Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2021

117TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 671 AN ACT To require the collection of voluntary feedback on services provided by agencies, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2 † S 671 ES SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Agency Cus- 2 tomer Experience Act of 2021’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 5 (1) the Federal Government serves the people 6 of the United States and should seek to continually 7 improve public services provided by the Federal Gov- 8 ernment based on customer feedback; 9 (2) the people of the United States deserve a 10 Federal Government that provides efficient, effec- 11 tive, equitable, and high-quality services and cus- 12 tomer experiences across multiple channels; 13 (3) many agencies, offices, programs, and Fed- 14 eral employees provide excellent customer experi- 15 ences to individuals, but many parts of the Federal 16 Government still fall short on delivering the cus- 17 tomer experience that individuals have come to ex- 18 pect from the private sector; 19 (4) according to the 2020 American Customer 20 Satisfaction Index, the Federal Government ranks 21 among the bottom of all industries in the United 22 States in customer satisfaction; 23 (5) providing an equitable, reliable, transparent, 24 and responsive customer experience to individuals 25 improves the confidence of the people of the United 26 3 † S 671 ES States in their Government and helps agencies 1 achieve greater impact and fulfill their missions; and 2 (6) improving service to individuals requires 3 agencies to work across organizational boundaries, 4 leverage technology, collect and share standardized 5 data, and develop customer-centered mindsets and 6 experience strategies. 7 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con- 8 gress that— 9 (1) all agencies should strive to provide a high- 10 quality, courteous, effective, and efficient customer 11 experience to the people of the United States and 12 seek to measure, collect, report, and use metrics re- 13 lating to the experience of individuals interacting 14 with agencies to continually improve the customer 15 experience of the people of the United States; and 16 (2) adequate Federal funding is needed to en- 17 sure agency staffing levels that can provide the pub- 18 lic with an improved customer experience. 19 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 20 In this Act: 21 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis- 22 trator’’ means the Administrator of General Serv- 23 ices. 24 4 † S 671 ES (2) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 1 meaning given the term in section 3502 of title 44, 2 United States Code. 3 (3) COVERED AGENCY.—The term ‘‘covered 4 agency’’ means an agency or component of an agen- 5 cy that is required by the Director to collect vol- 6 untary customer experience feedback for purposes of 7 section 5, based on an assessment of the components 8 and programs of the agency with the highest impact 9 on or number of interactions with individuals or en- 10 tities. 11 (4) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 12 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg- 13 et. 14 (5) VOLUNTARY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FEED- 15 BACK.—The term ‘‘voluntary customer experience 16 feedback’’ means the submission of information, an 17 opinion, or a concern to an agency by an individual 18 or entity that— 19 (A) is voluntarily made by the individual or 20 entity; and 21 (B) relates to— 22 (i) a particular service provided to the 23 individual or entity by the agency; or 24 5 † S 671 ES (ii) an interaction of the individual or 1 entity with the agency. 2 SEC. 4. GUIDELINES FOR VOLUNTARY CUSTOMER EXPERI- 3 ENCE FEEDBACK. 4 Each agency that solicits voluntary customer experi- 5 ence feedback shall ensure that— 6 (1) individuals and entities providing responses 7 to the solicitation of voluntary customer experience 8 feedback have the option to remain anonymous; 9 (2) individuals and entities that decline to par- 10 ticipate in the solicitation of voluntary customer ex- 11 perience feedback are not treated differently by the 12 agency for purposes of providing services or informa- 13 tion; 14 (3) the solicitation includes— 15 (A) the fewest number of questions as is 16 practicable; and 17 (B) not more than 10 questions; 18 (4) the voluntary nature of the solicitation is 19 clear; 20 (5) the proposed solicitation of voluntary cus- 21 tomer experience feedback will contribute to im- 22 proved customer experience; 23 6 † S 671 ES (6) solicitations of voluntary customer experi- 1 ence feedback are limited to 1 solicitation per inter- 2 action with an individual or entity; 3 (7) to the extent practicable, the solicitation of 4 voluntary customer experience feedback is made at 5 the point of service with an individual or entity; 6 (8) instruments for collecting voluntary cus- 7 tomer experience feedback are accessible to individ- 8 uals with disabilities in accordance with section 508 9 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d); 10 and 11 (9) internal agency data governance policies re- 12 main in effect with respect to the collection of vol- 13 untary customer experience feedback from individ- 14 uals and entities. 15 SEC. 5. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DATA COLLECTION. 16 (a) COLLECTION OF RESPONSES.