U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today spoke with President Trump’s nominee to be the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano. He pointed out the difficulties many people face with customer service and emphasized the need for efficient online services for rural Montanans.
Watch the full exchange HERE.
Daines emphasized the need for efficient customer service for rural Montanans:
Daines: The Social Administration was first established as an independent agency. The importance of the public trust has always been integral to that core mission. I want to cut to the chase, though, on customer service for a moment, if I might. Like Senator Johnson, I spent most of my career in the private sector. Customer service is paramount. In fact, after I left Procter and Gamble, I went to work for a customer experience CRM Solutions. We worked with call centers to make sure the customer was getting a great experience. And so as we prepared for this hearing yesterday, I asked my team, let’s just see what it’s like to call the Social Security Administration. So we went online and there’s a nice little box that says “we are here to help.” And I realize you’re gonna be coming in here to fix some of the problems. This is not happening on your watch, but I want to make you aware of the customer experience my staff member experienced when they called the 1-800 number, “we are here to help.” So to recant what happened here, first of all, they were disconnected twice when they got on the phone. In fact, I’m gonna read the text message. “Called the SSA number three times. Disconnected twice after two minutes. (And this is the published, ‘we are here to help’ 1-800 number). Finally got through to wait to speak to a representative.” And here is what my staff member encountered for an hour. [Plays holding music]
… For an hour, this repeated over and over again, and then they were disconnected. You can’t make this up. Try calling the Social Security 1-800 number. It’s 1-800-772-1213. It says our automated telephone service are available 24 hours a day- [staff was] disconnected three times, the third time after waiting an hour listening to this really D-grade elevator music. So we’ve got a lot of work to do to serve the taxpayers in this country and improve their customer experience…As you begin looking at areas for innovation and improvements in the delivery of the vital services and benefits, will you commit to me and to my office to ensure that Montanans have access to social security, particularly for Montanans who live in rural areas?
Bisignano: You have my commitment to work my tail off on all of it.
Daines: You know, one of the challenges we face oftentimes in the post-customer service hours, particularly with call centers, is the call centers are open when many people are not available because they’re at work. And then when they are available, the call center is closed. And so we just described there the multi-channel type approach, whether it’s a web experience getting information directly from the internet, whether it’s a call, whether it’s an email, to really lock in on service levels that we can make sure we’re providing to our customers, the taxpayers of this country. And those beneficiaries have been paying into that system their entire life. They deserve a lot better. And I hope you will bring much needed change to the Social Security Administration with your leadership.
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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Rachel Dumke