About USA Services

Advocates Program

By signing a Working Agreement with us, your agency agrees to formally designate a "USA Services Agency Advocate" to be responsible for leading these activities within your agency.

Who is my agency’s advocate?

Your agency’s Chief Information Officer usually determines the appropriate individual to serve as the agency’s Advocate and act as a liaison between the agency and USA Services. To find out who your Advocate is, please contact Robert Smudde.

Review the list of current partner agencies that participate and review a generic Working Agreement.

What does an advocate do?

The Advocate is part of a network of agency representatives working together to improve customer service government-wide. Responsibilities include:

• Overseeing the implementation of activities at his/her agency, according to signed agreements between your agency and the General Services Administration
• Implementing a system within the agency for forwarding misdirected phone calls and emails to us and leading an active internal communications promotion
• Identifying opportunities to expand the use of our services and assist in the acceptance and implementation of any interagency agreements or Memorandum of Understanding that specifically address USA Services
• Assisting in the coordination of appropriate training of our information agents
• Helping develop an effective government-wide approach to share answers to frequently asked questions.
• Collaborating with other agencies in developing an effective government-wide approach to performance metrics and citizen customer service standards through the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee
• Helping collect baseline data and maintaining a measurement system to report performance metrics to the Office of Management and Budget
• Raising awareness of benefits of USA Services – such as FirstContact -- within your agency and coordinating with the managers of the agency’s citizen contact activities
• Participating in 3-4 Partner meetings a year -- view past Partners/Advocates meeting presentations
• Participating in working teams to develop or improve specific functions (e.g., the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) working group)

View some of our previous Advocates Meeting presentations.

To learn more about the Advocates Program, contact us.