Report to the Committee on Finance, 

U. S. Senate 

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO

August 2005 SOCIAL SECURITY 

ADMINISTRATION 

Additional Actions 

Needed in Ongoing 

Efforts to Improve 

800-Number Service 

GAO-05-735 
What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

Highlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-735.

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and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Barbara 

Bovbjerg at (202) 512-7215 or 

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Highlights of GAO-05-735, a report to the 

Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate 

August 2005

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

Additional Actions Needed in Ongoing 

Efforts to Improve 800-Number Service 

Despite making improvements to its 800-number service, SSA still has 

difficulty keeping pace with caller demand for agent assistance. In 2001, SSA 

upgraded its 800-number network so that all callers could either access its 

automated services or be routed to the next available agent at any site in the 

network—a feat not possible under the previous system. The new network 

also enhanced SSA’s ability to monitor and manage call traffic, agent 

availability, and network operations in real-time to ensure the network’s 

integrity and the consistent delivery of services. SSA also expanded its 

automated and agent-assisted services accessible through the 800-number 

network. However, SSA’s expansion of its automated services to reduce 

agent call burden has not had its intended effect, as callers continue to show 

a strong preference for agent assistance. In fiscal year 2004, about 51 million 

of the more than 71 million callers requested to speak to an agent. However, 

8.7 million, or 17 percent, of these calls did not get through to an agent—a 2 

percentage point increase over the previous year. 

SSA has taken steps to help agents provide callers with accurate information 

and consistent services, but still has problems with agents assisting callers in 

line with agency policies and procedures. SSA’s training curriculum provides 

agents with a comprehensive overview of SSA programs. Agents are also 

encouraged to use available on-the-job resources, including a customized 

computer application that helps agents provide consistent service and 

accurate responses. Nevertheless, from 2001 through 2003, SSA did not meet 

its 90 percent target for service accuracy—that is, agents’ performance in 

handling non-payment related issues in accordance with agency 

requirements. Although SSA has taken several actions to help agents 

improve their performance, including mandating agent use of the computer 

application, it has not yet determined why agent compliance with agency 

policies continues to fall short. 

SSA trains and monitors agents for courtesy and conducts periodic customer 

satisfaction surveys, but does not routinely capture all customer complaints 

about alleged agent discourtesy. Agents receive training on developing their 

interviewing and interpersonal skills, and SSA monitors agents to determine 

whether or not they are providing courteous service to callers. SSA 

monitoring indicates that agent courtesy levels are high. SSA solicits limited 

customer feedback on agent courtesy in its annual surveys and compiles 

general ratings, but these surveys do not ask callers for the reasons behind 

the ratings. Callers to the 800 number do complain of agent discourtesy, but 

SSA does not routinely document and assess all complaints. Some call 

center staff told us that when they receive allegations of agent discourtesy, 

they typically apologize for the discourteous service and may proceed to 

assist the caller without recording the complaint. SSA has feedback 

mechanisms in place to capture caller complaints, but these mechanisms do 

not do so in a manner that allows SSA to assess complaints and identify 

corrective actions needed. 

The Social Security Administration 

(SSA) at some point touches the 

life of nearly every American. Each 

day thousands of people contact 

SSA to file claims, update records, 

and request information from its 

1,300 field offices, website, and 

national toll-free 800 number. 

Implemented nationwide in 1989, 

SSA’s 800-number has become a 

principal contact point for millions 

of individuals seeking agency 

services. Congressional requesters 

asked GAO to review the quality of 

SSA’s 800 number in terms of caller 

access and agent accuracy of 

response and courtesy. 

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that SSA take 

steps to (1) increase callers’ access 

to agent services, (2) determine 

why agents fail to comply with SSA 

requirements when handling calls, 

and (3) establish uniform 

procedures for documenting and 

assessing customers’ agent-related 

complaints. SSA agreed with the 

first two recommendations, but 

disagreed with the third, saying 

that its consistently high courtesy 

rates demonstrates that its present 

approach is working and taking any 

additional measures to improve 

courtesy would not be costeffective. GAO maintains that 

routinely documenting and 

analyzing customer complaints 

could help SSA identify callers’ 

concerns and reinforce the 

agency’s commitment to quality 

“citizen-centered” service. 
Page i GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Letter 1

Results in Brief 2 

Background 4 

SSA Has Improved Overall Access to the 800 Number, but Many 

Calls Seeking Agent Assistance Do Not Get Through 9 

SSA Trains and Provides Agents On-the-Job Resources, but Agents 

Have Not Met SSA’s Standard for Accuracy of Assistance 18 

SSA Conducts Training, Monitoring, and Customer Surveys but 

Lacks a Uniform System for Assessing Agent Courtesy 27 

Conclusions 31 

Recommendations for Executive Action 32 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 32 

Appendix I Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 35 

Appendix II Comments from the Social Security Administration 39 

Appendix III GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 44 

Tables 

Table 1: Major Services That Agents Provide to 800-Number Callers 9 

Table 2: Services Available through the 800-Number Automated 

Menus, As of June 2005 13 

Table 3: Top Five Types of Service Errors Observed in Fiscal Year 

2003 25 

Figures 

Figure 1: SSA’s 800-Number Call Center Locations 6 

Figure 2: Most Frequent Reasons for Calls to the 800 Number, 

Fiscal Year 2003 8 

Figure 3: Calls Placed to the 800-Number, Fiscal Years 2002 

through 2004 (in Millions) 15 

Figure 4: 800-Number Calls Seeking Agent Assistance That Did Not 

Get Through, Fiscal Years 2002 through 2004 (in Millions) 16 

Contents 
Page ii GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 5: 800-Number Calls Handled and Abandoned in 

Automation, Fiscal Years 2002 through 2004 (in Millions) 17 

Figure 6: SSA’s Performance in Meeting Payment Accuracy and 

Service Accuracy Targets, Fiscal Years 1998 through 2003 23 

Figure 7: Regional Performance for Meeting Service Accuracy 

Target, Fiscal Years 2001 through 2003 24 

Abbreviations

CHIP Customer Help Information Program 

OIG Office of the Inspector General 

OQA Office of Quality Assurance and Performance Assessment 

OTS Office of Telephone Services 

SSA Social Security Administration 

SSI Supplemental Security Income 

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Page 1 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

August 8, 2005 

The Honorable Charles E. Grassley 

Chairman 

The Honorable Max Baucus 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Finance 

United States Senate 

The Social Security Administration (SSA) at some point touches the life of 

nearly every American. Its services include issuing Social Security cards, 

maintaining earnings records, and administering some of the largest 

federal benefit programs—Old Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability 

Insurance—commonly referred to as Social Security—and Supplemental 

Security Income (SSI). Each day thousands of people contact SSA’s 1,300 

field offices, Web site, and national toll-free 800 number (1-800-SSA-1213) 

to file claims, report events to update records, and request information 

about SSA’s programs. Since becoming available nationwide in 1989, SSA’s 

800 number has become a principal contact point for individuals seeking 

agency services. Callers to the 800 number may opt to use a self-service 

menu of automated services or request to speak with an agent. In fiscal 

year 2004, callers placed over 71 million calls to SSA’s 800 number. 

SSA has made improvements and adjustments to its 800-number service in 

response to customer feedback. However, some problems have persisted. 

For example, SSA reported that millions of calls were encountering busy 

signals or being terminated before being served. An SSA survey of 800-

number callers in September 2000 found that callers wanted easier and 

faster access to live service—that is, to speak with an agent without 

wading through the lengthy list of automated services. Furthermore, 

callers commented that SSA could improve its 800-number services by 

having agents with expertise provide consistent information and exhibit 

courteous behavior and helpful attitudes. 

In this context, you asked us to review the quality of SSA’s 800 number in 

terms of caller access, agent accuracy of response and courtesy. This 

report discusses SSA’s efforts to (1) improve caller access to the 800 

number; (2) ensure that SSA agents provide accurate responses and follow 

SSA requirements; and (3) ensure that agents treat callers courteously. 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 
Page 2 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

To conduct our work, we reviewed SSA’s policies and procedures for 

800-number agents and interviewed SSA officials to develop information 

on SSA’s telephone systems and services, training offerings and 

requirements, and the steps they take to ensure that their agents provide 

acceptable service. Specifically, we interviewed and obtained 

documentation from officials at SSA headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland; 

regional officials in 3 of the 10 regions; and staff working in a total of six 

call centers—two in each location visited—Birmingham, Alabama; Kansas 

City, Missouri; and Richmond, California. The call centers we selected 

varied in the volume of calls handled and included those that handled 

800-number calls on a routine basis and centers that handled calls as 

needed. We reviewed SSA performance data related to access, accuracy, 

and courtesy and determined the data to be sufficiently reliable for the 

purposes of this report. We conducted our work from September 2004 

through July 2005 in accordance with generally accepted government 

auditing standards. Appendix 1 provides a more detailed description of our 

scope and methodology. 

Despite making improvements to its 800-number systems, management, 

and services to improve caller access, SSA still has difficulty keeping pace 

with caller demand for agent assistance. In 2001, SSA upgraded its 

800-number network so that all callers could either access its automated 

services or be routed to the next available agent at any site in the 

network—a feat not possible under the previous system. The new network 

also enhanced SSA’s ability to monitor and manage call traffic, agent 

availability, and network operations in real-time to ensure the network’s 

integrity and the consistent delivery of services. SSA also expanded its 

automated and agent-assisted services accessible through the 800-number 

network. However, SSA’s expansion of its automated services to reduce 

agent call burden has not had its intended effect, as callers continue to 

show a strong preference for agent assistance. In fiscal year 2004, 

51 million of the more than 71 million callers opted to speak with an agent, 

but 8.7 million, or 17 percent, did not get through—a 2 percent increase 

over the previous year. 

