# Suggestion from Subscriber

NTIS always welcomes your suggestions and ideas. Following release of

the January 20 09 issue of our NTIS Customer Advocate’s Corner newsletter, one of our subscribers suggested we consider adding a feature to make it possible to gain access to previous issues. What a great idea. That suggestion has been implemented, and you can now view previous

issues of this newsletter by going to the NTIS Web site at www.ntis.gov and scrolling to the bottom of the page to select “Site Index.” Once there, simply click on “Customer Advocate’s Corner Newsletter.” Th e section providing links to all issues of the newsletter is highlighted in red.

You can also access that section at http://www.ntis.gov/help/overview.aspx#CACN

. Thanks to our subscriber’s sugg estion, w e will be adding information on

how to access previous newsletters at the end of this and all upcoming

issues.



# Insights from the NTIS Sales Desk Manager

Bill McGahey has been with NTIS for 26 years and became Manager of the

NTIS Sales Desk i n June 2003. Prior to that, beginning in May 1994, Bill managed the NTIS Help Desk. In February 2008, the Help Desk again came under Bill’s management, in addition to the Sales Desk.

**Pat Moton: “**  Bill, how easy is it for customers to gain assistance fro m
the Sales Desk? ”

**Bill McGahey:** “ It’s quite easy, Pat. They can reach us by phone, fax

, e

- mail, and regular mail as well as by walking into the NTIS Bookstore at our location in Springfield, Virginia. We want people to contact us; and

we operate und er the expanded hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern

Standard Ti me

, to accommodate that need. W hen th ey call us, customers reach a “live” person, including those customers who contact us via our TDD line for the hearing impaired. 

### I NSIDE 

### T HIS 

### I SSUE



### 1 Suggestion from Subscriber



### 2 Insights from the NTIS

Sales Desk Mana ger



### 3 Director of NTIS

Interviewed on F ederal

News Radio 1500 AM



### 4 Where’s NTIS Exhibiting?



### 5 Statistical Abstract of the

United States 2009



### 6 A Question for Our

Subscribers Who Work with State, County, and City

Governments



## “ When t hey call u s,

customers reach a



## ‘ live 

## ’ person, including those

customers who contact

us via our TDD line for
the hearing impaired. 

## ”

Please see Insights from the NTIS Sales Desk Manager on page 3. National Technical Information Servic e www.ntis.gov pmoton@ntis.gov U.S. Department of Commerce 703

- 605

- 6103 5285 Port Royal Road Springfie ld, VA 22161 

# CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S

Spring 2009 

# CORNER Volume 1, Issue 3

October 2008

Volume 1 Issue 1

## Pa g e 2 NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER

CORNER

On Februar y 5, the Director of NTIS, Ellen Herbst, was interviewed by

Derrick T. Dortch on Federal News Radio. In the interview, Ellen discusses the mission of NTIS and the way it collects scientific and technical

information , including information related to the s ocial sciences, from

across the Federal Government. She talks about how NTIS organizes that information so it is easy to find, the creation of metadata (bibliographic records) to assist in locating that information, and the preservation of over 60 years w orth of reports (over 21⁄2 million) to provide for their perpetual dissemination to the public. Ellen explains that a vast amount of the NTIS

collection includes gray lit erature that is public information but not necessarily peer reviewed or published in a scholarly journal

. She discusses migration of data files into online searchable databases for public access and the way in which NTIS assists other Government agencies in the

dissemination of their information

. Ellen states in the interview: “We are

swi mming in an ocean of information . . . We add value by making information easy to find . . .” She also adds that “the Government is about

customer service.”

As the interview progresses, Ellen discusses her background and shares, at length, her personal ex periences through the Federal Government hiring

process.

To listen to this interview, just access http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=71&sid=1590734 and scroll down. “We are swimming in

an ocean of

information . . . We
add value by making
information easy to

find.”

We hope you’ll be able to stop by whenever NTIS is exhibiting in your

area.

From June 14

- 17, NTIS will be exhibiting at the Special Libraries

Association Annual Conference & INFO

- EXPO in Washington, D.C.

— Booth No. 6 31.

From August 9

- 12

, NTIS will be exhibiting at the GovEnergy Workshop in
Providence, Rhode Island, Booth No. 108.

* * * * * * *

Are there upcoming conferences or events at which you feel an NTIS

exhibit or speec h would be a valuable contribution?

Just e

- mail me at customeradvocate@ntis.gov or call me at

703

- 605

- 6103. I’ll be sure your suggestion is forwarded to the proper NTIS management staff.

* * * * * * * 

# DIRECTOR OF NTIS INTERV IEWED ON

FEDERAL NEWS RADIO 1500 AM

WHER E’S NTIS EXHI BITING?

## NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER Page 3

**Bill (Cont.)**  **:** W e even provide voice mail service for customers contacting us after normal business hours. We review those messages promptly the next business day a nd contact those customer s with answer s to thei r inquiries

. ”

**Pat:** “ What major change s have you seen in the operation of the Sales Desk over the past two years? ”

**Bill :**  “ We have instituted a heightened effort of educating our staff

, in

- depth

, about our products and serv ices. We’ ve expanded that education to include the functions of other agencies

, since many of our contacts are from people looking for information from the Government

— but not necessarily from NTIS. Of every six contacts made to the Sales Desk, only one is from a customer placi ng an order

— the others may be for information on pricing, general information about NTIS, and queries totally unrelated to

NTIS

. Also, we recently we sw itched to a new Internet Protoco l phone system that provid es us with greater managerial oversight and statistical reporting. This allows us to provide improved customer service by easily, through technology, managing the incoming flow of customer calls to handle them in the most efficient, expedited manner possi ble. ”

**Pat:** “ I understand another change you have made is the development of

an outreach effort from the Sales Desk. Is that correct? ”

**Bill** : “ Yes it is. We want to let our customers know about the exciting and

varied items available from NTIS , and we ac complish that outreach by

e

- mail, since it is less intrusive

. It’s important that our customers know we are here with the authenticated materials they need

. ”

**Pat:** “ Do you anticipate any future changes in the way the Sales Desk

interacts with our cu stomers? ”

**Bill** : “ In recognition of the need to provide a heightened level of assistance on specific areas of our Web site, we are currently exploring future customer communication enhancements. By employing instant messaging, for example, we would be abl e to instantly push information to our customers, such as order forms and completed pro forma invoices; and we

would be able to comple te transactions through instant messaging. We have already redesigned the NTIS Shopping Cart on the Web based on

customer feedback, both written and oral, and will continue to do so. In addition, we posted a link to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) on Online Ordering on every page of our Shopping Cart to assist customers. They do not have to leave the page they’re on to find the answer to their question, be it about shipping, delivery, download formats, payment methods, etc.

We will continue to expand these FAQ’s as the need arises. And, as always, our dedicated specialists on the Sales Desk stand ready to answer our

cu stomers ’ questions and work with them to resolve any ordering issues

—

be it offering a product in a different format, finding something not yet in our collection, providing documents by e

- mail, etc. ”

**Pat:** Thanks, Bill. I appreciate your taking the time to share this

information with our customers and reinforcing that you and your staff welcome their inquiries and requests for assistance. 

# Insights from the NTIS Sales Desk Manager from Page 1

**“**

. . . our dedicated
specialists on the Sales Desk stand ready

to answer our customers’ questions

and work with them to

resolve any ordering

issues

. . . **”**

## Pa g e 4 NTIS CUSTOMER ADVOCATE’S CORNER

CORNER

**Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009** 

The Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009 , also called The National Data Book, has the most interesting

mix of statistics that I have ever seen in one volume and has been published by the U.S. Census Bureau every year since 1878. It ’s used by researchers, business leaders, academic institutions, libraries, planners, and marketers. Examples of some of the Tables in this year’s edition are: Table 156, Active Physicians and Nurses by State: 2006; Table 207, Per Capita Consumption of Selected Beverages by Type: 1980 to 2006; Table 371, Major U.S. Weather Disasters: 2001 to 2007; Table 372, Highest and Lowest Temperatures by State Through 2003; Table 400, Voting

- Age Population, Percent Reporting Registered, and Voted: 1994 to 2006; Table 786, Civilian Employment of Scientists, Engineers, and Related Occupations by Occupation and Industry: 2006; Table 1194,

Written and Edited by:

Pat Moton

Customer Advocate

National Technical

Information Service 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161

Phone:

703

- 605

- 6103

Fax:

703

- 605

- 6900

E

- m ail:

customeradvo cate@ntis.gov Performing Arts

—

Selected Data: 1990 to 2006 (includes statistics on Broadway shows, n o nprofit professional theaters, opera, an d symphony

o rchestras)

. If you haven’t yet had a chance to order your copy of this great book, you should know th at we have only 95 copies left in stock as I’m writing

this article

. (Don’ t worry, we can get more.) Just go to http://www.ntis.gov/products/statabs.aspx to

find out more about this year’s edition and order a copy, or call our Sales Desk at 1

- 800

- 553

- NTIS (6847).

**A Question for Our Subscribers Who Work With State, County, and City Gov**  **ernments**

Often, State, county, and city government offices require Federal documents and other materials to accomplish their objectives. Has NTIS been successful in offering you access to the Federal scientific and technical publications you require? If not, please identify the publications and materials you would like to see added to our collection, and we will explore the possibility of obtaining them for you. If you have other suggestions on how we can be of better assistance to you, just send an e

- ma il to customeradvocate@ntis.gov . We look forward to hearing from you.



# If you have not already **subscribed, to receive future copies of this free**  **quarterly newsletter**

Please send an e

- mail to: customeradvocate@ntis.gov

Please include “Subscribe to NTIS Customer Advocate’s Corner” in the subject line of your

e

- mail.

To access p revious issues, go to http://www.ntis.gov/help/overview.aspx#CACN

Previous issues are listed under the red highlighting.