M-11-24

EXEC U T IV E O FF ICE OF T H E PRES I DE N T

O FFI CE OF MANAG EM EN T A N D B U DGET

WAS HI NG T ON , D. C.

20503

DEPUTY DIRECTOR
FOR MANAGEMENT

June 13, 2011
M-II-24

MEMORANDUM FOR HEA S OF Ex~u.IV~ DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
FROM:

Jeffrey D. Zie ts
~

Federal Chief Performa ce Offic · and

Deputy Direct r for Ma)lagement

SUBJECT: Implementing Executive Order 13571 on Streamlining Service Delivery and
Improving Customer Service

In Executive Order (EO) 13571 , issued on April 27, 2011 , the President stated that, "with
advances in teclmology and service delivery systems in other sectors, the public's expectations of
the Government have continued to rise," and that the Government "must keep pace with and
even exceed those expectations." In addition, the President made clear that the Government
"must also address the need to improve its services, not only to individuals, but also to private
and Governmental entities to which the agency directly provides significant services."
The President instructed the Federal Chief Performance Officer, who also serves as
Deputy Director for Management of the OMB, to issue any necessary guidance for implementing
the activities outlined in the order. This memorandum provides guidance for implementing
EO 1357l.
1. Improve Customer Service Delivery

To keep pace with the public's expectations and to respond to budget pressures that demand
we do more with less, the Federal Goverm11ent must deliver services better, faster, and at lower
cost. Each Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agency ("agency" or "agencies") that directly
provides significant services to individuals or to private and governmental entities will improve
customer service tlu'ough the fo llowing activities:
• Publish Customer Service Plans - Within 180 days, each agency will post a customer service
plan ("plan") to its Open Govenm1ent website. The plan will identify implementation steps
for the customer service activities outlined in EO 13571 , including a high-level discussion of
the process by which a " signature initiative" to use teclmology to improve the customer
experience will be designed and executed. The plan will prepare agencies to integrate
specific customer service goals into am1Ual agency performance plans and rep0l1s, as called
for by the Goverm11ent Performance and Results Modernization Act (GPRA) of20 10.
Additional details about the nature and scope of the customer service plan are in the
appendix.

• Establish a Customer Service Task Force - To facilitate the exchange of best practices and
the development of agency customer service plans and signature initiatives, OMB will
coordinate a Customer Service Task Force ("Task Force"), comprised of agencies that
provide significant services, that will meet regularly until agencies publish their plans. By
June 30, 2011, each agency should identify a senior official, who will be responsible for the
customer service plan and related agency goals, to represent the agency on the Task Force
and submit the appropriate contact information on the MAX customer service initiative site,
https ://max.omb.gov/community/x/200ZIg. Before final publication in October, participating
agencies will conduct a peer review of their customer service plans.
2. Advance Customer Service through Innovative Technology
With advances in teclmology and improvements in service delivery systems, customers'
expectations continue to rise. To meet these expectations and increase efficiency, the Federal
Government must incorporate increasingly common, lower cost self-service options that leverage
technology, such as those accessed by the Internet or mobile phone. These efforts will help the
Federal Government streamline and make more efficient its service delivery to better serve the
public.
• Establish a Signature Initiative : EO 13571 calls for each agency to establish one major
initiative (a "signature initiative") that uses teclmology to improve the customer experience,
address the gap between customer expectation and agency service delivery, and achieve
efficiency gains. Initiatives will be outlined in the agency customer service plan (additional
details on plan formulation are in the appendix). Signature initiatives will draw on best
practice models that demonstrate the ability to use innovative technologies to increase
customer self-service, reduce the need for phone or walk in inquiries, ~nd continuously learn
from customers. For example, various Government entities have developed systems that
enable customers to: reserve an office appointment online, reducing time spent waiting in line;
complete an entire transaction independently online, limiting the need for calls or office visits;
track the status of a service online, allowing access to updates via a mobile device; and set up
mobile text alerts for notifications on a range of topics, including emergency announcements,
thereby engaging the agency directly with the customer.
3. Solicit Timely Customer Feedback
Pursuant to EO 12862, agencies that provide significant services to the public must
survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of
satisfaction with existing services. EO 13571 expands the definition of "customer" and
encourages the use of a broader set of tools to so licit actionable, timely customer feedback to
capture insights and identify early warning signals.
• Create a "Fast Track" Review Process - Concurrenl with the release of this guidance, the Office
ofInformation and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) will provide guidance to agencies on the

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Paperwork Reduction Act and a "Fast Track" review process for efforts to gather customer
feedback to improve service delivery.
• Provide Guidance on Customer Feedback Options - Concurrent with the release of this
guidance, OIRA will post online introductory documents for program managers on different
options for collecting customer feedback.

