News

PCG Awarded Three Government Projects

Palo Alto, CA-April 2012

The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im Bank) is visibly focusing on their strategic plan of expanding awareness of their financing services, improving their ease of doing business, and creating a high-performance and innovative environment. As a first step, the Bank has chosen PCG to survey their customers and gather initial feedback on service perceptions, satisfaction drivers, and possible service improvements. The goal is to survey about 600 exporting customers and to begin fielding next month.

The U.S Navy and their Office of Civilian Human Resources (OCHR) continue their commitment to helping their human resources community and their civilian workforce. They have once again commissioned PCG to conduct their 2012 Customer Engagement Assessment Support Survey. PCG will continue partnering with the Navy to measure customer satisfaction with OCHR offerings, identify opportunities for improvement, and add value to their operations through customer-focused strategic planning and corporate performance improvement management initiatives.

The two main business operating divisions of the IRS, Wage and Investment (W&I) and Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE), have joined forces in measuring their customers' satisfaction with the programs shared by both divisions. With the award of this year's Filing and Payment Compliance Customer Satisfaction Surveys, PCG will continue working with the IRS to obtain data representing the taxpayer experience in each program area, track satisfaction, and identify operational improvements. The IRS sees these surveys as critical for assessing the customer's perception of their products/services and for helping identify as early as possible the areas/processes that require intervention and improvement.

PCG's President Gets Published in Businessweek

Palo Alto, CA-July 2011

Pacific Consulting Group, a consulting firm that helps organizations improve service and business efficiency, today announced that Businessweek.com has featured an opinion piece titled "Less Government, More Web Services" by Tom Cooper, PCG's Co-Founder and President.

In his article, Cooper, who for over thirty years has helped government agencies use customer insights to drive service improvement, comments on the communication and budget issues facing agencies today and how the internet is solving some of these issues. Cooper points to the impact of the executive order recently issued by the Obama Administration requiring government agencies to streamline services to better meet citizen needs. He believes that much of that effort could be directed toward internet-based self service with the promise of faster service at less cost than other channels, such as call centers and walk-in offices.

Cooper also discusses how the Obama Administration is already at the forefront of using the internet to help citizens sort through vast amounts of government information to more easily support their transactional and informational needs. He also gives examples of marketing tactics some agencies are currently using to improve customer communication while reducing servicing costs.

To read the entire article, please click here.

PCG Awarded Customer Satisfaction Survey Project for National Cemetery Administration

Palo Alto, CA-March 2011

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded Pacific Consulting Group (PCG) the annual National Cemetery Administration (NCA) Customer Satisfaction Survey of Next of Kin and Funeral Directors for Fiscal Year 2011 and for two option years. For the last ten years, NCA has been surveying next of kin and funeral directors on their level of satisfaction with its burial operations and activities. They are using the survey data to improve cemetery operations from the customer perspective and to support their strategic performance measures. PCG is pleased to assist NCA with these efforts and will begin the survey project this month. In addition to finalizing the questionnaire, administering the survey, analyzing the data, and reporting findings, PCG will help NCA use the results to continue to identify the major service improvement opportunities and develop an overall framework for taking action. PCG has partnered with the VA on multiple customer survey research initiatives for the past 11 years.

PCG Oversees Introduction of Computer Kiosks for Surveying IRS Customers

Palo Alto, CA-May 2011

Since 2002, Pacific Consulting Group (PCG) has partnered with the IRS in surveying taxpayers who visit one of the 400-plus local IRS offices for face-to-face assistance from an IRS representative. The results of the survey have been used to improve the service customers receive from these offices at a local, regional, and national level. Historically, the customer satisfaction survey was available only via a paper comment card completed by customers prior to leaving the offices. PCG saw an opportunity for the IRS to introduce an electronic version of the survey via a standalone survey kiosk. The kiosk survey methodology provides more timely data and a modern feel to the IRS's offices while minimizing the staff hours attributed to the survey process and also promoting environmentally-friendly business practices.

PCG conducted a one-month study of the kiosk survey methodology at offices across the country handling all aspects of the kiosk implementation including the computer hardware and software, staff training, and on-site kiosk setup and installation in the Fall of 2010.

The kiosks were a big hit with the IRS staff and their customers and provided statistically equivalent results and response rates when compared to the comment card methodology. Although preliminary plans were in place to roll out the kiosks nationwide, the uncertainty of the federal budget has prevented the implementation so far. However, now that the 2011 budget has been finalized by Congress, PCG and the IRS will likely revisit the plans.

PCG Conducts Workshop on Innovation for Federal Government Managers

Palo Alto, CA-November 2010

PCG, in conjunction with the Potomac Forum, led 35 senior federal employees through a one-day workshop focused on the process of innovation: defining innovation skills and steps and demonstrating how innovation can be employed to improve government.

Senior managers in federal government are under the gun to effect real performance improvement, rather than just reporting performance metrics. Doing more of the same, but faster, is not always enough-instead, innovation means finding new ways to get work done and serve citizens, with the ultimate goal of improving service without stretching the budget. Many government agencies can find it challenging to support and develop innovation; PCG's innovation workshops are designed to teach senior managers to lead business innovation, focusing on practices that help develop innovation capabilities in themselves and their teams. Managers are then inspired to apply newly acquired techniques to find breakthroughs for new and improved future operations.

