Customer Survey Letter

Emailed to attached list on 1/31/02 by Kjordan.

File:320.08

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION IDAHO DIVISION 3050 LAKEHARBOR LANE, SUITE 126 BOISE, IDAHO 83703-6217 208-334-1843 Idaho.FHWA@fhwa.dot.gov January 31, 2002

Reply To:HDA-ID

Dear Survey Customer,

During the summer of 2001, we began a customer survey to gather information regarding how we are providing service to you and others. We have analyzed the results and attached them to this correspondence.

I want to express my sincere appreciation for the time and effort you and other staff members have committed to help us in this effort. We took your comments to heart and have already made changes to the way we do business.

We trust you will soon begin to notice improvements in our service as well as in the relationship with your organization.

	Sincerely,
	Stephen A. Moreno Division Administrator

Enclosures

E-mail: (See Attached List)

Wp:sm02L201.doc

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The Idaho Division has a goal of creating and maintaining an environment of mutual cooperation, trust, communication, and goodwill when relating to each other and our partners. To achieve this goal, we agree that every employee will:

• Trust one another's judgment and value each other's expertise.
• Model honesty and integrity as expected behaviors of others.
• Create a supportive work environment where each person is free to express their opinion and raise questions and concerns.
• Respect all people as being of equal value. Recognize the contributions of others --congratulate them with specifics whenever possible.
• Listen actively to one another, never interrupt, and be willing to graciously accept and adopt other's ideas or suggestions.
• Share information in a complete and timely manner.
• Place priority on fulfillment of office goals and support others efforts to achieve them. Pitch in to help someone else when needed - even if it's not your job.
• Strive for excellence through continuous improvement in all aspects of your work.
• Take initiative in personal development, keeping skills current and competitive.
• Ask for only what you need; promise only what you can deliver; write down and fulfill promises; advise others as far in advance as possible when circumstances prevent you from fulfilling commitments.
• Double-check everything you give to others for accuracy, completeness, and consistency. Use spell-check and identify acronyms.
• Be prepared to do your part. Maintain a positive attitude even when faced with less than desirable situations. Be mindful of others - modulate your voice, keep a sense of humor.
• Take care of all items that need to be taken care of to keep the office functioning.
• Create an environment where all enjoy coming to work and leave with a sense of joy, self-esteem, and achievement.
• Hold each other accountable for all of the above.

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Idaho Division
Customer Satisfaction Survey
2001 Results

What did we do?

During the summer of 2001, the Idaho Division of the FHWA created a web based customer survey for use by anyone doing business with FHWA. The survey contained fifteen multiple-choice questions dealing with Communications, Working Relationships and Value Added. Three additional fields were set aside for customer suggestions and observations. Participants could indicate the type of agency they worked for and in the case of the state DOT, which element with the Department. Answers were anonymous, however, respondents could identify themselves as a basis for further discussions.

What happened?

The survey was posted on our website and requests to complete the survey were sent to thirty-five agencies and organizations. These included: Federal, State and local agencies, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and consultants. A total of 72 survey responses were received. Survey responses were received from employees of the following organizations: Federal agency 6%, State agency 83%, Local 4%, MPO 3%, consultants 3%, other 1%. The majority of responses were received from staff at the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD). The overall results were compiled and each survey was examined for narrative comments and the willingness of the respondent to discuss the survey.

What were we told?

Our various partners had a wide range of opinion over how well we performed our functions. The tallied and narrative responses cover the entire spectrum: from complete satisfaction to complete dissatisfaction. Narrative comments told us that we were slow to reply to inquiries and often our responses were not as helpful as they might be. There was a concern expressed that we offered opinion rather than requirements, applied the rules too vigorously, said "no" rather than offering alternative courses of action. We were also told that we are not always available when we should be and that we sometimes lose correspondence. Certain employees were singled out for criticism while others received nothing but praise. Below are our consolidated results compared to our goal for Communication, Working Relationship and Value Added. A detailed breakdown of all responses is attached.

What was our reaction?

