Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2017

Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2017

(Sec. 2) This bill expresses the sense of Congress that all agencies should strive to provide high-quality, courteous, effective, and efficient services and seek to measure, collect, report, and utilize metrics relating to the experience of persons interacting with them to continually improve services.

(Sec. 4) The bill amends the Paperwork Reduction Act to exempt the collection of information by an agency that is voluntary feedback from the agency's authority to prescribe policies, rules, regulations, and procedures for federal information resources management activities. "Voluntary feedback" is defined as any submission of information, opinion, or concern voluntarily made by a specific person relating to a particular service of or transaction with an agency that is specifically solicited by that agency.

(Sec. 5) Each agency that solicits voluntary feedback shall, among other things, ensure that:

• responses to the solicitation remain anonymous,
• person who decline to participate shall not be treated differently by the agency for purposes of providing services or information,
• the voluntary nature of the solicitation is clear, and
• the proposed solicitation of voluntary feedback will contribute to improved customer service.

(Sec. 6) Each agency shall collect voluntary feedback with respect to its services and transactions. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in coordination with the General Services Administration, shall develop a set of standardized questions for use by agencies in collecting feedback, which shall address:

• overall satisfaction of persons with the specific interaction or service received,
• the extent to which such persons were able to accomplish their intended purpose,
• whether such persons were treated with respect and professionalism, and
• whether such persons believe they were served in a timely manner.

Each agency shall: (1) collect voluntary feedback across all platforms or channels through which it interacts with persons to deliver information or services, (2) publish on its website and submit to the OMB a report that includes the voluntary feedback required to be collected, and (3) regularly publish an aggregated report on the solicitation of voluntary feedback. The OMB shall maintain on a publicly available website links to the information provided on the agency websites.

(Sec. 7) The Government Accountability Office shall, by 15 months after the date on which all agencies have submitted the first annual reports and every 2 years thereafter until 10 years after such date, make publicly available and submit to Congress a scorecard report assessing the data collected and reported by the agencies.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov