U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

INNOVATION #18

MMS IMPROVES CUSTOMER SERVICE

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) today announced a new management concept that is contributing to improved customer service in its Royalty Management Program (RMP). During the past several months, four separate work areas of the royalty program have begun providing one-stop customer service, or, put another way, one-call resolution.

"Our primary focus in this effort was to reorganize or consolidate work processes and functions and cross-train employees so that our industry customers might be able to resolve several issues with one phone call," said MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman.

For example, the Financial Compliance Branch realigned workload on a company basis allowing companies to resolve bills generated by several different computer programs with one call instead of two or more.

The Reports Branch is cross-training employees to perform both production and royalty reporting error correction for companies that report both. The Reference Data Branch has eliminated duplicative work processes and increased responsiveness by assigning work to its employees on a geographical basis.

The Solid Minerals Valuation and Reporting Branch now performs all functions for solid minerals royalty management reducing duplication and improving coordination.

Prior to these innovative realignments, a customer often would have to place calls to two or more people who each handled a very specific area of the company's business. Now a MMS employee is a single point of contact through several steps of its process. "RMP employees are no longer specialized participants on a procedural assembly line. Rather, they are more knowledgeable and better able to respond to customer inquiries on a variety of topics," Quarterman said.

RMP plans to incorporate the techniques and lessons learned by the initial group into other work areas. These changes should result in a noticeable drop in the amount of time companies spend on the phone with MMS trying to resolve difficult issues.

MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf, and collects, accounts for and disburses about $4 billion yearly in revenues from offshore federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov
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