans visits a Corps project at least once a
year. A large part of the Corps' job today is managing and
maintaining those projects and keeping them open to boaters,
fishermen, and other recreational users. The Corps is stepping up to
the customer service initiative. It is committed to surveying its
customers, setting standards, and increasing customer satisfaction.
International Travelers
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People cross the borders of the United States 450 million times a
year -- most of them Americans on vacations, business- people, and
foreign visitors. Border guards have to perform a balancing act:
treat all travelers with courtesy and respect as they enter and leave
the country, but also identify and stop terrorists, drug smugglers,
illegal aliens, and illegal and dangerous merchandise. Not an easy
trick.
A traveler may encounter several federal agencies at the nation's
airports:
--- The Immigration and Naturalization Service ensures that only
those people who should be in the country enter.
--- The U.S. Customs Service combats smuggling and ensures that
merchandise brought into the country complies with laws.
--- The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service looks for fruit
and vegetables that carry diseases or insects, like medflies, which
could threaten America's agriculture.
--- The Fish and Wildlife Service looks for wildlife that is brought
into the country illegally.
Federal agencies are introducing new technology and shared electronic
systems to speed passenger processing without sacrificing
enforcement. But the bottom line is still interactions with people.
For example, Customs has set a standard to speed the clearance of
international air travelers. At airports, Immigration and
Naturalization Service has dedicated lines specifically to accelerate
clearance of U.S. citizens into the country.
This is great, but from a traveler's point of view what matters is
the total time spent waiting. It is the sum of time spent by Customs,
Immigration, and other federal agencies, plus the time standing at
the baggage carousel waiting for their suitcases.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
Department of State
The Department of State issues passports for U.S. citizens and
provides information and guidance to U.S. travelers. The State
Department offers these services for international travelers:
--- You will receive timely and accurate information on travel safety
and conditions in foreign countries 24 hours a day, seven days a
week.
--- You will receive your passport within 25 days after receipt of
your application. Service will be provided in a courteous manner and,
whenever possible, we will try to meet your travel needs.
--- You will receive timely and courteous responses to requests for
American citizen services, and services will be provided by
knowledgeable and professional personnel.
--- Service to persons seeking visas to legally visit or reside in
the United States will be provided by knowledgeable, professional,
and courteous personnel.
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Things are on the right track in Miami. Customs and other federal
agencies have committed to work with the Miami Chamber of Commerce,
the Dade County Aviation Division, the airlines, baggage handlers,
skycaps, and food servers in a partnership to cut total passenger
processing time to 45 minutes -- counting from the time the plane is
at the gate to the time passengers leave the Customs area with their
luggage. Although times are monitored for each part of the process,
it's the total time that counts. The partners are working closely to
iron out problems, and passenger clearance times have already
improved dramatically.
The State Department also provides services to international
travelers. It offers information on travel conditions and safety
overseas. It also provides the documents that you can't leave home
without -- visas for visitors and passports for the Americans who
make 45 million trips abroad each year. Now, the State Department is
taking steps to improve its customer service. It is setting
standards, designating customer service managers and teams at
regional offices, training passport employees, and expanding the
number of places where Americans can obtain passports -- from sites
in the Navajo nation to the Recorder of Deeds in Iowa.
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Your Standards
These agencies and offices are publishing customer service standards
for travelers, tourists, and outdoor enthusiasts. The standards
appear in the "Travelers, Tourists, and Outdoor Enthusiasts" section
of Appendix B.
Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
Department of Defense
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Reclamation
Fish and Wildlife Service
National Park Service
Department of Justice
Immigration and Naturalization Service
Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Department of Transportation
U.S. Coast Guard
Department of the Treasury
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
U.S. Customs Service
Executive Office of the President
Old Executive Office Building-Preservation Office
White House Visitors
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA Exhibit Program
National Archives and Records Administration
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