An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
As you might have seen on Twitter, on Tuesday I took a tour of the call center at U.S. Census Bureau headquarters — and even answered a few calls myself. The call center — in addition to our facilities in Jeffersonville, Ind.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Hagerstown, Md. — is one of our agency’s major hubs for answering and tracking questions and concerns from the American public. In a world of instant communication, our customers expect an immediate response to their questions. Our call center staff is here to give real-time answers over the phone, online chat and email.
So, what kind of questions does the call center get? Many questions are about our censuses or surveys — in fact, our centers in Jeffersonville, Tucson and Hagerstown are dedicated to communicating with survey respondents. Often, people have never heard of the census or survey that has just arrived at their home or business. I talked to one respondent to the American Community Survey, who wanted to make sure the survey wasn’t a scam. I was happy to reassure her that it was legitimate and important — her responses will provide data that federal, state and local leaders use to plan for things like roads, schools and hospitals.
During my "shift" I took a call from a college freshman, who asked me what students should know about the Census Bureau. I told him that the data we collect are extremely important to our nation and is used for creating legislative districts, congressional apportionments and funding allocations - and also that the Census Bureau is always hiring in lots of disciplines!
The call center here in Suitland, Md., also answers all kinds of data questions. County and local officials call to ask about their municipality’s official population count. Researchers ask for information on a wide range of topics, from income to housing to international trade. During my visit, I saw one call center employee answer a chat question about how to appropriately cite information from Census.gov.
In addition to helping callers, the call center also helps the Census Bureau by reporting on the questions and data requests they receive. By listening to callers’ feedback, we can make improvements to our mailed materials and website to help the public find the information they need quickly and easily.
The Census Bureau spends a lot of time reaching out to the public to encourage them to fill out our censuses and surveys, and to ensure they trust that we will protect the information that they provide. When someone contacts us, a call center employee is often the first and only Census Bureau employee they interact with— and I’m proud of the good impression that our employees make. No matter what your question for the Census Bureau is, our call center staff are standing by and ready to answer it.
Census Bureau Headquarters in Suitland, Md. 1-800-923-8282 Monday – Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Email and chat at ask.census.gov Monday – Friday: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET
Share
Top