Archive
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Document Name: Business (4 of 23)
Date: 09/01/94
Owner: National Performance Review
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Title: Standards for Our Customers: Business (4 of 23)
Author: Vice President Al Gore's National Parformance Review
Date: September, 1994
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CUSTOMER GROUP: Business
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Peter Rogers, Vice President of Marketing for Micro Systems, Inc.,
thinks he can increase sales in South America. He needs data on
retail markets in Venezuela; qualified overseas agents and
distributors; financing; and maybe even references from influential
people. Who does he ask?
Believe it or not, all these services are available from the
government's Export Assistance Center in Baltimore. The Center houses
people from several federal and state programs at one location so
that the export community can get one-stop service. "Steve Hall of
the Export Assistance Center has been to my office a number of times,
providing a menu of excellent services, now including export-import
financing," says Rogers. "We may have the best product in the world,
but if the customer can't pay for it, it could stop the sale."
Is this really the government? Yes. Steve Hall works for the
Department of Commerce. The Commerce programs he represents, and the
other federal and state programs involved, are meant to assist
exporters. So that makes business the customer.
Export Assistance Centers like the one in Baltimore are planned for
many locations around the country. Right now there are three others,
in Chicago, Miami, and Long Beach. And 11 more are planned for 1995.
Help for business -- that's great. But it is only one of government's
roles. Regulatory agencies have a big effect on business. The same
businessperson who gets assistance from some government agencies is
spending a lot of time preparing taxes and dealing with inspectors
from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Environmental
Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. There are also the Customs Service, the Consumer
Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal
Communications Commission, and more.
The truth is, much of what government does is tax, audit, inspect,
and regulate business. These activities naturally produce some
friction. Viewing businesses as customers is more complicated for
agencies with these roles, but they, too, are working to include
customer service ideas and business input in their approach.
Regulatory Compliance
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Many agencies are finding ways to combine strong enforcement of laws
and regulations with encouraging proactive compliance by business.
For example, to protect the health and safety of workers, the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration is helping employers
find and fix workplace hazards.
In its Maine 200 and Wisconsin 100 pilot projects, OSHA gives help to
employers that are considered high-risk because of their injury
rates. OSHA sends information packages that help employers and
employees work together to improve health and safety conditions.
Companies can also get technical advice from OSHA through state
agencies. The programs offer free consultation services, including
no-penalty inspections.
These services to business don't change OSHA's commitment to protect
workers. In fact, they increase the chance that businesses will
eliminate dangers before accidents occur. OSHA's customer service
standards cover both business and workers.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
OSHA is making these commitments to business:
--- Focus OSHA inspections on the most serious hazards.
--- Be respectful and professional during inspections.
--- Help them identify and control workplace hazards.
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There are other examples of regulators taking a more supportive
stance. Commerce's Bureau of Export Administration, which enforces
export controls on sensitive products like military equipment,
conducted about 250 seminars for about 13,000 participants last year.
Its goal was to ensure that exporters know how to comply with export
licensing requirements.
Three hundred executives of thrift institutions got to say what they
thought in face-to-face interviews with Treasury's Office of Thrift
Supervision. OTS, which supervises and regulates these institutions,
heard feedback about confusion and frustration resulting from some
aspects of its bank examination process. Its customer service plan
pledges to take both the mystery and obstacles out of the
examinations.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner announced
the "Common Sense Initiative" on July 20, 1994. Her idea is to create
pollution prevention strategies on an industry-by-industry basis,
instead of the current piecemeal, pollutant-by-pollutant approach.
Federal, state, and local government officials, working with both
environmentalists and industry, will begin by developing strategies
for six industries: auto manufacturing, computers and electronics,
iron and steel, metal finishing and plating, petroleum refining, and
printing.
EPA also plans to improve its processing of environmental permits,
which EPA uses to regulate activities like waste disposal and
discharges into the air and water. Permits are issued by federal and
state agencies. EPA recognizes that it has two customers for its
environmental permit programs: citizens and business. Citizens are
the beneficiaries of safe air and drinking water. But it's business,
through its compliance or positive action, that protects or improves
the environment. A new permits improvement team is seeking help from
state agencies, community groups, environmental organizations, and
those regulated by environmental permits. The goal is to reduce the
red tape while ensuring that the environment is protected.
The Small Business Administration convened a Small Business Forum on
Regulatory Reform with representatives from five industries and six
regulatory agencies to look at ways to improve federal regulation.
Among other things, the group wanted uniform and cost-effective
strategies that facilitate voluntary compliance, better coordination
among federal agencies, and more small business input in the
formulation of regulations. In July, the group issued its first
report. Highlighting the industry input, it recommended specific
actions that the agencies are now reviewing.
For advocates of customer-driven government, these increases in
industry input are good news -- and a good start.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
U.S. Customs Service
The U.S. Customs Service is absolutely certain that treating business
as a customer increases compliance. So Commissioner George Weise
takes a customer service point of view when he talks about business.
"We must keep in mind the customer's perspective in the way we
perform our mission," he explains. "Their impression defines the
quality of the service we provide." The following are examples of the
customer service standards for businesses Customs is publishing.
--- Customs field offices will respond to your request for binding
rulings within 30 days unless the issue must be referred to a Customs
attorney, in which case rulings will be issued within 120 days of
receipt.
--- Customs will notify the importer and/or the broker of cargo
detentions within five working days.
--- Customs will respond to any inquiry made of our Entry Specialist
Teams within four business hours.
--- If the quota or quota/visa entry is electronically transmitted,
Customs will review these documents and grant quota acceptance
status, if appropriate, within six business hours of presentation.
--- On-line import transactions will be completed in less than seven
seconds.
--- Batch transactions will be turned around to the user's terminal
in no more than 15 minutes for the Automated Broker interface; five
minutes for the Air Manifest Interface; and 15 minutes for the Sea
Manifest Interface.
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Business Assistance
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Fifteen years ago, when Mama Jo's and Zeno's Pizza in Wichita Falls,
Texas, was getting started, it took the owners four weeks to work
with a bank loan officer to fill out the application for a Small
Business Administration loan, gather all the relevant documents, and
wait for the government to respond. This year, when they wanted money
to expand, the whole process took only three days, start to finish.
The agency has cut the red tape for small business financing. The old
piles of paper have been eliminated and the remaining application is
only one sheet -- two sides. It requires so little documentation that
it is building a name as "Low Doc." The Small Business Administration
is one of several agencies providing financial assistance and
publishing customer service standards.
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Highlights from Customer Service Standards:
Financial Assistance for business
Financial assistance has been available from government for many
years in the form of loans, loan guarantees, insurance, and even
grants. Customers of these parts of government have said it's the
paperwork and the lengthy process that deters them from applying.
Many federal agencies are addressing these issues with customer
service standards like these.
Small Business Administration
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--- 7(a) Guaranteed Loan Program: As an applicant for financial
assistance, you can expect to have an answer from SBA within two
weeks of our receipt of your completed application. If the
application is processed through the Preferred Lender Program or the
Certified Lender Program, an answer can be expected within 24 hours
or three working days respectively.
--- Low Documentation Loan Program: As an applicant for financial
assistance of $100,000 or less, you can expect to have an answer from
SBA within three business days from receipt of your completed
application.
--- Greenline Program: As an applicant for financial assistance to
finance short-term, cyclical, working capital needs, you can expect
an answer from SBA within two weeks of receipt of your completed
application from your lender.
Export-Import Bank
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
--- Ex-Im Bank will not keep its customers waiting. We promise that
we will respond to your queries or complaints within two business
days.
--- Ex-Im Bank's Insurance staff will process 85 percent of Short-
term applications within two weeks and 90 percent of the Multibuyer
policies before the anniversary date, and inform the customer bi-
weekly of the status of the additional 15/10 percent until resolved.
--- Ex-Im Bank's United States Division will process 100 percent of
all Preferred Lender Program transactions within 10 days of receipt
of a completed application.
--- Ex-Im Bank's Claim and Recovery Division will process at least 90
percent of all cash receipt collections for existing claims within 20
business days of receipts and acknowledge claims filed under all
programs in writing to the claimant within two business days of
receipt.
Department of Agriculture,
Rural Development Administration, Business Loan Guarantees
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
--- We will conduct a review of your loan application to verify
completeness and compliance with applicable requirements within 10
working days after receiving the application.
--- We will issue the loan guarantee for your loan within two working
days from the time the lending institution holds the final loan
closing.
Department of Transportation,
Maritime Administration, Federal Ship Financing
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--- We will evaluate the completeness of your application and provide
you with an initial response within 10 to 14 days.
--- We will respond to your phone calls within 24 hours.
--- We will respond to your information requests within one to three
days.
--- We will process a complete application within 60 days.
--- We will treat you with courtesy and respect at all times.
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The State Department is helping businesses operating overseas. One of
its satisfied customers wrote: "I just wanted to let you know how
much I appreciate the positive stance the American Consulate has
taken toward U.S. companies doing business in Japan. I have always
thought that if American organizations don't help each other out in
Japan, then who will?"
The State Department is looking to expand its services to businesses
operating overseas. According to Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, "We
plan to include not only a case-by-case business facilitation, but
also the broader area of creating through negotiations and agreements
a friendly business climate for American firms -- one that will
enable medium and small firms as well as larger ones to conduct
business overseas."
If you need help from various agencies of the Department of
Agriculture, put your walking shoes on. Your nearest field offices of
the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, the Farmers
Home Administration, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, the
Rural Development Administration, and the Soil Conservation Service
may each have a different location. Agriculture recently surveyed its
customers; they said: "We want services in one location. We want to
deal with one person or one team who understands us." Agriculture is
taking its customers' advice and is creating one-stop Field Service
Centers throughout the nation. Some are already in place; most will
be running by 1998.
Technological transfer to assist business is a growing priority for
some federal agencies. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
programs actively promote the commercial potential of the agency's
technologies, while three of the Department of Energy's five goals
are focused on business: help industry shift from waste management to
pollution prevention; partner with the private sector for a two-way
technological exchange; and accelerate national use of emerging
technologies.
DOE is putting numbers with its promises to do more work with
business. Effective immediately, it is devoting at least 15 percent
of the department's research and development budget to partnerships
with the private sector. The department is also aggressive about
setting up more partnerships with business. Cooperative Research and
Development Agreements (CRADAs) are a primary tool for defining joint
work between the national labs, managed by DOE, and the private
sector. DOE has promised to process the paperwork for new CRADAs in
less than 16 weeks on average.
The federal government is also on the information superhighway,
providing business and others with information quickly. FedWorld, a
service of the Department of Commerce, is an on-line information
network serving as a gateway to 130 other government systems and
still growing. Access to FedWorld is provided at no charge, and calls
to the Help Desk are answered by a person, not a recording, 24 hours
a day. Downloadable products ordered by credit card are delivered
within 30 seconds.
Also provided by Commerce, STAT-USA has the most extensive
government-sponsored business, economic, and trade database system in
the world. One of STAT-USA's standards commits to posting all
information within 30 minutes of receipt and promises, "If we do not
ship your order within 24 hours, we will send you one CD-ROM free."
Research Support
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Many of the federal government's research and scientific activities
support the needs and interests of business. See the "Research and
Academic Community" section for more on these standards.