The National Injury Information Clearinghouse responds to several thousand requests for information from the public each year and processes consumer complaints received by the Agency. CPSC recently re-engineered its Clearinghouse to improve customer service. CPSC instituted a system that electronically transmits Hotline complaints to the Clearinghouse and reinforced the commitment to customer service by acknowledging consumers' complaints in 48 hours or less, reducing the time from 49 days in the past.
CPSC re-engineering efforts can serve as a model for other agencies in how to better serve their customers. This successful operation included:
Establishing a swat
team of Clearinghouse staff to work on high priority or large volume requests;
Streamlining
procedures to reduce by 25 percent the response times for completing requests;
Improving the
work environment of the Clearinghouse by relocating accumulated boxes of records and
reorganizing existing files. The document filing procedure was improved to reduce the time it
takes to retrieve documents;
Identifying
documents to include on the Internet and "fax-on-demand" system, enabling the
Commission to answer immediately routine requests for published information;
Using
state-of-the-art imaging equipment and software to begin the electronic conversion of product
investigation reports. Document imaging will reduce both access time to documents and hard
copy storage needs;
Revising the
brochure describing Clearinghouse services and developing a fact sheet outlining the customer
service standards -- our commitment to the public -- for the Clearinghouse; and
Developing scripts,
similar to those used for the CPSC Hotline, to respond to telephone inquiries for routine
information.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission protects the public from the
unreasonable risk of injury or death from 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's
jurisdiction.
To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury and for information on
CPSC's fax-on-demand service, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter
at (301) 595-7054.
Consumers can also report product hazards via electronic mail by sending a message to
info@cpsc.gov.
Comments: info@cpsc.gov
Revised: May 5, 1996
URL: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/success/clrnhse.html