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Strategic Objective
Develop and Increase the Use of Self-Service Options
Strategic Objective
Overview
We know that the public is accustomed to self-service options, including those offered through automated phones and the Internet. We also know that our customers increasingly use, and even prefer, our online services. In addition, based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, our online applications have ranked in the top five in government for many years. Three of our websites – iClaims, Retirement Estimator, and Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs – either matched or outperformed commercial sites, including perennial leader Amazon. In FY 2007, approximately 10 percent of our customers filing for retirement filed online. In FY 2013, more than 49 percent of retirement applicants and 45 percent of disability applicants filed online. In response to the rising demand and usage, we will increase the number and types of self-service choices we offer.
The foundation for increasing our online services is the my Social Security portal we established in 2012 and enhanced in early 2013. Through this portal, people who register can view their Social Security Statement, get a benefit verification letter, start or change their direct deposit, and change their address – all online.
We are enhancing my Social Security to allow customers to file a claim for retirement or disability benefits, request a replacement Social Security card, and access many other services. We will also expand the portal to include online notice delivery and offer the choice to opt out of paper notices. The enhanced capability will allow us to communicate with customers on the status of their claims or appeals and advise them of any documents we may need from them.
To accommodate increases in mobile technology use, we will accelerate our development of applications using responsive design (i.e., applications will automatically adjust to work on any electronic device). We will be able to deliver service seamlessly and conveniently to smartphones, tablets and laptops alike.
As of September 2013, 6.2 million people had created accounts under my Social Security. Our goal is to significantly increase the number of registrants each year. We are developing an aggressive, multi-faceted marketing and promotional strategy to attract customers to our online service offerings. This effort will support yet another of our major initiatives – to significantly increase use of our online services.
Strategies:
- Expand personal services available under my Social Security to include high-volume workloads, such as Social Security number replacement cards;
- Move our online applications under a single customer account registration;
- Accelerate development of additional online products;
- Expand the availability of online applications using responsive design and the use of self-help personal computers available in our offices or community locations;
- Provide direct access to information and notices for individuals and designated third parties;
- Offer electronic delivery of notices and an option to opt out of paper notices; and
- Increase the public’s use of self-service options by aggressively promoting and marketing our online applications and services.
Progress Update
We took the following steps in FY 2015 to develop and increase our self-service options (see Key Initiatives and Performance Measures for more details):
- Launched Social Security Benefit Statement (i1099) online, reducing mail requests by more than 60 percent;
- Streamlined the online disability application, eliminating 25 duplicate data fields;
- Replaced self-help personal computers with virtual desktop infrastructure and expanded service to 300 new offices, bringing the total 1,684 computers in 790 offices;
- Released the online Social Security Number Replacement Card application in November 2015;
- Continued my Social Security marketing campaign; and
- Made the following progress on our Social Security Express initiatives:
- Installed 7 customer service stations and answered 2,102 video calls to assist customer service station users in real time;
- About 135,000 iClaims were filed using self-help personal computers;
- Partnered with 93 additional sites to add desktop icons, bringing our total to 261 partner sites with desktop icons; and
- Designed a website so that third-party sites can download the desktop icon directly, minimizing user error and streamlining the process.
Next Steps
- Enhance our website with responsive web design to support access by personal computer, mobile devices, and tablets;
- Expand i1099 application to include an option for beneficiaries to opt out of mailed Social Security Benefit Statements and add downloadable functionality; and
- Continue planning, analysis, and development of new applications to put behind the my Social Security portal, including:
- Message center functionality, which will enable secure communications online; and
- SMART Claim application, which will enable customers to file for retirement, disability, and Medicare benefits at the same time.
