Executive Order 12862 -- “Setting Customer Service Standards

Presidential Documents

Federal Register
Vol. 58, No. 176
Tuesday, September 14, 1993

Title 3—

Executive Order 12862 of September 11, 1993

The President

Setting Customer Service Standards
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 services 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.
Sec. 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.
Sec. 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

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Federal Register / Vol. 58, No. 176 / Tuesday, September 14, 1993 / Presidential Documents
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.
Sec. 4. Independent Agencies. Independent agencies are requested to adhere
to this order.
Sec. 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.

œ–
THE WHITE HOUSE,
September 11, 1993.
[FR Citation 58 FR 48257]

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