To provide Tier 1 level support for the USCIS Contact Center by assisting the public with information on immigration related services and benefits. USCIS is centralizing the inquiry process so all public inquiries come through the multi-tiered Contact Center and this award will serve to educate and help direct stakeholders to self-service options, including the myUSCIS account, and manage the majority of USCIS case inquiries. Examples of common inquiries include how to file an application, check the status of an application, creating an account, requesting a duplicate card or notice, requesting an expedite, requesting an appointment, among others. Tier 1 completes 80% of the total Contact Center inquiry volume and Tiers 2 and 3 are federal staff that handle the 20% escalated to them. The USCIS Contact Center is a High-Impact Service Provider as defined by Executive Order 14058. The Contact Center operates under the External Affairs (EXA) Directorate, Office of Citizenship and Applicant Information Services (CAIS), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The USCIS Contact Center currently offers services primarily through three communication channels: phone, chat, and web form/secure message. Currently, Tier 1 supports phone, chat, and secure messaging/webform. We plan to incorporate web call-backs and scheduled call backs via appointment, other USCIS account-based services and refine our existing channels used to correspond with stakeholders about their cases.
- Phone Channel: Historically receiving nearly 14 million total calls a year, the phone channel operates 3 levels of support. The first is the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. If the public is not able to obtain the information or assistance, they seek through the IVR, they are able to speak with a Tier 1 agent, 300,000-400,000 calls are transferred to live service per month that will need to be answered by the contractor. This volume is expected to decrease in correlation to increases in the chat and secure message channels. The Tier 1 agents provide general, and case specific information based on access to various USCIS systems which provides information about their application/petition, appointments, outstanding requests, and decisions. They also triage requests for field office appointments.
- Chat: Live agent chat is accessible through the USCIS.gov virtual assistant Emma. Emma assists USCIS.gov users with general immigration information. If Emma is unable to resolve an inquiry, customers are offered the opportunity to chat with a Tier 1 agent. The contractor should expect to answer 150,000-200,000 chats per month, with plans to further grow the channel while reducing the phone channel. Live chat may be directly offered through the IVR outside of EMMA as we expand this service.
- Secure Message: The public can electronically communicate with USCIS via authenticated and unauthenticated inquiries. USCIS customers signed into their myUSCIS account (authenticated) can submit a secure-mail message which routes to the Contact Center for resolution and response. USCIS offers ways for customers to submit appointment requests and other service inquiries through our website that come in unauthenticated. Secure messages and web forms are triaged and worked by Tiers 1 and 2. Specific cases which need additional follow up or coordination with other USCIS components can be escalated to Tier 2 or forwarded via a service request. Tier 1 will be expected to handle up to 100,000 secure messages per month which could decrease phone/chat volume as this channel increases. The myUSCIS account is currently NOT available for secure message options to all USCIS customers and availability depends on whether the customer filed their benefit request online. USCIS is in the process of developing a secure message system that will be available to all customers and secure message and chat will be the primary channels with phone decreasing to the lowest volume of the 3 channels. The USCIS Contact Center uses the System for Tracking Activities, Relationships, and Services (STARS) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool to capture information from customers.
USCIS will host all technical solutions and design, provide government furnished equipment including laptops and softphones, the VPN service for remote staff, circuits for any brick-and-mortar facilities, the WFM tool and all enterprise network systems access and licenses. The contractor will provide the staff to answer and respond to the inquiries, provide process improvement suggestions, provide quality assurance measures and meet required service levels. Remote work is allowable on this contract and/or a mix between brick-and-mortar facilities and a hybrid approach. Certain sections of this PWS are applicable only to brick-and-mortar facilities.
