GSA's FTS Launches Nationwide Customer Focus Effort

GSA # 9429

July 30, 1997
Contact: Bill Bearden (202) 501-1231

WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. General Services Administration's Federal Telecommunications Service today launched a nationwide "customer focus week" in an ongoing, all-out effort to improve customer service by educating customers about available FTS products and services and by listening to the particular needs of their wide-range of customers.

The effort from July 30th through August 6th is a follow-on to a recently conducted national customer survey. During the week, FTS employees across the nation will meet with customers to find out what they like or dislike about FTS products and services, and how FTS can improve to better meet their needs.

In announcing the event, Bob Woods, FTS Commissioner said, "Our business is providing innovative and value-added information technology solutions and network services that support our customer's missions worldwide. We are visiting our customers this week to make sure we are 'on the mark' and know what products and services our customers want, both now and in the future."

Woods said that his goal is to have every FTS employee, "beginning in my office and reaching to every support office in every region, visit or talk with at least one customer during the week to let them know we appreciate their business and are committed to meeting their information technology and networking needs."

Recognizing that customer input is a crucial ingredient to making informed decisions about the future, FTS recently had Boooz-Allen & Hamilton develop and administer a customer service survey evaluating customer satisfaction with FTS representatives, products and services.

More than 2,000 FTS customers of local and long distance network services and information technology solutions were surveyed with a 12 percent response rate. This is considered by Booz-Allen & Hamilton to be a sample size large enough to produce acceptably stable data providing 95 percent confidence that findings from this sample replicate this population of users.

The survey revealed the overall satisfaction rate with FTS representatives was 86.4 percent; for products and services, it was 84.5 percent. A large segment of those surveyed neither agreed nor disagreed with certain questions, which indicates that network services customers may not be aware of the information technology solutions services that are available from FTS. Last year, during GSA's reorganization, information technology solutions merged with the telecommunications organization.

The feedback gathered during this week-long process coupled with the survey results should assist FTS in determining if customer needs and expectations are being met and help in forming a basis for making future decisions regarding improving product offerings and services.

# # #

______________________________________________________________________
Visit GSA's home page at www.gsa.gov