Proclamation 6945—National Consumers Week, 1996

This year's theme for National Consumers Week is "service signals success." Service is an indispensable element of success over the long term in both business and government: service that is responsive, convenient, and courteous, service that meets the expectations of consumers and taxpayers. Clever promotions and deceptive pricing may generate short-term profits in business. Promises alone may gain brief support for Government agencies and programs. But American consumers and taxpayers aren't easily deceived. They expect quality service, and those who cannot or do not provide it will ultimately fail.

That is why I added the right to service to the Consumer Bill of Rights. It is why we have made the reinvention of government—requiring more responsiveness and efficiency—a keystone of my Administration. It is why I issued an Executive Order that directed all executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government to embark upon a revolution to change the way they do business and establish and implement customer service standards that match or exceed the best in the private sector. And it is why our policies continue to emphasize the paramount importance of service excellence to the success of our Nation, our economy, and our efforts to compete in the global marketplace.

The goal of service excellence is not easy to attain. Consumers must demand it, and everyone in an organization, be it a business or a government agency, must be committed to it, both in everyday interactions and in longer-term goals. Their ultimate success depends on it.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 20 through October 26, 1996, as National Consumers Week. I call upon government officials, industry leaders, and the people of the United States to recognize the vital relationship between our economy and our citizenry and to support the right of all Americans to excellence in products and services.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-first.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON