On September 11, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12862. It said that “the Federal Government must be customer-driven.” It then set a rule: “The standard of quality for services provided to the public shall be: Customer service equal to the best in business.”
Every executive agency that provided significant services directly to the public had to “survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services.” The order defined a customer as “an individual or entity who is directly served by a department or agency.”