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email PASSPORT SERVICES OUTSTANDING IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS
For Immediate Release
December 13, 1999
PASSPORT SERVICES RECEIVES OUTSTANDING RESULTS IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs was one of 30 U.S. Federal Government agencies participating in a first-ever survey to measure customer satisfaction as part of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). ACSI is a national indicator of customer evaluations that has been used by private industry since 1994 to assess the quality of goods and services available in the United States. The Index was produced by a partnership among the University of Michigan Business School, Arthur Andersen, and the American Society for Quality.
To measure the satisfaction of passport customers, the survey team interviewed 262 adults who had received U.S. passports in the past two years. The team randomly called U.S. residences between August 25 and September 12 of this year. The results of these calls indicate a 95 percent confidence level (plus or minus 2.5 points) with the customer service being provided. According to George Lannon, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services, "This survey shows that the service that passport customers received during these past two years exceeded their expectations. Lannon was particularly pleased with the results of the survey that he says "indicate that our services to passport applicants received high scores in all of the areas that ACSI measured. This includes information accessibility and usefulness, professional behavior of our employees, convenience and timeliness of the application process, and the value of the passport."
While happy with the ACSI results, Passport Services will continue to take steps to improve the passport application process for its customers. Says Lannon, "We will continue to expand the number of locations where people can apply for passports near either work or home." In addition to regional passport agencies located in 13 U.S. cities, there are more than 4,500 passport acceptance facilities nationwide designated by the Department of State to accept passport applications. These are located primarily in post offices, courts, and municipal and county government offices. "To better serve the traveling public, we are reaching out to public libraries and municipal government offices which are convenient for most people. Since this effort started, we have added at least 10 public libraries and more than 180 local government offices as new passport acceptance facilities," declared Lannon.
Other measures to help Passport Services customers include replacing the existing Internet database of passport application acceptance locations with a new, more user-friendly database that will be updated daily and have more complete service information. Internet users will also be given the option of filling out passport applications on-line. In addition, says Lannon, "we plan to provide customer service training to all Passport Agency employees across the country as part of a competency-based training program established by Passport Services to assist staff in the career development process. This will continue to ensure quality service to our customers."
By participating in ACSI, Passport Services will better be able to gauge its level of performance for its customers. With the help of customer feedback, Passport Services and the other Federal agencies involved in the Index will be able to focus on the processes that have the greatest impact to deliver products and services that are the best in business. Agencies that participated in ACSI this year are expected to repeat the survey next year, continuing to measure how well they are meeting the needs of customers. For additional information on the ACSI survey results, consult the National Partnership for Reinventing Government’s web site at http://www.npr.gov .
To read more about this survey and the results, click here .
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