The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

April 27, 2011

 

Executive Order--Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve the quality of service to the public by the Federal Government, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1.  Policy.  The public deserves competent, efficient, and responsive service from the Federal Government.  Executive departments and agencies (agencies) must continuously evaluate their performance in meeting this standard and work to improve it.  To this end, Executive Order 12862 (Setting Customer Service Standards), issued on September 11, 1993, requires agencies that provide significant services directly to the public to identify and survey their customers, establish service standards and track performance against those standards, and benchmark customer service performance against the best in business.  This effort to "put people first" was an important step.  It was reinforced by a Presidential Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies issued on March 22, 1995 (Improving Customer Service), and a further Presidential Memorandum issued on March 3, 1998 (Conducting "Conversations with America" to Further Improve Customer Service).

However, with advances in technology and service delivery systems in other sectors, the public's expectations of the Government have continued to rise.  The Government must keep pace with and even exceed those expectations.  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.  Government managers must learn from what is working in the private sector and apply these best practices to deliver services better, faster, and at lower cost.  Such best practices include increasingly popular lower-cost, self-service options accessed by the Internet or mobile phone and improved processes that deliver services faster and more responsively, reducing the overall need for customer inquiries and complaints.  The Federal Government has a responsibility to streamline and make more efficient its service delivery to better serve the public.

Sec. 2.  Agency Customer Service Plans and Activities.  Within 180 days of the date of this order, each agency shall develop, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a Customer Service Plan (plan) to address how the agency will provide services in a manner that seeks to streamline service delivery and improve the experience of its customers.  As used in this order, the term "customer" refers to any individual or to any entity, including a business, tribal, State or local government, or other agency, to which the agency directly provides significant services.  The plan shall set forth the agency's approach, intended benefits, and an implementation timeline for the following actions:

(a)  establishing one major initiative (signature initiative) that will use technology to improve the customer experience;

(b)  establishing mechanisms to solicit customer feedback on Government services and using such feedback regularly to make service improvements;

(c)  setting clear customer service standards and expectations, including, where appropriate, performance goals for customer service required by the GPRA (Government Performance and Results) Modernization Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-352);

(d)  improving the customer experience by adopting proven customer service best practices and coordinating across service channels (such as online, phone, in-person, and mail services);

(e)  streamlining agency processes to reduce costs and accelerate delivery, while reducing the need for customer calls and inquiries; and

(f)  identifying ways to use innovative technologies to accomplish the customer service activities above, thereby lowering costs, decreasing service delivery times, and improving the customer experience.

Sec. 3.  Publication of Agency Customer Service Plans.  Each agency shall publish its plan on its Open Government web page.

Sec. 4.  Assistance in Implementation.  In consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, the Chief Performance Officer, who also serves as the Deputy Director for Management of the OMB, shall develop guidance for implementing the activities outlined in this order.  Such guidance shall include, among other things, the nature and scope of services to which the order's requirements will apply.  The Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall assist and support agencies in developing customer service standards and plans, online posting of customer service metrics and best practices, expediting review for customer feedback mechanisms under the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), improving the design and management of agency websites providing services or information to the public in compliance with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), and using innovative technologies to improve customer service at lower costs.

Sec. 5.  Independent Agencies.  Independent agencies are requested to adhere to this order.

Sec. 6.  Privileged Information.  Nothing in this order shall compel or authorize the disclosure of privileged information, law enforcement information, information affecting national security, or information the disclosure of which is prohibited by law.

Sec. 7.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  functions of the Director of the OMB relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 27, 2011.

This is probably the most excited I've ever been over an Executive Order, really!

If only cities and towns would adopt the same standards and guidelines.

Across the country, thousands of people gathered to share their stories of service with their representatives. We're still crunching the numbers, but our friends and ServiceNation coalition member AmeriCorps Alums have a few stats:

• Over 2,600 people across the country registered to visit their representative's office
• Service supporters visited 441 district offices of members of the House of Representatives and Senate
• People visited offices in all 50 states and Puerto Rico
• Service supporters spoke either directly to or with the staff of 295 Representatives and 83 Senators

As always, thank you for your commitment to service in our communities. Your inspirational words and moving stories of the impact of service will go a long way towards ensuring that national service stays funded.

Here are some highlights of the day in pictures:

Volunteer advocates gathered at the office of Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, where they met briefly with the Congresswoman herself, and then had an opportunity to talk to one of her staffers about their experiences with service and the importance of national service programs.

Another large group gathered at the office of Senator Scott Brown in Boston, Massachusetts, including BTC’s own intern, Sarah Groh. 

Folks at North Carolinian Senator Burr’s office didn’t get the chance to meet with the Senator, who was out of the office, but took the opportunity to gather testimony about the impact service work has had on their lives.

More service supporters met at Senator Johnson’s office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Thanks for all those who sent in pictures to the Save Service blog. Got a picture or video from Save Service District Day? Want to see it featured? Send it to updates@saveservice.org and keep watching the Save Service and ServiceNation blogs.

Didn’t see your group here? Check back tomorrow. We’ll be featuring the fantastic work of service supporters on the ServiceNation blog all week. Remember to take a moment today to put in a call to your Senator, and let him or her know that you support national service.

This photo was taken by City Year Alum Matt Wilhelm at a Rally for Service at Harvard University on 2/24.

Great list from dailyblogtips.com.

Below is the short list of 20 SEO Terms You Should Know. If you want a detailed description, click the link above to go to dailyblogtips.com.

1. SEM - Search Engine Marketing
2. Backlink
3. PageRank (Google)
4. Linkbait
5. Link farm
6. Anchor text
7. NoFollow
8. Link Sculpting
9. Title Tag
11. Search Algorithm
13. Sandbox
14. Keyword Density
15. Keyword Stuffing
16. Cloaking
17. Web Crawler
18. Duplicate Content
19. Canonical URL
20. Robots.txt

Great TED Talk about how technology and culture have evolved but our public education system is lagging behind.

There is a lively discussion going on below the presentation on TED (click the link above).

I agree with Diana when she states that we need to evolve and think about education more comprehensively including experiential learning, empowering student to share their voice and to embrace failure - an important part of the learning process.

There's a lot of debate on the ted page (http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_laufenberg_3_ways_to_teach.html) about standardized tests. Goodness, I think she was just trying to make a point to say that we need to evolve and cannot use the school house methods of the early 20th and 19th century.

Me, I was never one for standardized tests - does that mean we shouldn't have them? No. I wouldn't say that. Perhaps, instead of saying it has to be one way or another, can we add standardized tests to the mess of things in the education system that need to evolve?

We can have standardized tests. We can have experiential learning. We can networked classroom for students to work on a group project or work and share information individually or in small groups. Give them a real-life problem, set up the parameters and goals of the project with roles and let them roll with it. I say that without ever teaching a class so I'm sure it's easier said than done, but it is surely something to aspire to and something that is well within our reach.

I keep thinking about how the attention span of a student from the old schoolhouse days of the 19th and 20th centuries has been steadily decreasing, theoretically of course... I think one of the key differences between the old schoolhouse days and today - teachers are not just competing with radio, then TV, the internet for the attention of their students - every student has the ability to become their own media station. They can filter all the news they want from their friends, organizations and media outlets.

Teachers are not just competing with traditional media distractions, they are competing with the students themselves, all their friends and their networks. It's time to embrace this new culture of openness, collaboration, lets-set-up-a-web-space-and-get-it-done style of production.

Maybe one day I'll take a shot at this teaching thing, who knows?

I'm really excited about this. I hope it's as easy as it sounds/looks! Give it up for Involver for leading the way on this. I'll be testing this soon, hopefully.

Todd Van Hoosear and Chuck Tanowitz use the magic formula below to measure influence.

Important point: Todd reminds us that social media influence does not reflect real time influence.

The Four Rs of Influence
In identifying and prioritizing reporters, bloggers, editors, analysts, etc., we measure influence through a proprietary mix of four primary factors, what we call The Four Rs:

1. Reach. How many people see this person's content, not just directly, but through other influencers and sharing?
2. Relevance. How relevant is the person to your organization's community?
3. Reputation. What's this person's reputation with your community?
4. Receptivity. The counterbalance that affects how much energy we expend to influence any particular influencer: how receptive will this person be to our outreach and key messages?

I had to save this somewhere. This is brilliant.

Over the past 5 years or so at City Year, I think we are evolving from left-to-right.

I would say that we are somewhere in between the Distributed and Centralized models and heading towards a more Coordinated approach. Thank you Jeremiah Owyang and Todd Defren for this information. It's brilliant.

I really like this video from the AmeriCorps Video And Photo Contest. The last day to vote is July 30. To vote for one of the finalists go here http://www.americorpscontest.org/PublicContent/Video/Contestants.aspx

Have you eaten catfish lately? You better take a look at where it's from and hope it is not from the Mekong River in Vietnam.

This river is the most polluted river in Vietnam. According to this video, in 2009, about 85 million pounds of catfish raised in the Mekong River water ended up at grocery stores and restaurants across the U.S. Only 2% of the catfish were tested by the FDA. The fish that were tested were filled with toxins, carcinogens, chemicals and salmonella - freakin' lovely right?

Sadly, the catfish is just part of the story, only the result of a much larger environmental crisis going on around the Mekong in Vietnam, and likely many other parts of the world that we, in the US, are not paying attention to.

If you want to see a good example of unsustainable development watch this video. There are so many words that come to mind after I watched it, followed first by my own shock and loss for adjectives.

Here are some words that come to mind for me:
- unplanned and unchecked growth
- unsanitary water and sewer systems
- poverty
- toxic soup
- disease, cancer
- boomerang effect
- terrible or absent environmental regulation - and I'm not asking for much here
- chemical dumping 101
- depressing

How on earth can we do something about this? I guess we can start by not eating catfish, which will ensure we have less toxins but will also ensure increased poverty along the Mekong in Vietnam.

Wow. I could ramble on. Would love to hear thoughts from others. I hope you will pass this on, people need to see this for themselves.