Social Security Administration Seeks to Solicit More Feedback from Customers

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The agency is following White House guidance to improve customer service delivery, beginning with getting more input from actual customers.

The Social Security Administration announced its intent Monday to collect feedback from its customers and stakeholders through potentially millions of surveys, focus groups, user tests and interviews.

In a notice set to be posted in the Federal Register June 9, the agency details how it aims to comply with Office of Management and Budget guidance—OMB Circular A-11, Section 280—meant to improve customer experience across the federal government.

The guidance asks agencies to identify their highest-impact customer journeys and select touch-points and transactions within those journeys to solicit feedback on.

“These results will be used to improve the delivery of federal services and programs. It will also provide government-wide data on customer experience that can be displayed on www.performance.gov to help build transparency and accountability of Federal programs to the customers they serve,” the notice states.

SSA administers retirement, disability and survivor benefits to tens of millions of Americans each year. The agency will collect feedback from stakeholders and the public for the next 30 days regarding its intent to solicit new information from customers. SSA’s initial plan looks to solicit feedback through more than 17 million customer experience activities, including feedback surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

According to the notice, SSA will employ “multiple collection modalities” with various response times.