National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Customer Satisfaction Study
ICF Macro designed and conducted a customer satisfaction study to meet the goals of NREL's recently completed Strategic Quality Plan (SQP). Objectives of the SQP include improving NREL's understanding of its customers' needs and expectations and measuring customer satisfaction with NREL in these areas. The results of the survey were used to identify how NREL could improve service areas to have the greatest effect on overall customer satisfaction. The methodology for this study serves as a model for NREL to conduct further research among other customer segments.
Customer Service Management Program
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) wanted a “one face to the customer” image and a common operating environment for information distribution. DISA already was integrating hardware and software but needed an agencywide customer service management program and an agencywide customer surveying program. ICF Macro reviewed DISA methods and means of information gathering, storage, and dissemination, including customer needs assessment. DISA policies and standards were compared with industry and Government best practices in service delivery and management to identify gaps and to recommend the best cost-benefit resolutions. ICF Macro helped to design a customer service management program that included methods of support, resource requirements, software tools, organizational structure, service management processes, and an implementation plan. ICF Macro also reviewed DISA’s customer survey and feedback practices, compared them with industry and Government best practices, and suggested the most viable alternatives to address the gaps.
U.S. Navy, Bureau of Personnel (BUPERS)
BUPERS manages the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) program, a worldwide operation with almost 20,000 employees that is central to the Navy’s quality-of-life programs for sailors, retirees, civilians, and their families. BUPERS recognized a need to make MWR’s complex and geographically dispersed organization more customer driven and cost efficient. We analyzed the relationship between BUPERS, MWR field operations, and end-user customers to determine what was and what was not working well. Our initial research provided baseline information about which services should be continued or outsourced and helped define action priorities. We also developed a curriculum for key personnel at bases around the world to use in identifying priorities for local change. Within 5 years, net income from the MWR program increased from $2.4 million to $12.8 million. First-term retention of sailors—a Navy-wide imperative—improved from 40 percent in fiscal year (FY) 1997 to 65 percent in FY2002. Improvement of MWR base services and the sailors’ quality of life were key variables in the sailors’ decisions to continue a Naval career.
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