Common Sense Government: Works Better and Costs Less Page: 58
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58 Common Sense Government: Works Better & Costs Less
U GENERAL STORE
U.S. GENERAL STORE
for SMALL BUSINESS(and, for customers at least, irrelevant) distinctions about which agency produced
what information.
The result is the U.S. General Store, opened as a test project in Houston on July
6, 1995. Prompted by the reinvention movement to do whatever best served their cus-
tomers, some 14 federal agencies created a one-stop business assistance center. You go
to (or call) one place, and you deal with one person cross-trained in the information,
services, and regulations of all the participating agencies. That person can provide loan
information, assist with tax problems, help you comply with regulations (a request
that came up often in discussions with businesspeople), explain federal contract bid-
ding procedures, and more. The store plans to have all the agencies' databases merged
and accessible in one place. Parking is free. It's open some evenings and weekends.
Better yet, it required no new funding; it was simply a matter of making what was
already available easier to use. "Our goal is 100 percent customer satisfaction, and we
ask each customer if they are satisfied with service they received. We hear great things
from customers everyday," says store manager Sandra Ellison.
"Starting a business is like walking into a forest of redwoods," says Houston
business owner Alan Bergeron. "You don't know what direction to go.... It's great to
be able to be able to knock on one door and get a whole library of answers."
Next step?-if customers approve, the General Store will become a national
chain. Call it "Gov-Mart."
Listening also can be lifesaving. The Consumer Product Safety
Commission's job is to protect Americans from dangerous products,
provide information on product recalls, and gather reports on product-
related injuries. To help its customers, the commission has reinvented its
consumer hotline. The line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
000 Information is available in English or Spanish and, during regular
business hours, in other languages as well. In the first year after the
upgrade, the commission received more than a quarter-million
d oc'c calls- nearly 80 percent more calls than before and double
,ke o the number of product complaints. And the cost per call
to so\d&- dropped sharply.
p s Cesstzs Asking and listening is making a difference to cus-
zSt sa secge tomers-often desperate ones-of the Federal Emergency
e o- es et , Management Agency. A survey of 1.2 million disaster
It \e X e assistance applicants revealed that agency representa-
eCk vcGe'CA tives' compassion and willingness to listen was the most
$ important aspect of FEMA's services for 38 percent of
ed~oo. those surveyed. That's more than twice as important
as the things FEMA assumed were the most impor-
tant, like the amount of assistance dollars received, the fairness of
home inspections, or the length of time to apply for and receive
financial assistance. So FEMA is working to balance staff members' financial
skills with people skills.
And here's perhaps the most interesting thing about asking and listening to
the customer: for the first time in years, public servants are doing what they have
always wanted to do-serve the public. Unchained from the system, encouraged
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Gore, Albert. Common Sense Government: Works Better and Costs Less, book, 1995; Washington, D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc123531/m1/64/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.