SSA has taken steps to help agents provide callers accurate information 

and to comply with SSA requirements, but still has problems with agents 

not meeting its standards for accurate service. SSA provides agents with 

comprehensive training and equips them with on-the-job resources such as 

a customized computer application to enable them to offer a broad range 

of services and to help ensure that they provide accurate and consistent 

service. SSA also makes experienced staff available to assist agents with 

Results in Brief 
Page 3 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

complex or technical calls. In addition, SSA monitors agents’ calls 

agencywide to assess agent accuracy and training needs. SSA’s own 

monitoring assessments for 1998 through 2003 found that the agency 

generally met its 95 percent standard for “payment accuracy,” having 

agents correctly handle inquiries involving eligibility and benefit payment 

issues. However for this same period, SSA did not meet its standard for 

“service accuracy,” having agents correctly handle issues that do not have 

the potential to affect eligibility and/or payment according to agency 

requirements. SSA’s overall performance for “service accuracy” for fiscal 

year 2003 was 85.1 percent; below the agency’s 90 percent target. 

According to SSA’s assessment, agents’ failure to obtain six personal 

identifying pieces of information from callers to verify their identity before 

accessing and disclosing information was the most frequent service error 

committed by agents. This error accounted for 28 percent of all service 

errors identified through SSA’s assessment in fiscal year 2003. SSA has 

taken several actions to help agents improve their performance, including 

requiring agents to use the computer application designed to help them 

comply with agency requirements by directing their questions and 

responses to callers. However, the improvement in the service accuracy 

rate that followed these initiatives was short-lived. SSA has not 

determined why agents fail to comply with requirements and thus commit 

service errors. 

SSA trains and monitors agents for courtesy and conducts periodic 

customer satisfaction surveys, but does not routinely document or analyze 

all incidents of discourtesy or caller complaints. As part of the basic 

training curriculum, agents are taught interviewing and interpersonal 

skills. In addition to monitoring for accuracy, SSA also monitors agents to 

determine whether or not they were courteous to callers. Based on 

4,384 monitored calls in 2003, SSA reported an agent courtesy rate of 

99.9 percent. Although this would mean discourtesy was highly infrequent, 

it would still mean that agents may have handled as many as 60,000 calls 

placed during fiscal year 2003 discourteously. SSA solicits direct customer 

feedback about agent courtesy by surveying callers annually. In 2004, 

91 percent of the respondents rated the agent level of courtesy as good, 

very good, or excellent while 5 percent rated it as fair and 4 percent rated 

it as poor or very poor. However, the survey does not ask callers their 

reasons for the ratings. Also, while callers also contact SSA to complain of 

agent discourtesy, SSA does not routinely document all complaints. We 

were told that when callers report allegations of agent discourtesy, call 

center staff typically apologize for the discourteous service and may 

proceed to assist the caller without making a record of the complaint. In 

addition, callers sometimes make complaints about agent discourtesy 
Page 4 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

through SSA’s Web site. However, the Web site does not give guidance to 

complainants about the specific information they should provide. As a 

result, customers do not typically provide information that would help SSA 

assess the overall nature of complaints and identify any needed action. 

According to experts on customer service, a good management complaint 

system is key to building customer relations and identifying recurring 

problems and solutions to prevent future problems. Without such a 

system, SSA may be missing opportunities to address customer concerns 

and improve 800-number services. 

This report contains recommendations to the SSA Commissioner that are 

intended to improve the quality of the 800-number service related to 

access, accuracy, and courtesy. In its comments on a draft of this report, 

SSA agreed with our recommendations to identify cost-effective ways to 

increase agent availability to handle 800-number calls and conduct a 

comprehensive analysis of the source of agent service errors. SSA 

disagreed with our recommendation to establish procedures for 

documenting and assessing customer complaints. SSA believes a formal 

complaint system is not necessary or cost-effective given the consistently 

high level of courteous service indicated by SSA’s service monitoring and 

customer satisfaction surveys. In our report, we acknowledge the high 

level of agent courtesy indicated through these sources. Yet, SSA’s high 

call volume means that even with low rates of discourtesy, agents may be 

treating potentially tens of thousands of callers discourteously. Good 

customer service stresses the importance of paying attention to 

customers’ complaints, however minor, and establishing a simple userfriendly and comprehensive complaint management system. We do not 

anticipate a need for SSA to expend extensive resources in meeting our 

recommendation, but rather suggest that SSA modify and uniformly apply 

the mechanisms already in place to obtain information about callers’ 

concerns or complaints that could help the agency further improve 

customer service. 

Before implementing the nationwide 800-number service, SSA delivered 

most of its services to the public face-to-face in an SSA field office. In 

1989, SSA implemented a national, toll-free 800 number to better enable 

individuals to request information on SSA programs or report events that 

affect their own or someone else’s SSA records or payments.1

 SSA set up 

 1

First established in 1988, SSA’s 800-number service was initially available to 60 percent of 

the population. SSA expanded the service to all callers nationwide in 1989. 

Background 
Page 5 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

the 800-number service with the expectation that callers would ask basic 

questions and conduct simple business transactions, such as reporting 

address changes and scheduling field office appointments. When a call 

came into the 800 number, it would be routed to a local SSA call center. 

This strategy resulted in a high busy rate. Troubled by high busy-signal 

rates, SSA in 1996 added a nationwide automated menu to the 800 number 

that allowed callers to conduct a limited number of transactions without 

speaking to an agent. 

In 1997, we identified a number of conditions that limited the effectiveness 

of SSA’s 800-number service.2

 For one, callers often reached a busy signal 

instead of the automated menu or an agent. In addition, the automated 

menu offered only a limited number of services. To reach an agent, callers 

were required to select a specific topic about which they wished to speak 

to an agent so that the system could direct their call to an agent in a call 

center with the requisite subject matter expertise. This routing strategy led 

to some call centers being overwhelmed with calls. Also, because agents 

could not transfer calls, callers sometimes were inconvenienced by having 

to redial the 800 number to complete their business. 

Since the introduction of its nationwide 800-number service, SSA has 

worked to keep pace with the public’s growing demand for telephone 

services and interests in conducting more complex transactions over the 

telephone. Today, calls made to the 800 number are answered at 

44 geographically dispersed locations. A call placed to the 800 number 

may be answered by agents located in any one of SSA’s 36 teleservice 

centers, 6 Program Service Centers; or at one of 2 components within 

SSA’s Office of Central Operations. 3 Figure 1 shows the locations of these 

call centers within the 10 SSA regions. 

 2

GAO, Social Security Administration: More Cost-Effective Approaches Exist to Further 

Improve 800-Number Service, GAO/HEHS-97-79 (Washington, D.C.: June 1997). 

3

Two components within SSA’s Office of Central Operations also answer 800-number calls. 

SSA’s Wilkes Barre Data Operations Center in Pennsylvania has approximately 266 agents 

trained to answer calls. In addition, SSA’s Division of Earnings Record Operations in 

Baltimore, Maryland, has 198 agents trained to answer 800-number calls. 
Page 6 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 1: SSA’s 800-Number Call Center Locations 

SSA staffs its 36 teleservice centers with approximately 4,060 teleservice 

representatives who answer incoming calls to the 800 number. In addition, 

each of SSA’s six program service centers, which are co-located on 

teleservice center sites, has designated specialists, called “SPIKES,” who 

have been cross-trained to provide back-up support in answering 

800-number calls during peak call volume periods. The SPIKE staff is 

comprised of various technical staff in the program service centers whose 

routine responsibilities include processing claims, mailing out notices, 

5

1

10

4

6

3

8 2

7 9

Teleservice centers

Joint teleservice/program service centers

Boston region

New York region

Philadelphia region

Atlanta region

Chicago region

Dallas region

Kansas City region

Denver region

San Francisco region

Seattle region

1

2

3

4

7

8

5

6

9

10

Source: GAO analysis of SSA data.

9

10

2
Page 7 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

managing SSA’s debt collection activities, and handling reports of nonreceipt of checks and representative payee issues. 

SSA employs a cadre of approximately 2,030 trained SPIKES in its six 

program service centers. When the volume of calls is expected to exceed 

the levels that teleservice representatives can handle, SSA activates 

SPIKES, diverting them from their routine responsibilities to answer 

incoming 800-number calls. These peak calling periods typically occur on 

the first day of the week, the first week of the month, and the first 3 

months of the year. In this report, we refer to teleservice representatives 

and SPIKES as “agents” and to teleservice centers and program service 

centers as “call centers.” 

SSA’s Office of Telephone Services (OTS) plans, implements, operates, 

and evaluates SSA telephone service to the public delivered by way of the 

national 800 number and field offices. OTS plans and conducts studies, 

pilots, and analyses of 800-number and field office telephone operations to 

assess and improve the service. It also provides direct support to call 

centers and field offices, including developing and communicating uniform 

operating policies and procedures. OTS staff works closely with SSA’s 

vendor that supplies and manages the network hardware, software, and 

telephone equipment used to support the 800-number service. OTS also 

manages the 800-number network operations, designs and administers call 

routing plans, and monitors call handling and adjusts call routing to handle 

emergency situations. 

