Survey of Passport Customers

The Bureau of Consular Affairs was one of 30 federal government agencies that measured customer satisfaction for the first time in 1999 as part of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Private industry has used the Index, produced by a partnership of the University of Michigan Business School, Arthur Andersen, and the American Society for Quality, since 1994 to assess the quality of goods and services available in the United States. To obtain results that provide a 95% confidence level (plus or minus 2.5 points), the survey team randomly called residences in the United States between August 25 and September 12 and interviewed 262 adults who had received a U.S. passport in the past two years.

What did the survey show?

Our services to passport applicants scored high in all of the areas measured:

• information accessibility and usefulness;
• professional behavior of employees;
• convenience and timeliness of the application process; and
• the value of the passport.

The survey showed that the service that passport customers received exceeded their expectations and that the majority of customers with previous passport experience are more satisfied now than they were two years ago.

Click here for a detailed analysis.

In the coming year, we will take steps to improve the passport application process for our customers.

1. We will continue to expand the number of places where people can apply for passports close to home or work.

• Passport Acceptance Facilities are federal, state and local entities designated by the Department of State to accept passport applications. Presently, there are more than 4,500 Passport Acceptance Facilities located in Post Offices, courts, military facilities, and municipal and county government offices.
• In order to serve the traveling public better, we are inviting participation from public libraries and municipal offices, which are convenient for most people. We now have 10 public libraries and 182 local government offices as Passport Acceptance Facilities.

2. We will replace our existing Internet database of passport application acceptance locations with a new, more user-friendly database that will be updated daily and have more complete service information.

3. We will give Internet users the option of filling out passport applications on-line.

4. We will provide customer service training to all Passport Agency employees across the country. This is part of a competency-based training program that Passport Services has established to assist staff in the career development process, as well as to ensure quality service to our customers.

Click here to reach the Passport Services home page.

Customer Service Initiatives