Customer Service Standards, U.S. Census Bureau: A Report to Our Customers for the Period August 1995 through August 1996
The Census Bureau collects, analyzes and disseminates statistical data on our population and our economy. The public and private sectors use these data every day to help make important decisions that affect the lives of every U.S. resident. These data include everything from monthly imports and exports and retail trade activities to the age, race, and sex characteristics of our population, their living arrangements, and housing conditions.
There is not much the Census Bureau does not describe statistically. In a census year, it issues about 4,000 statistical reports; in a non-census year, about half that. In addition, large data files are disseminated on computer tape or cartridge and CD-ROM. We release smaller amounts of data via telephone, FAX, and on floppy diskette. In recent years, with the advent of the Internet, we've seen a marked shift to online dissemination.
This dramatic expansion of our dissemination program has resulted in wider exposure for our products and a surge in user inquiries. During the period August 1995/August 1996, the various sales operations of the Census Bureau at its headquarters and in its 12 regional offices received nearly 300,000 calls from customers via telephone, e-mail, FAX and letter.
Under Executive Order 12862 of Sept. 11, 1993, "Setting Customer Standards," Federal agencies are required to submit an annual report to you, the general public, about how they measured up over the previous year against their self-imposed customer-service standards.
Between August 1995 and August 1996, the Census Bureau conducted eight data user evaluation surveys of products and program participation. These surveys gauge the level of customer satisfaction with specific products and services. We sent the questionnaires to the lead agencies of all of our State Data Centers (SDCs), a 1-in-10 sample of SDC affiliates, a 1-in-10 sample of Federal Depository Libraries, and all purchasers of the product being surveyed.
In a survey that focused on design and content of the Current Population Reports, 89 percent of the respondents reported they were either satisfied or very satisfied with our products; 1 percent were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied; and the rest were either undecided or did not answer. A team of subject-division analysts and marketing specialists drafted the questions based on their experiences with user needs; in addition, the questionnaires included open-ended questions in which respondents could discuss concerns not covered in other questions.
Looking ahead to the 2000 Census of Population and Housing, we surveyed about 70,000 non-Federal data users from marketing organizations to nonprofits, to American Indian tribal organizations, and state and local governments to make sure we had not omitted anything required by law from the census questionnaire. We disseminated the results of this survey widely in press releases and in presentations to data user groups.
We routinely publish the results of our customer surveys in a series called Marketing Briefs, which are sent to all survey respondents.
In one of the largest surveys (5,147 users of economic and agriculture census data), more than two-thirds of the respondents said we needed to combine census data for geographic areas for all economic sectors, that is, agriculture, finance, manufacturing, retail, foreign trade, and so forth, rather than publish them by individual sectors only. Accordingly, with the 1997 Economic Census, we will issue, for the first time, a preliminary geographic series with economy-wide totals for all sectors.
Based on the results of a survey of purchasers of foreign trade data on CD-ROM, we decided not to cut any data items from the current file but, because of the addition of new commodity categories, to issue two imports discs if necessary; to launch a same-day pickup service of "one-off" CD-ROMs on the day of the data's release; and to include new Windows application software on the monthly foreign-trade CD-ROMs. We also offered subscribers to a customized computer print-out service the option of receiving the same data via e-mail.
We asked visitors to our Internet site if they would be interested in receiving an electronic version of our Monthly Product Announcement and a cumulative version of The Daily List two publications we send via regular mail to keep customers apprised of new releases. Nearly 1,000 signed up and we e-mailed this product information directly to their computers.
Prior to teaming with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop LandView II, a limited-purpose Geographic Information System (GIS) that combines our digital map information and economic and demographic data with five EPA data bases, government agencies had to contract private-sector firms to provide custom demographic analyses. With LandView II that problem has been solved. Now we are working on a new Windows version to incorporate some of those agencies' suggested improvements.
We developed an automatic e-mailed acknowledgement of requests and inquiries sent to our Population Division, assuring users that we received their message and would get back to them as soon as possible. Population's Statistical Information Staff also produced two subject indexes of their published and unpublished reports and data files in order to help them help customers find what they are looking for more rapidly.
Other changes made in response to customer suggestions: we reinstituted a 24-hour priority service on standard-product shipments; resumed inserting a customer-satisfaction mini-questionnaire in product shipments; and streamlined and reorganized our Internet site, with a new, more user-friendly homepage and a planned new subscription service that will enable users to download any of our printed reports in publication-like formats.
When users reported a potential error in the block-number fields of two record types in our TIGER/Line Files: 1994 (a digital map data base sold on CD-ROM), we quickly determined the extent of the problem and sent a letter, alerting the product's purchasers and promising to send them a corrected and updated version called TIGER/Line Files: 1995 free of charge.
The Census Bureau has for many years recognized the importance of good customer relations. With the renewed emphasis on this aspect of our data dissemination responsibilities, we have taken the following steps to assure a continuation of our reputation for outstanding customer responsiveness:
We established the Marketing Services Office to "lead the development of products and services valued in the marketplace and (to) continually strengthen the Bureau's customer orientation" and a Customer Liaison Office to "ensure 2-way communication between our constituency groups and the Census Bureau and (to) facilitate access to and use of data collected ...."
The Census Bureau's Strategic Planning Committee formed subcommittees on customer inventory, product inventory, and product pricing as a follow-on to our previously adopted premier goal: "Becoming customer and market-driven to provide products and services of superior value to our customers."
To sensitize our staff to the importance of marketing and of providing good customer service, we invited experts in the field to give a series of four lectures in a well-attended Marketing Mini-Series. To demonstrate that we meant business, we also asked attendees to fill out cards evaluating the presentations and the appropriateness of the subjects covered.
Several divisions of the Census Bureau have established information units that specialize in answering customer queries, researching requests for data, and compiling special tabulations. The average turnaround time on research requests and diskette preparation was one-to-two days, with more detailed requests taking longer. Order fulfillment for standard products averaged 3-to-5 days.
If you should have any questions concerning this report, you may contact J. Paul Wyatt of the staff of our Marketing Services Office on 301-457-4094.