Full-time SSA agents spend much of their time answering calls.4

 These 

calls may cover a broad range of inquiries about SSA programs and 

procedures. Figure 2 shows the 10 most frequent reasons for calls to the 

800 number in fiscal year 2003. 

 4

The terms full-time and back-up agents are used to describe SSA employees who handle 

800-number telephone calls as their primary and secondary responsibility, respectively. 
Page 8 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 2: Most Frequent Reasons for Calls to the 800 Number, Fiscal Year 2003 

Agents’ time off the phone, such as for staff meetings, training sessions, or 

annual leave must be scheduled months in advance so that the network 

operations may continue without interruption. 

SSA sets goals for telephone access and agent services and measures 

performance in these areas. In recent years, to measure access, SSA 

calculated the number of calls handled, the number of calls that reach the 

800 number on their first attempt, and the number of calls that reach an 

agent within 5 minutes of selecting the option to speak with an agent. In 

fiscal year 2005, SSA replaced these measures with two new access 

performance measures—the average speed of answer and the agent busy 

rate—consistent with standards in the telecommunications industry. SSA 

also expects agents to adhere to agency guidance and procedures and sets 

standards and measures agent accuracy (i.e., compliance with SSA’s 

requirements when serving callers) and agent courtesy. The Office of 

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Percentage of total calls

Source: SSA weighted estimates based on sampled data.

File a claim

Change of address (other than

Supplemental Security Income)

Direct deposit

Check inquiry

Nonreceipt of payment

Social Security Number

-related issues

Entitlement/eligibility

Claims status inquiry

Benefit verification

Medicare coverage

10.7

10.4

7.6

7.3

6.9

6.3

6.1

4.3

3.8

3.5

Reason
Page 9 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Quality Assurance and Performance Assessment (OQA) measures the 

accuracy of information agents provide callers by listening in daily to a 

statistical random sample of calls handled by agents nationwide. OQA 

assesses accuracy based on whether agents adhered to SSA requirements 

when responding to callers’ inquiries. As shown in table 1 agents are 

expected to provide callers a broad range of services. OQA also 

periodically surveys 800-number callers to assess, among other things, 

callers’ perception of agent courtesy. 

Table 1: Major Services That Agents Provide to 800-Number Callers 

Provide information about Social Security numbers including requirements for obtaining 

Social Security numbers and replacement cards 

Explain SSA program rules specific to individuals’ circumstances 

Screen individuals for entitlement to benefits under SSA programs 

Advise individuals about their rights and responsibilities as participants in SSA programs 

Receive and input reports such as address changes, non-receipt of checks, and deaths 

that affect SSA records or benefit payments 

Answer questions about communications individuals received from SSA 

Inform individuals of assistance provided by other agencies and make referrals 

Source: GAO analysis of SSA data. 

Despite making improvements to its 800-number systems, SSA still has 

difficulty keeping pace with caller demand for agent assistance. Since 

2001, SSA has made improvements to its telephone systems, management, 

and services to improve caller access to the 800-number network. 

Specifically, the new enterprise-wide network improved incoming call 

routing and network capacity; enhanced SSA’s ability to manage network 

operations, forecast call volumes, and set staffing levels; and expanded 

automated and agent services. However, callers continue to demonstrate a 

preference for speaking with an agent over using the automated service 

menus. In fiscal year 2004, about 51 million callers requested to speak to 

an agent. Of these calls, 8.7 million, or 17 percent, of these calls did not get 

through to an agent—a 2 percent increase over the previous year. 

SSA upgraded the network to help overcome past access problems. One 

major upgrade was the replacement of the geographically based routing 

system with a nationwide routing system capable of distributing calls to 

any agent within the network. This change gave SSA the ability to monitor 

call traffic and agent availability in real time at each call center and receive 

“cradle to grave” management information on a call’s movement from the 

SSA Has Improved 

Overall Access to the 

800 Number, but 

Many Calls Seeking 

Agent Assistance Do 

Not Get Through 

SSA Made Numerous 

Upgrades to Its 800-

Number Network 
Page 10 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

time the caller dials the 800 number until the call is terminated. The 

network also effectively eliminated the busy signal that callers 

encountered when using the older system. The new system accepts all 

calls made to the 800-number network and provides callers with a broad 

range of automated services. Calls seeking agent assistance are distributed 

to 1 of SSA’s 44 answering sites. 

When callers dial the 800 number, the network provides a series of 

prompts to direct them to the desired services. The network uses recorded 

announcements and pre-set menu prompts to separate callers according to 

language preference (i.e., English or Spanish) or type of telephone service 

(i.e., touchtone or rotary dial). The network uses a digitized voice to read 

menu selections to the caller and responds to caller-entered touch-tone 

digits. The caller’s selection can invoke a number of options, such as 

playing a recorded announcement (e.g., on cost-of-living adjustments) or 

transferring a call to an agent. SSA provides callers with an extensive 

menu of available automated services before offering them the option of 

acquiring agent assistance. SSA told us that the menus were set up this 

way to offer callers an opportunity to conduct their business using 

automated services before forwarding their calls to agents. 

When a caller indicates a preference for agent assistance, the network 

determines the optimum destination for the call. It reviews among other 

factors agent availability, the number of calls in queue, and the minimum 

expected delay. If all agents are busy and call queues are filled to capacity, 

the network delivers an agent busy message to callers, advising them that 

heavy call volume prohibits the transfer of their call to an agent and 

encouraging them to call back during periods of typically lower call 

volumes. 

A call placed in agent queue remains queued until an agent becomes 

available. The network applies treatments to calls waiting in agent queue, 

such as announcements promoting the use of SSA’s Web site. According to 

SSA, if the wait time in an agent’s queue exceeds 15 minutes, the call is rerouted to another agent and given priority over other incoming calls. The 

network continually tracks the status of each call until the caller 

disconnects. Although the network was designed to hold one call per 

agent in queue, the vendor told us that it typically holds up to 1.65 calls in 

queue per agent. 

SSA and the vendor have taken measures to ensure the integrity of 

network-generated data and the continuous operation of the network. 

Both SSA and the vendor conduct ongoing tests of the accuracy and 
Page 11 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

completeness of the network-generated data on which so much of SSA’s 

800-number related performance measurement, management decisions, 

and staffing levels depend. The vendor told us that redundancy was built 

into the network to ensure that the failure of any one component only 

affected existing calls. For example, if one component fails, the network 

automatically employs a backup execution path to bypass the problem 

location and reroutes calls to one of the remaining call centers. According 

to the vendor, the redundancy built into the 800-number network and the 

geographical dispersion of its redundant functions would make a complete 

system outage almost unimaginable. Vendor staff told us that the local 

outages that occur on occasion are mainly caused by loss of network 

facilities, extended local power failures, or hardware issues. SSA and the 

vendor maintain back up databases critical to network operations. 

SSA takes several additional steps to help ensure that callers can access 

800-number services. SSA network operations staff frequently calls the 

800-number network to test the integrity of the main menu scripts and the 

routing of calls to both automated and agent services. They evaluate calls 

for proper routing through the option choices; proper functionality of the 

automated scripts; proper functionality of routing to agents; proper 

routing to agents and agent queues; and the quality and clarity of the 

connection. Call centers also have systems administrators who monitor 

the performance of the equipment used on the premises and notify 

headquarters when any anomalies appear. System administrators are 

responsible for keeping the phones and headsets working, troubleshooting 

problems with desktop applications, monitoring computers, printers, or 

management information data. If the administrators notice any problems, 

they are responsible for notifying headquarters so that the vendor can 

dispatch a technician to initiate repair. 

SSA takes advantage of the wealth of management information at its 

disposal to monitor ongoing network operations and plan for the future. 

SSA forecasts call volumes and schedules the appropriate number of 

agents in accordance with anticipated demand based on historical data. 

These forecasts allow SSA to group days into specific levels depending on 

the anticipated volume of calls. For example, the busiest days—”Level 1” 

days—require the greatest number of SPIKES to be activated to answer 

phones. SSA sets and tracks SPIKE commitments to help ensure that 

enough SPIKES will be available networkwide to answer the volume of 

incoming calls. Depending on network conditions, managers may make 

adjustments to the number of available agents and the routing of calls to 

align available 800-number resources with caller demand. SSA adjusted its 

SSA Manages Call Traffic 

and Forecasts Future Call 

Demand and Staffing 

Needs 
Page 12 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

call volume forecast downward 5 times each in fiscal years 2003 and 

2004, allowing SPIKES scheduled to answer 800-number calls to return to 

their other assigned duties. 

SSA uses real-time data to monitor call traffic, caller activity, and system 

performance. SSA can use these data to track overall incoming calls and 

information on automation or determine whether calls were routed to an 

SSA call center or to a busy message. SSA monitors such 800-number 

network statistics as calls made to the network, calls offered to agents, 

agent staff levels, average speed of answer, and agent busy rate. Staff also 

monitors cable and national news for events, such as inclement weather, 

news stories on Social Security, or homeland security events to determine 

what impact they may have on projected 800-number call volumes. 

Furthermore, SSA monitors caller usage of the automated menus and 

reshuffles automated options to keep the most popular options first. 

SSA performs limited checks of the network generated data. Upon 

receiving the data electronically, SSA runs the data through a multistep 

automated procedure that backs up the data and converts it to a readable 

format. As part of this process, SSA checks each record to ensure that all 

area codes are good, all phone numbers are properly formatted, and all 

listed phone numbers originate in the 800-number network. The vendor 

also generates separate reports on automated services and agents. SSA 

reviews the reports and compares the results with historical trends. 

Although SSA has no additional means of verifying the reliability of the 

vendor-provided data or the results that appear in report field outputs, 

both SSA and the vendor maintain that these data are accurate, and the 

vendor states that SSA has the source data it needs to assess network 

performance. 

Since the inception of the nationwide 800 number and the later 

introduction of limited 24-hour automated services, SSA has continually 

improved the quality and quantity of services available to callers. In 

1996, SSA introduced voice-recognition applications and added an option 

allowing callers to replace their Medicare card by phone. In 1998, SSA 

implemented five new automated service options to handle inquiries 

surrounding the increased number of Social Security statement mailings. 

By 2002, SSA had made the full range of automated services available in 

the Spanish language. 

SSA Expanded Its 

Automated and AgentAssisted Services, but 17 

Percent of Calls Seeking 

Agent Assistance Do Not 

Get Through 
Page 13 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Callers may access the automated services at any time in English or 

Spanish to obtain services, information, or forms. Table 2 lists the services 

available through the 800-number automated menus. 

Table 2: Services Available through the 800-Number Automated Menus, As of June 2005 

Main service categories Subcategories 

Field office locator database • N/A 

Password/password request code/account status • N/A 

Social Security card application form • N/A 

Benefit verification • N/A 

Social Security statement options • Form to request Social Security statement 

• Form to correct name or date of birth 

• Form to request Social Security statement with different estimate of future 

earnings 

• Message—why Social Security statement was sent 

• Message—address on Social Security statement 

• Message—earnings on Social Security statement 

Medicare options • Replacement Medicare card 

• Form to request help with the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan costs 

• Medicare Prescription Drug Plan message 

Pamphlets • Understanding the benefits 

• Retirement benefits 

• Disability benefits 

• Survivors benefits 

• How work affects your benefits 

• Benefits for children with disabilities 

• What every woman should know 

Informational messages • Payment delivery dates 

• Direct deposit 

• Best times to call 800 number 

• SSA Internet address and services 

• SSI message 

• 1099 benefits statement (seasonal) 

• Cost-of-living adjustment (seasonal) 

Source: SSA data. 

SSA has adopted the telephone industry “best practice” of taking care of 

all of the caller’s business during the initial contact. Agents have been 

trained to answer a wide range of inquiries and have the capacity to 

transfer calls they cannot handle to others who handle these calls. For 

example, in 1998, SSA began allowing callers to file claims for retirement 
Page 14 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

and survivors’ benefits immediately through the 800 number, eliminating 

the need for the caller to leave a message and wait for another SSA agent 

to return the call. In 1999, SSA gave agents access to a computer-based 

application to assist them in handling telephone calls more efficiently. In 

2002, SSA provided callers the option of having their call routed to a 

designated group of bilingual agents. SSA also extended the hours of agent 

availability nationwide. Agents are now available weekdays from 7 a.m. to 

7 p.m. in each time zone. In addition, SSA provides unadvertised agent 

service for extended hours on weekday nights and weekends. SSA also 

provides agent service for the hearing impaired through a separate tollfree number. 

In following SSA’s instructions to handle all of the caller’s business needs, 

agents may be performing tasks that limit their availability to answer calls. 

During site visits, we observed agents who filled out forms by hand, 

retrieved printouts, placed the mailings in an envelope, addressed the 

envelopes by hand, and put the envelope in the mail slot, while the caller 

remained on hold. While these steps may help give callers the assurance 

that their business is being completed, such manual tasks are timeconsuming and potentially limit the number of calls that agents can 

handle. 

Although the number of calls placed to the 800 number has increased 

slightly since fiscal year 2002 and SSA has expanded services available 

through automation, the agency continues to have difficulty keeping pace 

with caller demand for live agent assistance. Figure 3 shows the calls 

made to the 800 number since fiscal year 2002 when SSA’s most recent 

telephone network upgrade was fully implemented. The proportion of 

calls to the 800 number indicating a preference for agent assistance has 

been relatively consistent, whereas SSA had hoped that the introduction of 

automated services would divert calls away from agents to the less costly, 

self-service automated system. Such a reduction would be consistent with 

the call center industry trend toward self-service with minimal agent 

intervention. However, agents continue to answer the majority of calls, 

including some calls that, according to agents, could easily be handled 

through automation. The percentage of calls seeking agent assistance but 

not getting through declined from 22.7 percent in fiscal year 2002 to 

15.2 percent in 2003, but rose 2 percent in fiscal year 2004. Specifically, as 

figure 4 shows, 8.7 million (or 17.2 percent) of the 51 million calls seeking 

agent assistance in fiscal year 2004 did not get through. About half of these 

calls encountered a busy message and the other half abandoned the call 

while waiting in queue. Managers of private call centers do not place a lot 

of importance on call abandonment rates for several reasons, including 
Page 15 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

their belief that callers terminate calls to visit the Web site. Some callers 

that request SSA agent assistance may be able to satisfy their needs 

through the automated menu or Web site. However, if callers’ business 

require agent assistance, they will not be able satisfy their needs if they 

unable to get reach an agent. 

Figure 3: Calls Placed to the 800 Number, Fiscal Years 2002 through 2004 (in 

Millions) 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Millions

2002 2003 2004

Calls placed to automation

Calls placed to agents

Source: SSA data.

Fiscal year

18.6

50.2

19.0

48.1

20.6

50.7
Page 16 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 4: 800-Number Calls Seeking Agent Assistance That Did Not Get Through, 

Fiscal Years 2002 through 2004 (in Millions) 

SSA offers a variety of possible reasons why callers abandon their calls 

after being placed in queue for an agent, one being that customers simply 

do not want to continue waiting any longer before having an opportunity 

to speak to an agent. SSA has several initiatives underway to reduce the 

number of abandoned calls in queue, including a call-back service, which 

will provide callers kept in queue beyond a certain threshold with an 

opportunity to enter their telephone number and select a contact time so 

that an agent can call them back. While providing convenience to callers 

and potentially using any agent “down” time more efficiently, a call back 

option also has the potential to increase agent workload. 

Since 2002, SSA’s 800-number automated menus have received 

progressively higher call volumes but handled fewer calls to completion. 

In addition, as shown in figure 5, the number of calls being abandoned 

without completing a transaction in the automated menus has steadily 

increased, culminating in fiscal year 2004, when nearly half of calls to 

automation were abandoned. 

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

2002 2003 2004

Calls encountering busy messages

Calls abandoned in agent queue

Source: SSA data.

Millions

Fiscal year

4.9

6.5

4.2

3.1

4.4 4.3
Page 17 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 5: 800-Number Calls Handled and Abandoned in Automation, Fiscal Years 

2002 through 2004 (in Millions) 

Although SSA offers a number of possible reasons, it is unable to say with 

any degree of certainty why calls continue to be abandoned. In the past, 

SSA has conducted follow-up caller surveys to ask callers what had 

prompted them to abandon the automated services. The primary reason 

that callers gave for hanging up after an initial selection of an automated 

service was their desire to speak to an agent. According to SSA, many 

callers simply desire the security of human contact when leaving personal 

information that is required to transact business. SSA has now eliminated 

the need for callers to redial; callers may now have their calls transferred 

from automated services to agent queue. However, this option will likely 

increase agents’ call burden. SSA intends to make its automated menu 

selections more accessible by introducing a speech-enabled main menu 

that would allow callers to simply speak their needs in response to 

directed questions. For example, rather than listening to a list of options, 

callers will be able to use their voice to narrow down available options and 

find the ones relevant to the services they seek. SSA plans to implement 

this feature nationwide later in this fiscal year. SSA also redesigned its 

Web site in 2003 to improve its accessibility and usability in the hope of 

2002 2003 2004

Calls handled in automation

Calls abandoned in automation

Source: SSA data.

Millions

Fiscal year

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

13.0

5.6

12.4

8.4

11.4

10.0
Page 18 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

relieving the burden on the 800 number. The Web site now attracts over 

30 million visitors a year, which SSA says has reduced the demand for 

direct service from 800-number and field office agents. SSA’s customer 

satisfaction surveys from 2002 and 2003 show that the percentage of the 

survey respondents who said they would likely use the 800 number the 

next time they contacted SSA decreased from 75 to 61 percent. In contrast, 

the percentage of respondents who reported they were likely to use the 

Internet or email to contact SSA increased by 2 percent and the 

percentage of those who said that they would likely call or visit a field 

office increased by 10 percent. 

SSA has taken steps to help agents provide callers accurate information 

and comply with agency requirements, but still has problems with agents 

meeting its standards for accurate service. SSA provides agents with 

comprehensive training and equips them with on-the-job resources to help 

them provide accurate and consistent service. In addition, SSA monitors 

agents’ calls and compiles agencywide assessments of agent accuracy in 

handling calls and identifies agent training needs. SSA’s own monitoring 

assessments for 1998 through 2003 found that the agency generally met its 

standard for agent accuracy in handling issues that had the potential to 

affect individuals’ benefit payments, but not its standard for “service 

accuracy,” handling issues that did not have the potential to affect 

benefits. SSA’s overall performance for “service accuracy” for fiscal year 

2003 was 85.1 percent; below SSA’s 90 percent target. According to SSA’s 

assessment, agents’ failure to obtain the required identifying pieces of 

information from callers to verify their identity before accessing and 

disclosing information was the most frequently committed service error. In 

fiscal year 2003, this error alone accounted for 28 percent of all service 

errors that SSA identified. SSA has taken several actions to help agents 

improve their performance, but these actions have not resulted in 

sustained improvements in service accuracy. 

SSA Trains and 

Provides Agents onthe-Job Resources, 

but Agents Have Not 

Met SSA’s Standard 

for Accuracy of 

Assistance 
Page 19 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

SSA provides agents with comprehensive training to enable them to offer 

callers a broad range of services and to complete callers’ business on 

initial contact. The basic training curriculum is comprised of formal 

course work to teach agents about the agency’s programs, policies, and 

procedures,5

 including rules for disclosing information to and accepting 

reports from callers; how to access, interpret, and enter data into SSA 

computer systems and databases; and how to query and interpret SSA 

records. As part of their basic training, agents take frequent tests, conduct 

mock interviews, observe experienced agents handling calls, and answer 

calls. The basic training curriculum for full-time agents at the call centers 

we visited ranged from 11 to 16 weeks. In addition, call center officials 

told us that they taught a modified 11- to 12-week course to back-up agents 

to augment their existing technical skills. In addition, officials told us that 

they supplemented the basic training with regional and call center training 

offerings, such as new employee orientation, diversity training, and public 

service training. 

After agents complete basic training, regions and call centers follow their 

own established practices to help agents transition to handling calls on 

their own. At the sites we visited, agents were mentored or closely 

supervised during a transitional period. For example, some call centers 

assigned a personal mentor to sit and observe agents handling calls and to 

provide prompt assistance, as needed. After spending a number of weeks 

with a mentor, agents are evaluated to determine their readiness to handle 

calls on their own. As another transitional step, one call center placed 

agents in a training unit that had a higher supervisor-to-agent ratio to allow 

closer supervision and monitoring of agents’ work. Floor support staff in 

one training unit said that, in addition to providing technical assistance, 

they review the accuracy of agents’ data entries for events, such as direct 

deposit requests and death reports. Based on an agent’s proficiency, floorsupport staff may review agents’ work to provide daily feedback or review 

their work less frequently as agents demonstrate proficiency. 

 5

Guidance for SSA’s programs include, the Teleservice Center Operating Guide (guidance 

for answering general inquiries and processing events callers report), the Program 

Operations Manual System (instructions for developing actions for input), the Modernized 

Systems Operations Manual (instructions for entering transactions into SSA’s computer 

system), the Social Security Handbook (explains SSA’s programs, health insurance, and 

related programs), and the Medicare Handbook (explains how Medicare program services 

are provided and payments made). 

SSA Trains Agents and 

Equips Them with 

Resources to Properly 

Handle Calls 
Page 20 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Agents may receive subsequent training in a variety of ways. For example, 

training can occur during the 3-hour allotments reserved for monthly staff 

meetings. Call center staff and officials told us that these meetings were 

used as a forum to provide agents information on emerging issues such as 

national and regional initiatives and changes in operating procedures, as 

well as feedback on the call center’s performance. During the workday, 

supervisors may provide agents with important information that agents 

need to know, such as generic responses to calls triggered by current 

media reports on Social Security solvency. We were told that agents also 

receive voluminous intra-agency communications for which they may be 

allotted 15 minutes at the end of each workday to read. We were also told 

that supervisors and floor-support staff use various strategies to ensure 

that agents are aware of the most important changes. Call center managers 

and supervisors told us, that if needed, more time maybe requested for 

agents to be off the telephones to receive additional training, such as 

hands-on computer training. 

To assist agents in providing callers with accurate and consistent services, 

SSA provides agents with the Customer Help and Information Program 

(CHIP)—a customized online computer application for providing services 

to 800-number callers. CHIP helps agents navigate the comprehensive set 

of requirements and guidance for SSA programs and directs agents in the 

actions they should take to accurately complete callers’ business on initial 

contact. For example, if an agent enters an address change for individuals 

receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, CHIP displays 

screens prompting the agent to ask callers a series of questions about 

changes in living arrangements—events that may lead to an increase or 

decrease in SSI benefits. As another resource, the call centers we visited 

made more experienced staff available to help agents handle more 

complex or technical calls. Officials told us that such floor support was 

customary at call centers agencywide. 

SSA monitors agents’ handling of 800-number calls for payment accuracy 

and service accuracy.6

 SSA assesses agent performance for payment 

accuracy in cases where agents’ responses on such matters as eligibility, 

filing of claims, or reportable events could potentially affect an individual’s 

eligibility or benefits. SSA also assesses agents’ performance for service 

 6

SSA’s practices for monitoring agents are subject to a memorandum of understanding with 

the American Federation of Government Employees. 

SSA Monitors Agents to 

Assess Performance and to 

Identify Training Needs 
Page 21 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

accuracy to determine whether or not the services they provide 

correspond with SSA policies and procedures. When assessing service 

accuracy, SSA considers whether agents provided accurate information as 

well as performed all other related actions that the agency requires. Some 

of these actions are required as a matter of convenience to callers or to 

avoid the potential need for follow-up contact. 

SSA conducts random, remote monitoring of agents handling calls for 

various purposes. OQA is responsible for two types of monitoring. First, 

OQA monitors a statistical national sample of calls handled by agents 

throughout the year to develop both agencywide and regional assessments 

of agent performance. This type of monitoring serves as SSA’s means of 

assessing agent payment accuracy and service accuracy. OQA officials told 

us that such monitoring had the capacity to reveal issues that needed to be 

addressed at the agency level, such as pinpointing areas needing policy 

clarification. However, the responsibility for agent performance, including 

improving performance to meet agency targets, rests with the various 

regions and individual call centers. Second, if requested by regional 

officials, OQA occasionally monitors a small number of calls handled by 

individual call centers and visits the call centers to brief managers and 

agents on its findings. Call center staff also randomly monitor calls 

handled by their call center for payment accuracy and service accuracy 

and to identify training needs for their agents. SSA does not specify the 

number of calls that should be monitored for this purpose. Call center 

officials told us that the number of calls they monitored do not provide a 

statistically valid assessment of their center’s performance. 

Designated call center personnel also monitor individual agents to provide 

agents individualized feedback on their telephone performance. Monitors 

may point out positive aspects of agents’ performance as well as suggest 

additional training. Agents are given advance notice of when monitoring 

will occur and are allowed to choose whether to have monitors sit with 

them or to have monitors listen in from a remote location.7

 For full-time 

agents, SSA guidance recommends monitoring as many as five calls per 

month for agents with more than 1 year of experience and unlimited calls 

for agents with less than 1 year.8

 Officials told us that agents are given 

 7

The purpose of monitoring individual agents is to assess an agent’s performance and 

provide feedback without creating a punitive environment. 

8

The national American Federation of Government Employees agreement allows SSA to 

monitor all full-time agents individually but requires SSA to bargain with local unions to 

similarly monitor backup agents. 
Page 22 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

timely feedback on assessments of their overall performance. Some 

officials also said that when monitors observe agents making an error, 

they may interrupt the call to instruct the agent on the correct procedure. 

Although SSA takes a number of actions to help agents provide callers 

accurate information in accordance with agency policies and procedures, 

agents still have problems meeting SSA’s standard for service accuracy. As 

shown in figure 6, from fiscal year 1998 through fiscal year 2003, SSA 

generally met its 95 percent target for payment accuracy—having agents 

correctly handle inquiries involving eligibility and benefit payment 

issues—but not its 90 percent target for service accuracy—having agents 

serve calls related to nonpayment –related issues according to agency 

requirements.9

 9

In fiscal year 2003, SSA discontinued externally reporting performance for meeting the 

goals it set for payment accuracy and service accuracy. However, the agency has indicated 

that it remains committed to agents delivering an acceptable level of service. SSA officials 

told us that the agency continues to use the performance goals internally. 

Agents Have Not Met SSA’s 

Standard for Accuracy of 

Assistance 
Page 23 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 6: SSA’s Performance in Meeting Payment Accuracy and Service Accuracy 

Targets, Fiscal Years 1998 through 2003 

Note: OQA does not routinely calculate and publish confidence intervals at the agency level. 

However, OQA calculated the approximate sampling variability for the fiscal year 2003 results at the 

95 percent confidence level to be ± .8 percent for payment accuracy for the universe of calls with a 

payment-affecting issue and ±1.1 percent for service accuracy. OQA said that because the call 

population, the number of calls monitored, and accuracy rates have remained relatively constant for 

the period of our review, the confidence intervals would change by only tenths of a percentage point 

from one year to the next. 

SSA reported that its overall performance for payment accuracy in fiscal 

year 2003 was 95.9 percent, and the performance for each of its 10 regions 

was similar. However, SSA reported its overall performance for service 

accuracy in fiscal year 2003 was 85.1 percent. Based on OQA’s assessment, 

as few as four regions may have met the 90 percent service accuracy target 

in 2003.10 As shown in figure 7, for fiscal years 2001 through 2003, almost 

all regions had problems consistently meeting SSA’s established target for 

service accuracy. 

 10Given that OQA estimated the sampling error for fiscal year 2003 could have been as large 

as ±4.4 percent, only the four regions for which OQA reported service accuracy rates of at 

least 85.6 percent may have met the 90 percent service accuracy target. 

0

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Payment accuracy performance

Service accuracy performance

Source: SSA weighted estimates based on sample data.

Percent

Fiscal year

Payment accuracy target

Service accuracy target
Page 24 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Figure 7: Regional Performance for Meeting Service Accuracy Target, Fiscal Years 2001 through 2003 

Note: OQA does not routinely calculate and publish confidence intervals at the regional level. OQA 

estimates the sampling variability for FY 2003 at the 95 percent confidence level, would range from 

±2.9 percent to ±4.4 percent for service accuracy. OQA said it would expect similar regional sampling 

variability for prior years. 

