# Presentation: 800763

## 1-800-4-FED-AIDTop 10 Reasons Students Call

- Michele Brown
- Rebecca Alcorn
- Victor Janey

**Session 7**

## What We Will Be Covering

- About the Federal Student Aid Information Center
- Communication Channels
- Top 10 Reasons for Calling
- Customer Interaction Options
- Performance Measures and Goals
- Commitment to Quality
- Experience Our World

## Federal Student Aid Information Center1-800-4-FED-AID

**Federal Student Aid Information Center****1-800-4-FED-AID**

## Information about FSA programs
FAFSA, PIN and SAR assistance
Information on student loan history
Publication requests
Contact information for related entities (CSB, NSLDS, etc.)

- FAFSA, PIN and SAR assistance
- Information on student loan history
- Publication requests
- Contact information for related entities (CSB, NSLDS, etc.)

- Tasked to provide timely and accurate information and services for inquiries such as:

**Federal Student Aid Information Center****1-800-4-FED-AID**

## FSAIC Locations

**Coralville, IA**

**Phoenix, AZ**

**Lawrence, KS**

- Load balancing between three contact centers creates a single virtual service center

## Customer Service Hours of Operation

**Monday-Friday**
- 8 AM – 12 Midnight
- Eastern Standard Time
**Saturday**
- 9 AM – 6 PM
- Eastern Standard Time
**Extended Weekend Hours**
- Based on time of year and need

## How We Serve Students’ Needs

- Contact Center
- 450 Customer Service Representatives
_**8 MILLION**_ inquiries yearly
- English and Spanish service
- Live help for FAFSA on the Web
- Increased 32.5% in the last year
- Over 160,000 contacts in 2004
- E-mail
- Responded to over 470,000 e-mails in 2004

## The Countdown: Top 10 Reasons for Calling 1-800-4-FED-AID

| Can you help me with ... | # Calls in 2004 | Percentage of Total Calls |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. FAFSA application | 1,213,000 | 20% |
| 2. Personal Identification Number (PIN) | 773,000 | 13% |
| 3. Application status check | 702,000 | 12% |
| 4. Student Aid Report (SAR) | 529,000 | 9% |
| 5. FAFSA on the Web/Renewal on the Web | 488,000 | 8% |

**The Countdown: Top 10 Reasons for Calling 1-800-4-FED-AID**

## The Countdown: Top 10 Reasons for Calling 1-800-4-FED-AID

| Can you help me with ... | # Calls in 2004 | Percentage of Total Calls |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 6.  National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) inquiry | 440,000 | 7% |
| 7.  Change of institution | 387, 000  | 7% |
| 8.  Question referred to Financial Aid Advisor | 262, 000  | 4% |
| 9.  PIN knowledge 
     (non-technical)  | 125, 000  | 2% |
| 10. Corrections on the Web (COTW) site  | 96, 000  | 2% |

**The Countdown: Top 10 Reasons for Calling 1-800-4-FED-AID**

## Call Flow and Service Options

- Inbound call received by telecom system

-  Caller hears greetings and selects service type preference

*Call 1-800-4-FED-AID*

## Customer Interaction Options

## When Calls Come into the IVRU

- Callers have several options for       self-service
- Frequently asked questions
- Application status inquiry
- Request duplicate SAR
- Callers may transfer to a CSR for assistance at any time

## Interactive Voice Response Unit (IVRU)

**Interactive Voice Response ****Unit (IVRU)**

- Self-service is increasingly the preferred option for many of today’s generation of callers
- IVRU enhancements coming soon
- speech recognition
- access to loan history

- Last year 1.3 M callers selected self-service through the IVRU

## Customer Interaction Options

**Customer Interaction Options**

## When Calls Come in for Assisted Service

- Our Customer Service Representatives:
- Greet callers and assess their needs
- Request identifiers to comply with the Privacy Act
- Use resources to answer callers’ questions or refer them to the correct entity
- Code the call and leave historical logs
- End the calls with the appropriate closing

## Customer Service Representative (CSR) Assisted Call Volumes

***CSR-assisted service in 2004 decreased by 8.7% from the previous year***** **

| 
Year | CSR-assisted
Total Calls |
| --- | --- |
| 2003 | 6,510,000 |
| 2004 | 5,940,000 |

## CSR-Assisted Call Volumes

**# Calls Received/Month**

*Trend analysis used to predict staffing and other support services (telecom, servers, staff needs)*

## Performance Measures and Goals

## Our Call Completion Rates

***Our goal is to complete at least 98% of all calls***

| Year | Average Call Completion Rate |
| --- | --- |
| 2004 | 99% |
| 2003 | 99% |
| 2002 | 96% |

***We met or exceeded our goals for successful call completion in every month of 2004***

## Our Speed of Answer

| Year | % Calls Answered within 20 Sec |
| --- | --- |
| 2004 | 93% |
| 2003 | 89% |
| 2002 | 81% |

***We exceeded our goals for answering calls in a timely manner for every month in 2004***

***Our goal is to answer at least 80% of all calls within 20 seconds***

## Calls Answered Within 20 Seconds

**Calls Answered Within 20 Seconds**

**Service exceeding 80% goal**

**%  Calls Answered**

## Customer Satisfaction Survey

| Year | % Satisfaction Surveys Rated Four or Higher |
| --- | --- |
| 2004 | 90% |
| 2003 | 90% |
| 2002 | 89% |

***Our goal is to receive four or higher on a five-point scale in 85% of customer satisfaction surveys***

***We exceeded our goals for customer satisfaction for every month in 2004***
***Implementing more robust survey tools***

## FSAIC survey
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
Customer comments
Conferences
Focus groups
Employees
CSR focus groups
Input to managers
Other federal agencies

- American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
- Customer comments
- Conferences
- Focus groups
- Employees
- CSR focus groups
- Input to managers
- Other federal agencies

**Ongoing Feedback & ****Continuous Improvement**

## Quality of Call Response 

| Year | % Correct Responses during Monitoring |
| --- | --- |
| 2004 | 99.7% |
| 2003 | 99.6% |
| 2002 | 99.5% |

***Our quality goal is to provide complete and correct responses in at least 95% of monitored calls***

***We exceeded our goals for quality of response every month in 2004 as measured by call monitoring***

## Quality of Call Response 

**Service exceeding 95% goal**

**% Correct Responses**

## Customer Service Expectations

| Customer Service Attribute |  | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Phone and people skills |  | Tone
Grammar 
Attitude |
| Adherence to required procedures |  | Standard greeting
Privacy Act
Standard responses |
| Problem solving skills and knowledge |  | Probing questions
Clear resolutions
Appropriate options |
| General call expectations |  | Verify school year
Verify address 
Create phone log |

## Our Commitment to QualityCall Monitoring

- Peer monitoring
- Joint monitoring sessions with staff and management
- Calibration between contact centers ensures consistency
- 1% of FSAIC calls
- Scorecard

## Results
quality control
feedback, coaching and counseling
evaluation of CSR support mechanisms

- quality control
- feedback, coaching and counseling
- evaluation of CSR support mechanisms

**Our Commitment to Quality****Call Monitoring**

- Methods
- in-person
- remote
- recorded calls

## Train-the-trainer
Initial employee training
Refresher training
Annual update training
Annual in-service
Supervisor training

- Initial employee training
- Refresher training
- Annual update training
- Annual in-service
- Supervisor training

**Emphasis on Training****Our Commitment to Quality**

## Contact Us

**Contact Us**

- Michele Brown
- Phone: 202-377-3203
- Email: michele.brown@ed.gov
- Rebecca Alcorn
- Phone: 202-377-3275
- Email: rebecca.alcorn@ed.gov
- Victor Janey
- Phone:  319-665-7633
- Email: victor.janey@pearson.com

## Experience Our WorldRecorded Calls and Discussion

- Phoenix Contact Center
- Michele Barreras
- Coralville Contact Center
- Kenton Stolley
- Lawrence Contact Center
- Mark Lohrenz

## Experience Our WorldRecorded Calls and Discussion

- Phoenix Contact Center
*LaToya Walker*
- Coralville Contact Center
*Victoria Solomon*
- Lawrence Contact Center
*Lynda Riley*

## Experience Our WorldRecorded Calls and Discussion

*You sent back a green copy of my SAR ...it says - you must give us more information to calculate my EFC...*

## Experience Our WorldRecorded Calls and Discussion

*I am confused.  When I got married in 2000, I never switched my Social Security card over...*

## Experience Our WorldRecorded Calls and Discussion

*I am an enrollment counselor...we ran into a challenge on her FAFSA application ... the AGI...*