"Contact Us" Pages
What It Is
Having a Contact Us page is a best practice for managing your agency's website. It should be called "Contact Us" or "Contact (organization name)". The public expects to see this link on every page of your website. If that's not feasible, at least provide a link from your homepage and every major entry point.
Why This Is Important
Citizens expect to be able to contact any federal government organization to ask questions, get information, or report problems. It is important to provide some means for them to do that.
There are two sections of the OMB Policies for Federal Agency Public Websites that refer to providing an easy means for the public to contact your agency and having certain contact information on your site:
- Section IA: "disseminate information to the public in a timely, equitable, efficient and appropriate manner,"
- Section 3F: "identify mandatory links and post (or link to) the following information on their principal website and any known major entry points to their sites: …. information made available under the Freedom of Information Act…. the agency point of contact for small businesses as required by the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002"
- Section 4A: "establish and maintain communications with members of the public and with State and local governments to ensure your agency creates information dissemination products meeting their respective needs."
Implementation Guidance
- Be sure the link title and the page title are the same. For example, if you call the link "Contact Us" on your homepage, the page you take visitors to should also be titled "Contact Us."
- At a minimum, include the following pieces of information on your "Contact Us" or "Contact (organization name)" page:
- Organization mailing address
- Street addresses for any regional or local customer service offices
- Phone number(s), including numbers for any regional or local offices or toll-free numbers and TTY numbers, if available
- Means to communicate by electronic mail (for example, email address(es) or web–based contact form)
- Your agency's policy and procedures for responding to email inquiries, including whether you will answer inquiries and the expected response time
- Contact information to report data problems required by the Information Quality regulations
- Contact information for small businesses, as required by the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act
- Instructions on how to request information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
- Method for reporting evidence of waste, fraud, or abuse to the Inspector General (as required by Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2008)
- Contact information for reporting both technical and content problems with the website, including accessibility problems. If TTY lines are not available, your agency can use the Federal Relay Service.
- If TTY lines are not available, your agency can use the Federal Relay Service.
- Follow the guidelines developed by the Citizen Service Levels Interagency Committee (CSLIC), for providing phone, email and other customer service to citizens. These include guidelines for auto replies to email, appropriate response times, misdirected emails and phone calls, response formats, and much more.
- If you need assistance managing public inquiries, you can consult the USA Services Program, administered by GSA, which offers email, phone, and publication distribution services.
Examples
- The Social Security Administration provides a Contact Us page with ways to call, email, write, or contact the agency in person.
- The National Institutes of Health provides various ways to contact the agency and links to other frequent questions.
- HUD lists ways to contact the agency based on the question you need answered.
- The Environmental Protection Agency provides a Contact Us page with ways to call, email, or write to the agency and includes information on its regional offices.
Resources
Many federal public websites follow this best practice. This practice is part of the guidelines and best practices published by the Interagency Committee on Government Information to aid agencies' implementation of OMB Policies for Public Websites.
Page Updated or Reviewed: June 5, 2008