OQA identified 63 types of required actions that agents failed to take in 

fiscal year 2003 that led SSA to miss its service accuracy target. Agents’ 

failure to take these required actions resulted in service errors. As shown 

in table 3, the most frequent error stemmed from agents’ inadequate 

protection of individuals’ personal information. SSA protects individuals’ 

privacy by limiting disclosure of the personal information in its records to 

individuals for whom the agency maintains the records and to others 

authorized. Agents committed an error each time they failed to collect the 

requisite six identifying pieces of information to verify a caller’s identity 

0

70

75

80

85

90

95

Seattle

San Francisco

Denver

Kansas City

Dallas

Chicago

Atlanta

Philadelphia

New York

Boston

Percent

Source: SSA weighted estimates based on sample data.

Region

2001

2002

2003

Service accuracy target
Page 25 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

before accessing or disclosing information from SSA records (i.e., 

improper handling of access and disclosure).11

Table 3: Top Five Types of Service Errors Observed in Fiscal Year 2003 

Type of service errora

Percentage 

of all 

service 

errors Example of service error 

 Caller inquiry and agent action Action agent failed to take 

Improper handling of 

access/disclosure 

28 A caller representing an attorney’s office wanted to 

know when a client who was in the attorney’s office 

should expect payment of disability benefits. The client 

had received a letter indicating SSA had made a 

favorable decision. 

The agent obtained the client’s Social Security number 

from the caller, verified that a favorable decision was 

made, and told the caller that it usually takes 3 months 

from the date of the letter to receive payment. 

Agent should have asked to 

speak to the client to verify 

client’s identity and ask the 

client’s permission to conduct 

business with the attorney 

representative. 

Failure to obtain or 

properly interpret a query 

10 A caller wanted to know the status of her child’s 

disability claim. 

The agent misread SSA’s records, advised the caller 

that the claim was denied, and offered to mail appeal 

forms. 

Agent should have advised the 

caller that a final decision had 

not been made and to allow 60 

days for SSA’s decision. 

Improper handling of 

potential claimsb

8 A widow reported her husband’s death to stop his 

retirement checks. The agent accepted the death 

report and told the widow she should return the 

husband’s next payment to her local SSA office. 

Agent should have screened 

the widow to determine her 

possible eligibility for benefits 

on her husband’s account. 

Improper handling of 

referral to another SSA 

component 

8 Caller wanted to obtain replacement of a lost Social 

Security card. The caller acknowledged having two of 

the identity documents that the agent said she would 

need to get a replacement. 

Agent told the caller to contact the SSA office ahead of 

her visit to make sure the two documents were 

sufficient and was given the SSA office address and 

telephone number. 

Agent should have offered to 

mail the caller a Social Security 

card application form that 

would have allowed caller to 

obtain a replacement Social 

Security card without having to 

visit an SSA office. 

 11SSA does not consider the ability to provide all the required identifiers to be proof of 

callers’ identity. Similarly, the agency does not consider the failure to provide required 

identifiers as conclusive evidence that callers are not who they allege. 
Page 26 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Type of service errora

Percentage 

of all 

service 

errors Example of service error 

Improper handling of 

acceptable reporterc

6 Caller was payee for two children receiving benefits, 

one of whom recently turned 18 and was away at 

school. Caller wanted to report address change for 

both children. 

Agent properly identified the caller, processed a 

change of address for the younger child, and told the 

caller the older child would have to report the address 

change herself. 

Agent should have accepted 

address change for both 

children because caller was an 

acceptable reporter. 

Source: OQA “800 Number Evaluation Reports” for fiscal years 2001 through 2003. 

Note: The examples provided are for illustrative purposes and the actual incident depicted may not 

have occurred in fiscal year 2003. 

a

OQA identified 58 additional causes of service errors, 9 of which occurred at frequencies between 

1 and 5 percent, and the remaining 49 occurred at a frequency of less than 1 percent. 

b

Inquiries about claims where there was no reasonable probability to affect payment or eligibility for 

benefits. 

c

This error occurs when agents either accept a nonpayment-affecting report without verifying the 

identity of the reporter to determine if the report can be accepted, or refuses to accept a nonpaymentaffecting report from a proper reporter. 

Managers at the sites we visited have taken actions to reduce the number 

of service errors, particularly access and disclosure errors. For example, 

some call centers provided CHIP refresher training, designed desk aids 

reminding agents of the steps for proper disclosure, placed “hot pink” 

sheets detailing the service errors on the desks of agents who commit 

them, or established a “CHIP doctor” to provide agents with technical 

assistance to help navigate the CHIP computer application. However, the 

effectiveness of these actions to improve service accuracy for agents 

within the respective call center is unknown because the monitoring that 

occurs at the call center level does not provide a statistically valid 

measurement to make such an assessment. 

OQA has reported that the lower service accuracy rate primarily stemmed 

from agents’ failure to follow SSA’s requirements when asking callers to 

verify their identities. Assuming that such “access and disclosure” failures 

could be cleared up through the use of the CHIP application, SSA 

mandated its use in November of 2001. The service accuracy rate 

subsequently improved for fiscal year 2002, but dropped the next fiscal 

year because, according to OQA, agents did not make optimal use of CHIP. 

OQA recomputed SSA’s service accuracy rate without the access and 

disclosure error for comparison purposes and reported that it would have 

increased from 85.1 to 89.2 percent in fiscal year 2003. SSA has not 
Page 27 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

determined why agents fail to follow agency procedures when handling 

some calls, resulting in service errors. 

SSA uses training, call monitoring, and surveys to ensure that agents 

deliver courteous service, but does not routinely document or analyze all 

incidents of discourtesy or caller complaints. As part of its comprehensive, 

multiweek training curriculum, SSA teaches agents the interviewing and 

interpersonal skills they need to provide courteous service. It also 

determines through monitoring whether agents are being courteous. Based 

on its monitoring results from 2001 through 2003, SSA reported that it 

found agents to be courteous to callers over 99 percent of the time. SSA 

also measures caller satisfaction with agent courtesy as part of its annual 

800-number customer satisfaction survey. In 2004, 91 percent of 

respondents rated agent courtesy as good, very good, or excellent; 

5 percent rated agent courtesy as fair, and 4 percent rated it poor or very 

poor. While SSA uses training, monitoring and customer surveys to ensure 

courtesy, it does not have a uniform system for analyzing incidents and 

complaints of discourtesy. Call center staff told us that they typically 

apologize to callers and offer to provide the desired assistance whenever 

callers lodge complaints by phone. Moreover, they may not record the 

complaint or attempt to capture and assess information on the nature of 

complaints. Customer service studies highlight the importance of paying 

attention to complaints and the benefits of having a good management 

complaint system. 

As part of its comprehensive, multiweek training curriculum, SSA teaches 

interviewing and interpersonal skills to help agents serve callers in a 

professional and courteous manner. The training includes instruction on 

how to establish rapport with callers, how to obtain information necessary 

to accurately serve callers’ needs, and how to end calls on a positive note. 

As a courtesy measure, agents are instructed to allow callers to end the 

call. Agents also receive training on how to respond to angry, loud, or 

abusive callers, including how to calm such callers, and how to continue 

serving them or to transfer those calls to supervisors. 

SSA also uses its call monitoring process to oversee courtesy levels and 

has procedures for immediate intervention to remedy any observed 

SSA Conducts 

Training, Monitoring, 

and Customer 

Surveys but Lacks a 

Uniform System for 

Assessing Agent 

Courtesy 

SSA Relies on Training, 

Monitoring, and Customer 

Surveys to Ensure Agent 

Courtesy 
Page 28 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

problem.12 OQA procedures call for monitors to immediately inform 

management of a discourteous incident, prepare a written report for the 

agent’s call center manager, and retain a copy of the report in the event 

that a disciplinary action is taken against the agent. Call center managers 

who become aware of discourtesy allegations or observe agent 

discourtesy are required to follow similar procedures. They are required to 

discuss any incident with the agent and consider a progressive range of 

disciplinary actions from issuing a reprimand to terminating an agent’s 

employment. 

OQA officials told us that formal monitoring is time-consuming work. As a 

result, OQA said that over the years, it reduced the sample size of the 

monitored calls due to resource constraints. Regional and call center 

management expressed varied opinions as to whether the reduction in the 

number of monitored calls was an obstacle to identifying agent 

discourtesy. One call center manager told us that discourtesy was more 

likely to be observed by managers and supervisors patrolling work areas 

than through formal monitoring. On the other hand, one regional official 

noted that additional unannounced monitoring would be a more effective 

way of catching agent rudeness. 

Some of the managers and officials with whom we met, however, told us 

that they believed courtesy levels were very high and not a problem. 

According to the agency’s call monitoring records, SSA agents have 

performed at consistently high rates with regard to courtesy. For fiscal 

year 2003, OQA determined that based on 4,384 calls, agents had been 

courteous to callers 99.9 percent of the time. 13 It reached similar 

conclusions from its 2001 and 2002 monitoring. 

SSA also relies on its annual survey of callers to assess and ensure agent 

courtesy. Callers who have used agent services have been asked, among 

other questions, to rate agent courtesy on a 6-point scale. The 2004 survey 

showed that 91 percent of the callers rated agent courtesy as being good, 

very good, or excellent; 5 percent rated it as being fair; and 4 percent rated 

 12OQA defines courtesy as a reflection of whether agents treated callers in accordance with 

generally accepted standards. Other SSA guidance provides examples of unacceptable 

agent conduct, including hanging up on callers without cause, using profanity, yelling at 

callers, exhibiting rudeness or impatience with callers, using inappropriate tone, and 

putting callers on hold unnecessarily. 

13OQA observed six calls of discourteous service that they said represented a population of 

nearly 60,000 calls. 
Page 29 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

it as being poor or very poor.14 These rates were about the same as those 

reported for the 2001 though 2003 surveys. 

Other call centers may use telephone or online surveys to obtain feedback 

from customers, although the actual administration of the surveys may 

vary. For example, one organization conducts telephone surveys using 

voice capture software to record customer responses. At the beginning of 

a call, the survey system randomly selects participants and asks them to 

participate in a 2-3 minute survey after they complete their call. Another 

organization conducts online surveys, sending a survey to selected 

customers via email. Nonetheless, these organizations seek to obtain 

customers’ views on their organization’s performance. 

SSA monitors calls and receive feedback from customers, but it does not 

systematically gather and assess this information to identify courtesy 

problems, such as particular problem locations or persistent patterns or 

trends. SSA agents handled an average of 40.9 million calls each year from 

2001 through 2003. Even if agents were courteous 99.9 percent of the time 

as OQA reported, for fiscal year 2003 that would still leave nearly 60,000 

calls in which the agents may have been discourteous. However, because 

SSA does not routinely analyze the details of agent discourtesy observed 

through monitoring, it has no way of determining the circumstances or 

lessons learned from monitored calls. 

Studies conducted on customer service have shown that building 

relationships with customers and a having first-rate management 

complaint system are critical to maintaining good customer relations. One 

study in particular noted that paying attention to customer complaints, 

regardless how minor they may be and addressing them quickly and 

completely helps satisfy customers and build trusting relationships. 15

 14A study contracted by the Office of the Inspector General reported that SSA’s customer 

satisfaction survey provided a reliable statistical representation of caller’s views for the 

period measured. However, because SSA limits the survey to being conducted during a 

designated period—most recently a 4-week period in March—the survey may be an 

inadequate representation of customers’ views year round. Further, the sampling variability 

for responses to this question would be ±2 percent or less at the 95 percent confidence 

level. SSA’s response rate during the period 2001 through 2004, ranged from 53 to 71 

percent. Although response rates within these ranges are not unexpected for this kind of 

telephone survey, it should be noted that as the response rate decreases, the certainty that 

survey results represent the universe of 800-number callers decreases. 

15Richard D. Young, Customer Driven Focus and Excellence in the Public Sector

(Columbia, S.C.: Institute for Public Service and Policy Research, University of South 

Carolina, 2002). 

SSA Lacks a Uniform 

System for Assessing 

Agent Courtesy 
Page 30 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Similarly, people who contact their government agencies want to be heard 

and expect courteous and respectful treatment. It is therefore important 

for government employees to distinguish what their customers want and 

to take actions to ensure that their customers are satisfied. The study also 

noted that no matter how good the service or product is, occasions will 

invariably arise that result in customer complaints. However, it is 

important that when criticisms are voiced, that they are systematically and 

promptly addressed. A good management complaint system can provide 

data and information on complaints that can be compiled and analyzed to 

give insight into where problems are recurring and what needs to be done 

to fix them or prevent them from happening in the future. A good 

complaint system also facilitates the filing of complaints using simple, yet 

comprehensive complaint forms. 

SSA’s 800-number customer satisfaction surveys are one means of 

gathering feedback from callers on agent courtesy. However, the survey 

does not ask why some respondents rate agent courtesy as poor. In 

addition, the agency does not routinely collect or analyze all caller 

complaints placed through the 800 number. Our visits to call centers found 

variation in how they handled such calls. When customers call the 

800 number to report agent-related complaints, SSA guidance requires 

agents to refer calls to supervisors or floor-support staff. However, SSA 

does not provide guidance for how those receiving referrals should handle 

them. We were frequently told that call center staff receiving these calls 

typically apologize for the other agents’ rudeness and offer to provide 

service to the caller. SSA provides call center staff a form to document 

800-number service complaints, including agent lack of courtesy. 

However, SSA has not provided them agencywide guidance on 

documenting complaints or the type of information they should record to 

allow SSA to identify service issues or trends. We were given a variety of 

reasons why call center staff may not document agent-related complaints. 

One call center official told us that his site allowed agents to exercise 

judgment in deciding which complaints they documented. Some agents, 

supervisors, and technical staff told us they were unaware of procedures 

for handling such complaints while others believed callers needed to 

provide sufficient information such as the offending agent’s name or call 

center location to lodge a formal complaint. It was our observation that 

800-number agents may not provide their full name or mention their call 

center location when answering a call. 

SSA responds differently to customer-reported complaints sent to agency 

offices than to complaints registered on its Web site. Specifically, regional 

and call center officials said that when warranted they would attempt to 
Page 31 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

identify the agent, investigate the merits of the complaints reported to 

their offices, and initiate disciplinary actions. Headquarters staff who 

receive complaints through the agency’s Web site told us that they 

routinely send customers a letter of apology, but have no one designated 

within SSA to whom to forward and or resolve complaints. Although the 

Web site has an Intranet-based form ostensibly designed to capture 

complaint information, it does not ask for specific information such as the 

nature of the alleged act of discourtesy and the date and time it occurred. 

By not systematically collecting and analyzing information on alleged 

agent discourtesy, SSA is unable to identify service issues that may 

warrant corrective actions. 

SSA’s toll-free phone service is an important resource for the thousands of 

people who call the number daily, and the steps the agency has taken in 

recent years demonstrate a commitment to quality service. The agency’s 

upgraded telephone system along with its expanded menu options and 

agent-assisted services has improved access in many respects by giving 

customers more services at their convenience. In addition, the agency has 

taken steps to help ensure that callers receive more accurate and 

courteous service. 

Even with good service, however, there is room for improvement. 

Improvements to the 800-number network have not necessarily ensured 

that callers receive the help they seek, given the number of calls not 

reaching an agent. This may not be a mounting problem if callers follow 

the general trend in the call center industry toward automation and selfservice as they grow more comfortable with these options. However, the 

impending increase in the size of the retiree and disability populations, 

and anticipated changes to the Social Security system suggest that SSA 

may continue to experience a substantial proportion of callers who 

request agent assistance. Measures to improve customer access to agents 

may therefore be needed. In addition, SSA’s many benefit programs will 

continue to generate some complex questions that require agent 

assistance. Currently, the prevalence of service accuracy errors diminishes 

the quality of service that callers receive when they do reach an agent 

through the 800 number. Finally, although SSA’s estimates show instances 

of agent discourtesy to be rare among all calls, such instances could 

nonetheless affect tens of thousands of callers. Because SSA does not 

routinely capture information on all customer complaints about 

discourtesy, however, it loses the ability to assess the severity of the 

problem and misses opportunities to better understand caller needs, solve 

unanticipated problems, and retain the good will of the public. 

Conclusions 
Page 32 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

To improve the quality of the 800-number telephone service, we 

recommend that the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration 

take the following three steps: 

• Identify cost-effective ways that will help ensure that more calls 

seeking agent assistance get through to agents, such as streamlining 

the call-handling process, automating some mailings that agents now 

do by hand, or increasing number of agents available to take calls. 

• Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the source of service errors. For 

example, the agency might consider holding agent focus groups to gain 

insight into why agents tend to fail to comply with certain 

requirements. The agency could get agents’ views on the effectiveness 

of CHIP in helping them meet agency requirements. 

• Establish procedures for documenting and assessing customerreported complaints. In doing so, the agency should determine the 

types of information it needs to assess customers’ concerns and to 

provide the agency a means to identify and address service issues. 

We obtained written comments on a draft of this report from the 

Commissioner of SSA. In its comments, SSA said it was pleased that our 

report reflected the agency’s commitment to providing high-quality 

800-number telephone service that meets the needs and expectations of its 

customers. SSA agreed with our recommendation to identify cost-effective 

ways to increase agent availability to handle 800-number calls and 

described several planned initiatives to improve agent productivity and to 

expand automated services. SSA also agreed with our recommendation to 

conduct a comprehensive analysis of the source of agent service errors. 

Accordingly, SSA said it would convene a workgroup to obtain feedback 

on the source of agent service errors and make recommendations as 

appropriate to improve the agency service accuracy level. 

SSA disagreed with our recommendation to establish procedures for 

documenting and assessing customer complaints. SSA said that its findings 

that agent courtesy levels are consistently high demonstrate that its 

present approach to ensuring agent courtesy—which combines training, 

monitoring, and customer surveys—is working. Moreover, SSA said that 

based on its experience with prior initiatives, a nationwide reporting 

system would require heavy resource expenditures and be cost prohibitive 

given current budget constraints. Furthermore, SSA stated that any use of 

agent resources to document complaints would be counterproductive to 

improving caller access to agent services. 

Recommendations for 

Executive Action 

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation 
Page 33 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

While we agree that agent courtesy levels are high and state this in the 

report, given the sheer volume of 800-number calls SSA receives, even 

relatively small percentages of callers encountering agent discourtesy 

could result in tens of thousands of callers not getting the service they 

deserve. Thus, we believe that SSA can benefit from having uniform 

procedures for documenting and assessing customer complaints and have 

added additional information for further clarification. Experts believe that 

paying attention to customer complaints, however minor, and working to 

quickly resolve them is important to building relationships with 

customers. In addition, having information on complaints helps identify 

recurring problems and potential fixes as well as help prevent future 

occurrences. Under SSA’s current practices, because the decision to 

document a complaint lies with the individual agent handling the call, 

customers contacting the 800 number have no assurance that SSA will 

review the merits of their complaints. Routinely documenting and 

assessing customer-initiated feedback could help the agency identify areas 

of concern to callers and reinforce the agency’s commitment to providing 

quality “citizen centered” service. 