We scrutinized the tallied results for each question and narrative comments looking for recurring themes and identifying appropriate fixes. The graphs and general narrative comments were discussed at our all employee meetings. The intent was to raise employee awareness of customer perceptions, share the feedback we were receiving and discuss ideas on how to improve. An anonymous list of the narrative comments was circulated among all employees. Twenty-seven respondents agreed to participate in follow-up interviews. We arranged for two FHWA employees from outside the Idaho Division to conduct the interviews. From this we were able to confirm our results, further illuminate survey narrative comments and receive more ideas on how we can improve.

What actions are we taking?

The survey indicates we have plenty of room for improvement. So where do we begin?

1. We developed the Idaho Division Ground Rules (attached). These are a series of action statements about how we will interact with employees and customers as we perform our daily duties.
2. We created Customer Service Standards that cover timeliness and procedures for internal and external activities; everything from answering the phone, filing, making travel arrangements and responding to action items are addressed. These were developed to be more responsive to customer needs and to define expectations. Attached is a sample of the standards.
3. Internally, we are emphasizing the difference between citing requirements and explaining them.
4. At our all-employee meetings we stress the importance of expediting project delivery by going beyond issue identification into joint issue resolution.
5. We are emphasizing the importance of documenting discussions and agreements to assure common understanding of actions and decisions.
6. We are creating new or modifying existing operating agreements aimed at streamlining the project development process.
7. The individual Operations Engineer is the primary contact for each District. We are balancing workloads on an engineering team basis to accommodate peaks and valleys in District activities. This technique is used to address fluctuations in employee availability caused by personal and professional demands.
8. We created a risk assessment tool to determine which of our programs are at risk. Jointly with the ITD, we will use this as a vehicle for determining where to focus our oversight attention.
9. We have updated our internal tracking program to provide more complete information on action items.
10. We have modified internal procedures to improve responsiveness and provide consistent methods to reduce internal processing errors. This includes increased e-mail correspondence and standard procedures for project reports.

What will we do next?

It is our intent to re-survey customers in the summer of 2002. We have put performance measures in place to track our progress toward improvement. The responses we received came as a result of past history and recent events, but many were not generated from a single incident that occurred in the last year. Likewise, we probably won't be able to fix everything in one year. We are committed to improving. We are working toward survey results that meet our goal of 90% positive scores for each of our customer survey areas of Communications, Working Relationship and Value Added.

 

IDAHO DIVISION
CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS

Division Office employees are responsible for ensuring knowledge of, and complying with, all office policies and procedures.

Answering phones

• Incoming calls will be answered in a professional and courteous manner.
• All incoming calls on the general line (334-1843) will be answered within 3 rings.
• When calls are forwarded, they will be announced (including the caller's name, if given). If the employee is busy, he or she will so advise so the caller can be directed to voice mail. The Do Not Disturb (DND) button should be used when appropriate. NOTE: If there is an emergency call, the employee will be interrupted.
• Forwarded and transferred calls will be picked up.
• If primary person responsible for answering the phones is going to be away from his or her desk, that person will be responsible for ensuring the phones are covered.

Voice mail management

• Personal voice mail messages will be changed a minimum of once a week.
• If an employee is going to be out of the office for a week or more, the message should be modified.
• When in the office, voice mail messages will be accessed as soon as possible, but a minimum of once a day. There should be no unaccessed messages at the close of business.
• When out of the office, remote access of voice mail is possible. When on travel status, employees are expected to access voice mail at least once every other day
• Voice mail messages should be returned as soon as possible
• If a caller rings the front desk and states that he/she has left messages for someone but hasn't received a response, he/she should be given the option of talking to the employee's team leader or supervisor, as opposed to just leaving another message.

Outgoing correspondence

• Original and file copies will be generated by the Staff Assistant and/or Support Services Clerk no later than the next day after receipt via E-mail.

