Executive Insight with Bev Godwin, Director of GSA’s Federal Citizen Information Center

Bev Godwin, Director of the Federal Citizen Information Center at the General Services Administration, was a panelist at DGI’s December 8th Government Customer Service Conference opening session titled "Three Decades of Customer Service: National Performance", which will explore customer service Executive Order 13571 and what the future holds. Read DGI’s Executive Insight with Bev.

DGI: What is Government Customer Service and how has Executive Order 13571 impacted what government does?
 

BG: Government Customer Service isn’t much different than private sector customer service -- to provide timely, accurate customer service. We are continuously evaluating what we are doing based on customer experience and improving it over all. The Executive Order (requiring federal agencies to come up with ways to use technology to improve customer service) is a continuation of something that was started quite some time ago, with the first executive orders that came out in the early 1990’s as a result of the reinventing government task force. Convincing government employees they had customers was an uphill battle at that time. That has changed in the last 20 years so agencies are starting from a different place. This executive order requires the development of overall agency customer service plans and making them publicly available. You can find those plans on agency open government websites (agency name.gov/open) that highlight what each agency doing.
 

DGI: What’s your job and how has it changed with Executive Order 13571?

BG: I have one of the best jobs in government. I am the director of the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) within GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technology. Our mission in FCIC is to provide government information to the public when, where and how they want it. That’s changed over the years with technology and consumer choice. We are providing government information in many channels on many platforms – USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov, 1-800-FED-INFO, email, web chat, social media, publications via Publications, USA.gov, laptop, mobile, and e-reader. We have a laser-like focus on the customer since we have been in direct citizen services for over 40 years. We’re providing direct service knowing who our audience is. Satisfaction has always been part of what we do, and we are now broadening that to look at the whole customer experience.
 

DGI: Can you give me an example of how government services are being delivered?

BG: We provide governmentwide information through many channels, giving the public their choice.  For example, we provide service through publications that people can order or read on Publications.USA.gov. We are digitizing publications. You can order printed copies free or at low cost. Last year, we provided 27 million publications. You can also read publications online via your laptop or download many to e-readers. Our National Contact Center answers the public’s questions by phone at 1-800-FED-INFO. We’ve added email and web chat and text messaging so you can ask your questions in many ways in English and Spanish. We also provide information through websites and social media, both channels which have been rapidly growing over the last several years.

DGI: How does the Federal Citizen Information Center provide information?

BG: Online information is available on USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov, and Kids.gov. We provide a governmentwide (federal, state, local, tribal) ad-free search so the public can find reliable, authentic government information. We use social media channels, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. We want to meet people where they are, and provide information when, where, and how they want it.

DGI: Can you give me an example of what kind of traffic the Federal Citizen Information Center gets?

BG: We count citizen touchpoints, which we define as every time we provide the public with information. This measure includes web visits, searches, answering phone calls/email/web chat, providing a publication, interacting on social media. GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies provided 272 million citizen touch points in the 2011 fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, up from181 million in FY 2010. It’s huge, and we are proud to serve the public.

DGI: Will it take a long time to embed the directive of 13571 into the system?

BG: It’s already begun. We are able to leverage the expertise of FCIC and GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, as well as the expertise across government through our communities of interest to share what works best. The Contact Center Managers and the Web Managers have both had numerous discussions and trainings on customer service.  HowTo.gov is GSA’s website for agencies to see best practices in digital government, and we’re working with agencies and the private sector on what are best practices.

DGI: What’s your goal for the center?
 

BG: The ultimate goal of the Federal Citizen Information Center to provide the best experience for our customers who are the American public seeking government information.

###