While we understand SSA’s concerns about resource constraints, we 

maintain that SSA can implement a system to document complaints using 

existing mechanisms, such as its 800-number feedback form and Internet 

form for complaints reported to its 800 number and Web site, respectively. 

As we state in the report, SSA already devotes time and staff to the 

documentation and handling of customer-reported complaints; however, 

such efforts are not done routinely. SSA states that its agents provide more 

efficient service when they keep the caller on the phone until the caller’s 

business and all agent actions are completed. We believe routinely 

documenting callers’ concerns would take no more time than completing 

callers’ other business. Further, the information could be collected 

uniformly in an electronic format that would facilitate analysis that could 

be used to improve service. As others have pointed out, a good system for 

managing complaints should be comprehensive, yet simple. Finally, we 

believe that understanding and responding to customer complaints are 

integral to the delivery of quality customer service. 

SSA’s comments are reproduced in appendix II. SSA also provided 

technical comments, which we have incorporated in the report as 

appropriate. 

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce its contents 

earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days after its 
Page 34 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

issue date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to the interested 

congressional committees and the Commissioner of SSA and will make 

copies available to others upon request. In addition, the report will be 

available at no charge on GAO’s Web site at http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me 

at (201) 512-7215 or bovbjergb@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of 

Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page 

of this report. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III. 

Barbara D. Bovbjerg, Director 

Education, Workforce and Income Security Issues 
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology 

Page 35 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

The objectives of this study were to evaluate SSA’s actions for ensuring 

callers have ready access to 800-number services and receive accurate and 

courteous service from agents. To do this, we reviewed published works 

that included the National Performance Review benchmarking reports to 

identify industry benchmarks in areas key to our work and issues 

surrounding call center services.1 We also reviewed GAO and the Office of 

the Inspector General (OIG) reports and SSA annual performance plans to 

identify what is currently known about SSA telephone service operations. 

To evaluate the quality of the 800-number service, we compared telephone 

system performance data compiled by a contractor for SSA and SSA’s 

Office of Quality Assurance and Performance Assessment (OQA) 

assessments of agent accuracy and courtesy to SSA’s established 

standards and, where applicable, to industry benchmarks. We used 

performance data from OQA’s monitoring of agents for fiscal years 

1998 through 2003 and from OQA’s 800-number customer satisfaction 

surveys conducted fiscal years 2001 through 2003. We reviewed OQA’s 

management reports for these activities. 

To develop information on the actions SSA takes at the headquarters level 

to ensure quality 800-number telephone service, we reviewed documents 

related to (1) SSA’s forecasts of call volumes and projected staffing levels 

for auxiliary agents; (2) services offered using the automated menu; 

(3) vendor-contracted services for the 800-number telephone systems 

hardware, software, and performance data; and (4) requirements for 

training agents, monitoring agent performance, and agent courtesy to 

callers. We interviewed officials in the Office of Telephone Services to 

obtain an understanding of the general operation of the 800-number 

telephone system including the routing of calls; the compilation of 

performance data; and SSA’s actions to monitor the performance of the 

800-number system and of the vendor. We also interviewed OQA officials 

to obtain more detailed information on procedures for monitoring agents 

and surveying 800-number callers. In addition, we reviewed some 

complaints reported by the public over the agency’s Web site and 

interviewed officials in the SSA’s Center for Program Support to discuss 

practices for handling complaints. 

 1

National Performance Review, “Serving the American Public: Best Practices in Telephone 

Service,” National Performance Review Benchmarking Study Report (Washington, D.C.: 

1995). 

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology 
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology 

Page 36 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

We visited six call centers to observe the 800-number service operations at 

the regional and call center levels. At the locations visited, we observed 

officials monitoring their centers’ call traffic and agent availability in real 

time, officials monitoring agents handling live calls, and agents handling 

live calls from customers. We reviewed documentation call center officials 

provided on agent training, monitoring of agents, agent-related complaints 

received, and disciplinary actions taken against agents. We interviewed 

regional and call center officials having line-management, supervisory, 

floor support, monitoring, and call-handling responsibilities to obtain 

information on call center operations and their experiences in providing 

telephone services and serving the public. The call centers we selected 

varied in the frequency and volume of calls they handled—three handled 

calls routinely and three on a back-up basis—and are not representative of 

call centers SSA-wide. 

To assess caller access and the reliability of the 800 number, we 

interviewed SSA officials and contacted selected vendor staff to obtain 

documents and data on the 800-number management and operations. SSA 

uses the management data and information supplied by the vendor to 

track all calls and transactions on the network, including data on overall 

incoming calls and information on automation and to determine whether 

calls were routed to an SSA call center or to a busy message. The vendor’s 

reporting system has internal alarms running on each server and an 

application that periodically checks each server’s vital functions, capacity, 

and environmental operating conditions against a predetermined set of 

normal operational conditions. Upon receipt, SSA runs the vendorsupplied data through a multistep automated procedure that backs up the 

data, creates data storage files, extracts data to be stored in other datasets, 

and recreates the data in a readable format. As part of this process, SSA 

checks each record to ensure that all area codes are good, all phone 

numbers are properly formatted, and all answering telephones originate in 

the 800-number network. The vendor also generates separate reports on 

automated services and agents. SSA reviews the reports and compares the 

results with historical trends. Although SSA has no additional means of 

verifying the reliability of the vendor-provided data or the results that 

appear in report field outputs, both SSA and the vendor maintain that 

these data are accurate and the vendor states that SSA has the source data 

it needs to assess network performance. We reviewed SSA performance 

data related to access and determined the data to be sufficiently reliable 

for the purposes of this report. 

To assess the reliability of OQA’s monitoring assessments of agents’ 

performance, we examined data reliability issues identified in an OIG 
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology 

Page 37 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

report and interviewed OQA officials knowledgeable about the monitoring 

process and resulting data. In addition, we reviewed documentation and 

training materials, including monitoring instructions, evaluation data entry 

forms and desk aids, corrective action and evaluation feedback forms, and 

information regarding the statistical sampling of calls. In evaluating OQA’s 

sampling and weighting methodology, we determined that OQA’s 

methodology for monitoring agents’ payment and service accuracy 

appears to adequately represent the population of telephone calls. 

Approximate confidence intervals were produced by OQA using standard 

formulas for proportions based on a simple random sample. As OIG 

previously reported, 2

 we also found that decisions regarding payment 

accuracy and service accuracy continue to be unverifiable because SSA 

does not maintain documentation of all monitored calls. We determined 

that the data were sufficiently reliable for our purposes, given these 

limitations. 

To assess the reliability of the survey of 800-number callers, we 

interviewed OQA officials about the survey and resulting data and 

reviewed documentation on the survey methodology, sampling, response 

rates, and sampling variability. We also reviewed a report contracted by 

the OIG regarding this measurement of customer satisfaction.3

 This report 

concluded that the 800-number caller survey produced a reliable 

measurement of callers’ views of agent courtesy for the period measured, 

but that because the survey was administered only twice a year, it was 

unlikely that the survey results matched the true customer satisfaction 

across the entire year. Because the survey was recently limited to being 

conducted during a single 4-week period in March, we found that the 

survey results continue to be unrepresentative of callers’ responses 

throughout the year. We believe that seasonal events could affect 

customer satisfaction in different ways throughout the year. The survey 

response rate during the period 2001 through 2004, ranged from 53 percent 

to 71 percent. Although response rates within these ranges are not 

unexpected for this kind of telephone survey, it should be noted that as 

the response rate decreases, the certainty that the survey results represent 

the universe decreases. We determined that the survey data are 

 2

Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, Management Advisory 

Report: Performance Measure Survey of the Percent of 800-Number Calls Handled 

Accurately, OIG-A-08-01-11024 (Washington, D.C., August 2001). 

3

Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, Performance Indicator 

Audit: Customer Satisfaction, OIG A-02-02-11082 (Washington, D.C.: February 2003). 
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology 

Page 38 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

sufficiently reliable for providing a general indication of customer 

satisfaction, for the specified periods of administration. 

We conducted our work at SSA headquarters, Baltimore, Maryland; at 

regional offices in Birmingham, Alabama; Kansas City, Missouri; and 

Richmond, California; and at two call centers in each region. We 

conducted our work from September 2004 through July 2005 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 
Appendix II: Comments from the Social 

Security Administration 

Page 39 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Appendix II: Comments from the Social 

Security Administration 
Appendix II: Comments from the Social 

Security Administration 

Page 40 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 
Appendix II: Comments from the Social 

Security Administration 

Page 41 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 
Appendix II: Comments from the Social 

Security Administration 

Page 42 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 
Appendix II: Comments from the Social 

Security Administration 

Page 43 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 
Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments 

Page 44 GAO-05-735 SSA 800-Number Service 

Barbara D. Bovbjerg, Director (202) 512-7215 

The following individuals made important contributions to this report: 

Shelia Drake, Assistant Director, Jacquelyn Stewart, Analyst-in-Charge, 

Susan Bernstein, Michelle Fejfar, Jonathan McMurray, and Roger Thomas. 

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments 

GAO Contact 

Staff 

Acknowledgments 

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