Workshop topics included:

Understanding innovation as an organizational process; becoming familiar with the key components involved in leading and measuring service innovation
Learning about key innovation trends and success stories in federal government
Avoiding the Top 10 Killers of Innovation
Gaining insight into practical innovation techniques including idea generation, design-centered innovation, design labs/prototyping, innovation contests, and crowdsourcing

Later in the workshop, panelists from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the IRS discussed successful programs they had implemented using innovation processes and tools. Tina Cariola described the TSA IdeaFactory, a project designed to stimulate employee engagement in improvement. TSA's Curtis Burns (aka Blogger Bob) talked about his blog and how it has helped TSA improve and head off problems. Susan Carroll shared how her IRS team used innovation to rapidly implement the 2008 Economic Stimulus Act tax credits-including alerting 150 million citizens to the credits and prompting eligible recipients through application and receipt in record time.

Attendees applauded the workshop, with one participant calling it "very helpful and inspirational," adding, "I feel like I have the tools to suggest some positive changes." Another ranked the process excellent: "Innovation is such a buzzword, [but] relating it to performance improvement is a concept that I appreciate." Yet another remarked that it "kept my interest-good ideas and techniques, and the presenters were very good." Participants left with the inspiration and practical tools they needed to improve their team's innovation skills and to use those skills to achieve new levels of performance.

PCG Helps IRS Customer Service Agents Improve AUR Service

Palo Alto, CA-November 2010

After multiple years of not being able to improve customer satisfaction with its Automated Underreporter (AUR) service, the IRS enlisted Pacific Consulting Group to tackle the problem. PCG worked with the IRS to develop a diverse, knowledgeable AUR improvement team and led team members through an innovation and improvement planning process that encompassed gathering customer feedback, mapping the customer experience, completing a blueprint of how current processes compare to customer needs, and analyzing operational performance such as call center statistics.

Existing customer surveys had already identified a range of target issues. The team focused on improving service to taxpayers contacted by the IRS about apparent discrepancies in the individual tax form (1040), as detected by AUR. PCG consultants worked with the IRS team leader to facilitate participation, drawing on team members to contribute to each stage of planning from team charter development through design and implementation of the improvements.

Together, the team developed and implemented an online tool to assist IRS agents in their interaction with taxpayers who have called the IRS after being identified by the AUR process. A post-implementation customer survey found that IRS agents using their new tools, skills, and experience were able to listen to and understand customers' situations (91% very satisfied), answer questions (97% somewhat satisfied or better), explain the actions necessary to resolve an open case (90% very complete), resolve cases (84% partially resolved or better), and satisfy the respondent overall (95% satisfied or better). Even the lowest ranking-77% of respondents reported that an agent explained a timeline for case resolution-represented a significant improvement.

Such improvement projects inspire multiple benefits, including improved taxpayer service and better employee productivity. Equally important, however, are the skills team members gain from the collaborative "learn by doing" approach, which they can then apply to design and implementation of future projects.

Developing a Citizen Services Dashboard

Palo Alto, CA-August 2010

Under subcontract to Booz Allen, PCG is working in partnership with both Booz Allen and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to develop a Citizen Services Dashboard. Initiated by OMB, the Citizen Services Dashboard will be an easy-to-use Web site designed to display customer service data on top Federal citizen-facing services. The data will include agency standards and metrics on service quality (such as accuracy and wait times) and customer satisfaction as well as helpful links to key online services. PCG is providing expertise on the customer perspective gained through 20+ years of experience conducting customer satisfaction research projects for federal and private sector clients, particularly our knowledge of customer expectations, service metrics, and services that customers care about.

In 1993, Executive Order 12862 required agencies to develop and post service standards and measure results against them. The Citizen Services Dashboard is an effort by OMB to renew this emphasis on customer service by posting this information online in an easily accessible, user-friendly format thus contributing to increased transparency and government accountability in providing quality services to citizens. In addition to helping citizens understand how their government is performing, government executives and managers will be able to use the Citizen Services Dashboard to understand how multiple agencies are performing in key citizen service areas such as timeliness, communications, and problem resolution.

The dashboard development will occur in phases with 4-5 agencies participating in the first phase and additional agencies joining in subsequent phases. PCG is very pleased to be partnering with Booz Allen and OMB on such an important initiative.

Measuring and Improving Customer Satisfaction with the IRS

Palo Alto, CA-July 2010

Pacific Consulting Group (PCG) was awarded our third consecutive IRS five-year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) contract to measure and improve customer satisfaction. This contract continues PCG's partnership with the IRS that began in 1998 to improve service and efficiency from the customer perspective.

PCG has served as the IRS's chief customer satisfaction consultant by providing customer satisfaction measurement and innovative performance improvement services to almost every division of the IRS. The IRS has seen dramatic improvement in taxpayer services and satisfaction over the past decade. PCG has helped to lead the IRS to customer-driven improvements in key areas such as adjustment processing, tax gap modeling to optimize service and use of resources, field exam processes, and collections.

In nominating PCG as the 2006 IRS Small Business Partner of the Year, IRS officials stated "PCG has provided a major service to the IRS and its customers and continues to show the value of a well-run small business." Tom Cooper, PCG president said "We couldn't be more pleased than to continue our productive partnership with the IRS in using customer satisfaction measurement to focus improvements in high priority areas that will both strengthen compliance and maintain customer value and service."

Under the new BPA, PCG will continue conducting numerous customer satisfaction projects and forward-looking conjoint analysis research to capture customer service preferences, as well as leading teams through innovative improvement projects in the high priority areas.