4. Improve Online Services
More than half of all Americans accessed a Federal website in 2010 - evidence that many
Government services are now delivered online. While many Federal websites provide timely .
and accurate information and services, many others have redundant, outdated, hard to use, or
poorly maintained content. There are nearly 2,000 top-level Federal .gov domains; within these
top-level domains, there are thousands of websites, sub-sites, and micro sites, resulting in an
estimated 24,000 websites of varying purpose, design, navigation, usability, and accessibility.
This duplication not only can cause confusion, but also wastes taxpayer dollars. To simplify
access to Federal services, the GovenU11ent needs a comprehensive and consistent strategy for
managing its web resources efficiently and assuring that valuable content is available online and
is readily accessible.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Services Administration
(GSA), the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) , the ChiefInformation Officers
Council, and the Federal Web Managers Council will work with agencies to accomplish the
following:
• Freeze Establishment of New Federal Executive Branch Domains - Effective immediately,
all agencies will cease creation of new .gov domains for 90 days. GSA's Office of
Govermnentwide Policy (OGP) will approve new domains only for those requests that have
received a written waiver from the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO). Should
agencies need to establish new web content within this timeframe, they should leverage
existing .gov sites and infrastructure.
• Update .Gov Domain Policy and Guidelines - Within 30 days, the Federal CIO, in
collaboration with GSA, will establish a task force to solicit and develop recommendations to
update Federal executive branch .gov policy and guidelines and best practices for managing
Federal websites.
• Eliminate Duplicative and Outdated Websites - Within 30 days, GSA will make publicly
available on Data.gov a list of all registered top-level .gov domain names. This list will be
updated regularly. Within 60 days, GSA will provide agency-specific lists on MAX and the
Federal CIO will issue instructions for how agencies should identify opportunities to improve
content as well as eliminate duplicative and outdated websites. Within 120 days, each
agency will use the agency-specific domain name list and related instructions to identify
domain names that are no longer needed, websites that should be consolidated or eliminated,
and website content that needs to be improved. Agencies will post on their Open
Government page the actions they will take as a result of their review.

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We look forward to working with each of you on this important effOli. If you have any questions
regarding the first two sections of this Memorandum, Improving Customer Service Delivery or
Advancing Customer Service tlu'ough Innovative Technology, please direct them to Katie
Malague at kmalag ue@omb.eop.gov or 202-395 -4633. Questions about the sections related to
Soliciting Timely Customer Feedback or Improving Online Services should be directed to Adam
Neufeld at aneufe ld0)omb.eop.gov or 202-395 -5020.

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Appendix: Customer Service Plans

Nature and Scope of Services - Plans should address approximately three to five of the
agency ' s highest volume services, including the most critical and significant transactions with
customers. Agencies will determine appropriate services to address in the customer service plan.
III ustrative examples include:
• Providing access to forms, applications, program information, and data;
• Processing of benefits, loans, grants, taxes, permits, and licenses; and
• Enabling self-service options such as online transactions and mobile applications.
Components of the Plan - The plan will identify key customer groups for the selected three to
five highest volume agency services and summarize implementation steps for the customer service
activities outlined in EO 13571, including a high-level discussion of the process by which a
signature initi ative wi ll be designed and executed. To focus efforts on the initiatives themselves,
plans should be no longer than 10 pages. The plan will outline the agency's approach, intended
benefits, and implementation timeline for the fo llowing:

1. Connecting with Customers
• Establish mechanisms to solicit customer feedback on government services and use such
feedback regularly to make service improvements, such as:
Collect ongoing, timely, actionable customer feedback to identify early warning signals of
customer service issues; and
Conduct customer satisfaction surveys and report the results publicly to provide
transparency and accountability.
• Improve the customer experience by adopting proven customer service best practices and
coordinating across service channels (including on-line, phone, in person, and mail
services), such as:
Develop a process for evaluating the entire customer experience, ensuring consistency
across service chmmels;
Coordinate with other agencies serving the same customers, identifying opportunities for
using common forms and application materials and processes;
Analyze customer preferences for interactions and redirect resources from less prefened
and more costly chmmels (such as printed materials) to preferred, less costly, and more
widely accessible chmmels (such as Internet and mobile services), where appropriate and
applicable; and
Ensure access and usability for people with disabilities and hard-to-reach and
disadvantaged customer populations.

2. Setting, Communicating, and Using Customer Service Standards
• Set clear customer service standards and expectations, including, where
appropriate,
performance goals for customer service required by the Government Performance and
Results (GPRA) Modernization Act of2010 (Public Law 111-352), such as:
Develop customer service standards that are understandable to the public, easily accessible
at the point of service and on the Internet, and measurable (where appropriate); where
possible, standards should include targets for speed, quality/accuracy, and satisfaction;
Report progress in meeting customer service standards;
Provide an easy and accessible mechanism for customers to find out where they are in a
given process and how long it will likely take to obtain service;
Make agency service contact information readily available to the public; and
Ensure appropriate mechanisms for handling complaints and resolving issues in a timely
and satisfactory mmmer.
• Streamline agency processes to reduce costs and accelerate delivery, while reducing the
need for customer calls and inquiries, such as:
Continually identifY and implement ways to eliminate Ulmecessary steps;

Analyze the most conm10n customer inquiries and evaluate potential process and

communications changes to reduce the need for them; and

Assess process and technology changes for their impact on the customer' s experience.

3. Leveraging Technology and Innovation
• Establish one major initiative (a "signature initiative") that will use technology to

improve the customer experience, aiming to:

Increase the efficiency of agency operations;

Identify ways to increase self-service, reduce the need for phone or walk-in inquiries,

and continuously learn from customers; and

Build solutions that can be leveraged for other government services, or by third-party

application developers, where possible.

• Identify ways to use innovative technologies to accomplish customer service activities,
thereby lowering costs, decreasing service delivery times, and improving the customer
experience, through activities such as:
Assess customer needs and expectations for services provided by the agency;

Analyze the gap between customer expectations and current agency service delivery;

Create and test a solution that meets the level of service needed to address the gap

between the customer expectation and the agency's service delivery;

Gather customer feedback on the solution to determine whether it better meets

customer needs; and

Use customer feedback to improve the solution, repeating the process to rapidly create an

effective solution that meets the customer service need.

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