Customers Love the WIC Program

December 14, 1999

Only the Head Start Program is more popular among customers than USDA's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program, according to a report of 30 high impact government programs.

WIC is a public health nutrition program that provides supplemental food and individualized nutrition education and counseling as well as critical referrals to other health care and social service assistance programs for at-risk, low-income pregnant women and new mothers and for infants and children up to age 5.

In the first government-wide customer satisfaction survey, commissioned by the president's Management Council and released Monday, the WIC program received a customer satisfaction index rating of 83, 10 points higher than the national average. Participants rated the clarity of the WIC eligibility process at 87, the timeliness and adequacy of food benefits at 85 and the usefulness of information they received at 83.

The survey used the American Customer Satisfaction Index developed by the University of Michigan Business School and used by more than 200 U.S. private companies to measure the quality of their goods and services.