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Department of Agriculture
Rural Development
Description
Nearly 60 million Americans live in rural areas and experience higher rates of poverty; since 2009, Rural Development has financed nearly 8,000 community facilities projects, helped save or create more than 375,000 rural jobs, aided nearly 75,000 rural businesses, improved rural electric infrastructure for more than 25 million rural residents, and supported more than 5,500 distance learning and telemedicine projects.
Designated Services
- Filing an application under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative
- Searching for regulatory information on a Rural Development program
Filing an application under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative
Description
The OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative (launched in 2020) provides government-backed loans through commercial lenders to rural small business owners, agricultural producers, community organizations, utility providers, or municipalities seeking financing to develop a project and who may have challenges securing a loan without a guarantee. The OneRD initiative provides a streamlined and standardized application process for lenders to access four of RD’s flagship loan programs: Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program; Community Facilities (CF) Guaranteed Loan Program; Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) Loan Guarantees; and Water and Waste Disposal (WWD) Loan Guarantees Programs.
Why this service was designated
Rural Development annually issues over $2 billion in loan guarantees that increase private investment in rural businesses and economic development projects through the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative. In addition to supporting rural communities and individuals through direct loan and grants offered under the CF, REAP, and WWD programs, the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative offers an opportunity for RD to partner with private lenders, expanding the reach and accessibility of the four RD loan programs.
Quarterly data reported
Q3 2023
What we learned from this quarter's data:
This quarter, RD had approximately 7,860 total webpage views, with over 4,455 unique page visitors. From this, RD had a relatively low response rate for this quarter’s survey. Respondents included engineers looking for technical and business information, tenants of multi-complexes receiving housing subsidies from RD, construction professionals, and program borrowers and applicants. Most individuals indicated they were searching for information on a program regulation, funding notice, or agency guidance documents.
Of the comments we received, RD heard:
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Had to use search bar to find information needed because the current website structure is hard to navigate
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Fixes are needed to the search function
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In need of eligibility questionnaire and downloadable application with plain language and without redirects to other pages with the same or similar information.
Service details
Transaction point: Awareness; Ready to Apply
Channel: website
People served: 16706
Surveys offered: 16706
Responses: 8
Transaction point: Quarterly relationship survey sent quarterly to the OneRD Guarantee Loan lender-customer listserv. Volume of customers refers to # of obligations in Q2, FY-23; survey provided to listserv of 675 customer contacts.
Channel: email
People served: 99
Surveys offered: 675
Responses: 15
Q2 2023
What we learned from this quarter's data:
Although ease is not an expectation, lender-customers continue to express concerns about communication and transparency, especially during RD staff review of applications. Customers continue to request consistency in application reviews between programs covered under the initiative as well as amongst state and national offices.
Lender-customers pain points include:
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navigating the environmental review process,
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miscommunication about the completion status of an application,
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lack of communication about delays, and
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the unexpected addition of new requirements (i.e., RD extending extra underwriting effort rather than performing a standard review of the credit analysis performed by the lender).
Employee helpfulness and overall satisfaction ranked highest of the CX metrics, although RD did see a slight decline in scores from Q1 to Q2.
On this service’s webpage, RD had approximately 20,300 total webpage views with over 15,000 unique page visitors. From this, RD had a low response rate for this quarter’s web survey. Of the responses, users identified that they were visiting the webpage to see: (1) program updates, including funding availability and to (2) Find information on how to apply for funding.
RD recognizes this a small sample of program participants and is in the process of offering lender-customers additional opportunities to provide feedback. That information will be available in the Q3 reporting cycle.
Service details
Transaction point: Awareness; Ready to Apply
Channel: website
People served: 15570
Surveys offered: 15570
Responses: 2
Transaction point: Quarterly relationship survey sent quarterly to the OneRD Guarantee Loan lender-customer listserv. Volume of customers refers to # of obligations in Q2, FY-23; survey provided to listserv of 675 customer contacts.
Channel: email
People served: 82
Surveys offered: 675
Responses: 19
Q1 2023
What we learned from this quarter's data:
Although ease is not an expectation, lender-customers continue to express concerns about communication and transparency, especially during RD staff review of applications. Customers continue to request consistency in application reviews between programs covered under the initiative as well as amongst state and national offices. Lender-customers pain points include: navigating the environmental review process, miscommunication about the completion status of an application, lack of communication about delays, and the unexpected addition of new requirements (i.e., RD extending extra underwriting effort rather than performing a standard review of the credit analysis performed by the lender). Employee helpfulness and overall satisfaction ranked highest of the CX metrics. RD recognizes this a small sample of program participants and is in the process of offering lender-customers additional opportunities to provide feedback.
Service details
Transaction point: A relationship survey sent quarterly to the OneRD Guarantee Loan lender-customer listserv. Volume of customers refers to # of obligations in Q1, FY-23; survey provided to listserv of 678 customer contacts.
Channel: email
People served: 106
Surveys offered: 678
Responses: 21
Searching for regulatory information on a Rural Development program
Description
RD offers a digital library of regulatory information that spans all of its 50+ programs. Many customer groups – potential applicants, award recipients, technical assistance providers, Federal partners, and even RD employees use this library to see the breadth of programs offered, understand eligibility and competitive program criteria points, research requirements to comply with award conditions (such as reporting, audit and accounting guidelines, engineering specifications), and view notices and rulemaking actions posted in the Federal Register.
Why this service was designated
RD’s grant, loan, loan guarantee, and technical assistance programs meet the needs of communities across rural America. However, RD’s customers have regularly identified understanding and knowing where to find information on regulatory requirements for RD programs as a common pain point felt across all aspects of the customer journey (e.g., program awareness, application process, and award reporting requirements). In Fiscal Year 2021, this webpage had 57,677 page views (49,533 of which were unique individual views). Building a more customer-focused, simple, streamlined digital repository to learn about program grant or loan eligibility requirements, how applications will be evaluated, and what follow-on requirements are required to be in good standing with grant or loan conditions will help to address complexity identified across programs.