If agencies plan to do more than collect data and give lip service to improved service, they must improve employee satisfaction. Finding Fixes Congress members complain that agencies provide poor customer service, but now they can figure out how to fix it. Congressional authorizing, appropriating and oversight committees now have a measurement tool they never had before. The ACSI data show that government agencies have work to do, but not as much as the myth of non-service predicted. The ACSI data allow agencies to separate dissatisfaction with the policy created by Congress from dissatisfaction with the way policy is delivered.
Agencies often take the blame for congressionally created policy.
IRS, Customs, INS, SSA and others are often criticized for doing the wrong thing, but those agencies say their hands are tied by statute. Now, for the first time, a viable measure based on independent data allows Congress to hold agency chiefs' feet to the fire. The ACSI numbers tell Congress whether agencies have made the right judgments and taken the correct actions to improve customer service. Combined with the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act, which mandates the creation of annual goals, the ACSI data will allow Congress to evaluate whether goals have been achieved and, if not, why. Similarly, agencies that take the time and energy to implement a Sears model can hold Congress' feet to the fire.