Mail Processing and Routing

• The official e-mail box will be accessed, and messages distributed, a minimum of three times a day (early morning, noon, and late afternoon).
• Incoming hard copy mail (from the Postal Service and from ITD) will be processed within two hours (maximum) of arrival.
• Employees will remove their mail from the slot at least once a day when in the office. If an individual is out of the office and the mailbox gets full, the Support Services Clerk will put the mail in the individual's "in box" on his or her desk.
• For documents being routed to others in the office for information purposes only, employees will ensure that the material is back in circulation within one day of receipt. Exceptions are technical reports, trade magazines, and other non-time sensitive materials.
• Material received via overnight mail and documents received via fax will be hand delivered to the individual immediately upon receipt. If the individual is not there, it will be placed in the "in box" on his or her desk.
• Individuals will indicate receipt/review of documents by initialing in the appropriate block on the routing stamp.

Meetings, Conferences, Training

• Employees will make every effort to schedule other activities around regularly scheduled staff meetings, which are the first Monday of the month. In case of a holiday, the meeting will be held on the second Monday.
• When meetings, conferences or training is scheduled, the employee is committing to attendance of the entire event. On rare occasions, if a conflict arises, the commitment can be eliminated with the approval of the appropriate team leader/supervisor.
• Employees will be on time and actively participate in all sessions.
• Employees will ensure that individual training plans and training histories are current by reviewing the information in LADS at least once every six months.

E-mail

• When in the office, employees will access their electronic in boxes at least twice a day.
• If an e-mail message is misdirected from the official mailbox, recipient will immediately advise the Support Services Clerk (or whoever processed it) so it can be forwarded it to the appropriate staff.
• Required action/response to e-mail messages will conform with the "Action Item" standards listed in #10, Action Items & Response to Inquiries, below.
• Computers will be set to automatically archive e-mail messages every 30 days.
• Employees will print copies of materials received via e-mail (if appropriate) immediately upon receipt, directing them to the applicable file after any necessary routing.

Office Coverage

To provide service to our customers/partners, the Division will be staffed with a minimum of three employees during business hours (7:30 am - 4:30 pm). During that time, the main office number will be answered and we will be able to respond to FHWA offices, ITD, and the public. The three employees will be made up of one from each of the following categories:

• Management - DA/ADA or acting per delegation memo
• Administration/Finance - To respond to financial issues and provide office support
• Program Development/Field Operations - To respond to technical, program and/or project issues.

Action Items & Response to Inquiries

Time and workload will be managed in such a manner to ensure we provide timely response and action in a consistent manner. This applies to all requests whether received electronically, verbally, or hard copy. Judgment should be exercised; there will be exceptions to general timeframes. If a response will take longer than normally expected, the recipient will be notified and an appropriate timeframe negotiated. NOTE: If a response date is specified in the request, that date will supersede the time frames shown below. If a supervisor/team leader makes a request, he or she will specify the expected response date/time.

There are four general timeframes: immediate, 1 week (5 work days), 2 weeks (10 work days), and 1 month (20 work days). To provide consistent time measurement, working days will be used. This counts every working day, and excludes weekends, Federal holidays, and emergencies that close the office.

Immediate Briefing requests Emergency items Press inquiries Special requests Funding/eligibility questions (includes prior approval of change orders) Congressional inquiries Citizen/public inquiries	Two Weeks Procedure issues Standard drawings Biological assessments CE/Environmental evaluations Technical assistance requests Contract compliance review reports Project plans review (including preliminary and PS&E)
One Week Project specific questions Program/policy issues 2101s * Construction & maintenance inspection reports * Trip reports from conferences, meetings * Change orders Meeting minutes	One Month Review reports (PR/PE, QI&As) * EAs, Draft EIS STIP Civil Rights program documents Research plan LTAP plan FHWA-47s * Final acceptance reports * Manual updates Specifications

NOTE: Most action items will be entered into the Suspense Control System (see Division Office Suspense Control System procedures). Exceptions include the asterisked (*) items above and any requests received verbally.

Visitors

• When expecting a visitor(s), inform the Division Staff Assistant (SA) via e-mail or verbally of the visitor(s) name, time expected, plus any other pertinent information (e.g., escort them to the conference room for a meeting, etc.).
• For unexpected visitors, the SA will announce the visitor via intercom to the appropriate employee. The employee will advise the SA (1) to escort the person to the conference room or the employee's work area, or (2) that he/she will come to the front to greet the visitor.