—The head of each 17 covered agency, assisted by and in coordination with the 18 senior accountable official for customer experience of the 19 covered agency, shall collect voluntary customer experience 20 feedback with respect to services of or interactions with 21 the covered agency. 22 (b) CONTENT OF QUESTIONS.— 23 (1) STANDARDIZED QUESTIONS.—The Director, 24 in coordination with the Administrator, shall develop 25 7 † S 671 ES a set of standardized questions for use by covered 1 agencies in collecting voluntary customer experience 2 feedback under this section that address— 3 (A) overall satisfaction of individuals or 4 entities with the specific interaction or service 5 received; 6 (B) the extent to which individuals or enti- 7 ties were able to accomplish the intended task 8 or purpose of those individuals or entities; 9 (C) whether an individual or entity was 10 treated with respect and professionalism; 11 (D) whether an individual or entity be- 12 lieves that the individual or entity was served in 13 a timely manner; and 14 (E) any additional metrics determined by 15 the Director, in coordination with the Adminis- 16 trator. 17 (2) ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.—In addition to 18 the questions developed under paragraph (1), the 19 senior accountable official for customer experience of 20 a covered agency may develop questions relevant to 21 the specific operations or programs of the covered 22 agency. 23 (c) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS.—To the extent 24 practicable— 25 8 † S 671 ES (1) each covered agency shall collect voluntary 1 customer experience feedback across every platform 2 or channel through which the covered agency inter- 3 acts with individuals or other entities to deliver in- 4 formation or services; and 5 (2) voluntary customer experience feedback col- 6 lected under this section shall be tied to specific 7 transactions or interactions with customers of the 8 covered agency. 9 (d) EXEMPTION FROM PUBLIC NOTICE AND COM- 10 MENT.—The requirements of section 3506(c)(2)(A) and 11 subparagraphs (B) and (D) of subsection (a)(1) and sub- 12 section (b) of section 3507 of title 44, United States Code, 13 shall not apply to the collection of voluntary customer ex- 14 perience feedback by an agency that meets the require- 15 ments of this Act. 16 (e) REPORT.— 17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 18 the date of enactment of this Act and not less fre- 19 quently than quarterly thereafter, each covered 20 agency shall submit to the Director, in a manner de- 21 termined by the Director, an aggregated report on 22 each solicitation of voluntary customer experience 23 feedback from individuals and entities conducted by 24 the covered agency, which shall include— 25 9 † S 671 ES (A) the intended purpose of the solicita- 1 tion; 2 (B) the appropriate point of contact within 3 the covered agency for the solicitation; 4 (C) the questions or survey instrument 5 submitted to members of the public as part of 6 the solicitation; 7 (D) a description of how the covered agen- 8 cy uses the voluntary customer experience feed- 9 back from the solicitation to improve the cus- 10 tomer experience of the covered agency; and 11 (E) the results of the solicitation, includ- 12 ing— 13 (i) the responses collected; 14 (ii) the total number of survey re- 15 sponses; and 16 (iii) the rate of response for the solici- 17 tation. 18 (2) CENTRALIZED WEBSITE.—The Director 19 shall— 20 (A) include and maintain on a publicly 21 available website the information provided by 22 covered agencies under paragraph (1); and 23 (B) for the purpose of subparagraph (A), 24 establish a website or make use of an existing 25 10 † S 671 ES website, such as the website required under sec- 1 tion 1122 of title 31, United States Code. 2 SEC. 6. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE REPORT. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 450 days after the 4 date on which all covered agencies have submitted the first 5 reports to the Director required under section 5(e)(1), and 6 every 2 years thereafter until the date that is 10 years 7 after such date, the Comptroller General of the United 8 States shall make publicly available and submit to the 9 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Af- 10 fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Oversight and 11 Reform of the House of Representatives a report assessing 12 the data collected and reported by the covered agencies. 13 (b) CONTENTS.—The report required under sub- 14 section (a) shall include— 15 (1) a summary of the information required to 16 be submitted by covered agencies under section 17 5(e)(1); 18 (2) a description of how each covered agency 19 used the voluntary customer experience feedback re- 20 ceived by the covered agency to improve the cus- 21 tomer experience of the covered agency; and 22 (3) an assessment of the quality of the data col- 23 lected under this Act and, if applicable, rec- 24 ommendations to improve that quality. 25 11 † S 671 ES SEC. 7. RESTRICTION ON USE OF INFORMATION. 1 No information collected pursuant to this Act may 2 be used in any appraisal of the job performance of a Fed- 3 eral employee under chapter 43 of title 5, United States 4 Code, or any other provision of law. 5 Passed the Senate June 22, 2022. Attest: Secretary. 117TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 671 AN ACT To require the collection of voluntary feedback on services provided by agencies, and for other pur- poses.