“Customer service is a key element of FEMA’s strategic plan. FEMA’s customer service initiatives include benchmarking performance, setting standards, and surveying internal (FEMA employees) and external (the public and emergency management partners) customers. It also focuses on building skills and instituting programs that provide high-quality service that exceeds the expectations of FEMA’s customers. The customer service program supplies valuable information that assists to identify barriers to performance and measure progress towards achieving the Agency’s strategic goals. The customer service strategy seeks to: (1) Refine data collection, databases and performance measures for the Agency’s strategic plan and establish baselines against which future performance can be measured. (2) Create a highly productive, customer-driven workforce that provides services that meet or exceed customer expectations (3) Institutionalize better and more cost-effective service-delivery systems”. (FEMA, Strategic Plan FY 1988 - FY 1992, 1997, p. 30)