{"id":29648,"date":"2020-10-06T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/federal-student-aid-services-2\/"},"modified":"2022-11-15T10:22:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:22:45","slug":"federal-student-aid-services","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/our-solutions\/customer-experience\/y2020\/federal-student-aid-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Student Aid Services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This customer experience profile is from 2020. To view this year\u2019s profile, click here<\/a>.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\nUser Interactions<\/span><\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nCustomer Feedback<\/span><\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSocial Media Presence<\/span><\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nCustomer Experience Indicators<\/span><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Executive Summary<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With college costs continuing to rise, students rely on financial aid programs offered by the Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education. In 2019, this organization continued a multi-year effort to transform the customer experience for people accessing and repaying student aid across a variety of service delivery channels. These efforts helped ensure that millions of students had access to post-secondary opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic downturn brought new challenges in 2020, as FSA helped students navigate school closures and shifts to online learning, and assisted borrowers who were struggling financially to access more loan repayment options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the pandemic, people had positive experiences applying for federal student aid online, citing easy navigation through the application process and a user-friendly mobile experience, according to FSA\u2019s customer research.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To further improve the experience, people want a more unified loan process throughout the student aid lifecycle, particularly when it comes time to repay loans, when customers often must keep track of multiple loan-servicing providers and websites. FSA is making progress on these issues through a far-reaching program they call Next Gen Federal Student Aid (Next Gen FSA). In 2019, one accomplishment of this program was a pilot that allowed some customers to make payments directly on StudentAid.gov, rather than having to visit a separate loan servicing site. FSA also launched a virtual assistant called AidanSM<\/sup>, currently available to a limited set of customers, that uses artificial intelligence to answer common questions using natural language, and helps customers get information about their federal aid, such as checking a loan balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Data at a Glance<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Customer satisfaction score for applying for student aid online in 2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Customer satisfaction score for applying for student aid on a mobile phone in 2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

*Measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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