OMB STATEMENT FOR THE
AUTOMATED COLLECTION SYSTEM (ACS) SURVEY
WAGE & INVESTMENT DIVISION
CY 2009
January 2009 – March 31, 2010
BPA TIRNO-05-Z-00014
Introduction
IRS has replaced the traditional measures of accomplishment with a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. The Automated Collection Service (ACS) Sections within the Compliance organization of Wage and Investment (W&I) Division is responsible for responding to customer technical and account inquiries, resolving customer account issues, providing account settlement (payment options), and working related issues. As an important customer interface for W&I, ACS will need feedback from customers to continuously improve its operations.
Pinpoint will be used as the system for tracking survey results again this year because it allows for more flexibility in making changes to the survey (adding drill-down questions) immediately. The objectives for this task request are: 1) to administer the current survey utilizing Pinpoint, 2) to identify customer expectations of ACS through this research, 3) to track customer satisfaction at eight ACS sites and nationwide, and 4) to identify actionable improvement opportunities.
Customer Satisfaction Survey
The questionnaire was slightly revised in 2006 to meet more customer needs, and the capability to drill down questions remains the same. Drill-downs they may be added to the survey and/or changed at the beginning of any quarter when previous results indicate a need for more in-depth research into specific areas of the survey.
The ACS Survey will be administered by the contractor via telephone using Pinpoint and IVR on a continuous basis. Standard procedures will be used in order to obtain the highest response rate possible. Based on the response rate for the current ACS Survey, a 60% response rate is anticipated.
Design and Methodology
The contractor will prepare a formal sampling plan for the survey. The contractor shall stratify the sample by eight W&I ACS sites, drawing 325 samples per site each quarter and resulting in a total of 2,600 attempts and 1,560 completed questionnaires each quarter (195 per site) and 6,240 completed questionnaires per year (780 per site). The sampling procedures put in place shall be designed to accomplish a precision margin of 5% and confidence level of 95%.
Current sampling procedures will continue. The sampling will be performed by W&I quality control monitors in the call sites and reported to the contractor on a daily basis. The contractor will monitor the sampling process and coordinate with appropriate W&I personnel on sampling and related matters. The contractor shall provide the sampling specifications to W&I to apply to the sampling database.
Evaluation
The survey responses will be scored on a 5-point rating scale, with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied. All survey responses will be Anonymous. The contractor shall ensure that taxpayers responding to the survey are guaranteed anonymity. The overall satisfaction item is, “Everything considered, whether you agree or disagree with the final outcome, rate your overall satisfaction with the service you received during this call.”
The contractor will use basic and advanced statistical techniques including, but not limited to, analysis of variance and the prioritization of improvement initiatives, to provide:
Survey counts and overall response rates for the 8 sites.
Overall customer satisfaction for W&I ACS.
Averages and frequencies for all ratings questions.
Differences in satisfaction ratings across customer segments.
Areas of service, in priority order, where W&I ACS should focus efforts to improve overall satisfaction.
Cross tabulations of variables.
Relationships among survey responses.
The contractor will include any relevant database variables in the analysis. The specifications and contents of reports remain the same as current reports. Separate open-ended comments will be provided within 30 days after the end of each quarter. The ability for IRS personnel to receive data through Pinpoint began during FY03. Raw data will be provided to a distribution list of IRS personnel and made available through Pinpoint each month.
Each month the contractor will e-mail the calculation of percent overall weighted dissatisfied and percent overall weighted satisfied for the month to a distribution list of IRS personnel.
The contractor will produce reports that include:
1. Leverage Analysis
2. Satisfaction mean scores of rating questions
3. Distribution of dissatisfied, neutral, and satisfied % of rating questions
4. Quarterly comparisons with prior year data
Summary
Due to the inability of the sites to make an impact in certain areas, responses to some questions will not be used in the Leverage Analysis of the site data. However, all questions will be rolled up and Leverage Analysis performed at the national level.
Semi-annually, the contractor will summarize the quantitative ratings and produce one quarterly national report showing overall satisfaction scores with appropriate site-level data for all ACS service items and improvement priorities. At the end of the fiscal year, the contractor will provide an annual national report. Semi-annual and annual reports will include a one-page summary report in Word format as produced
previously. Open-ended comments and quarterly data must be supplied in SPSS and Excel formats. Monthly, the contractor will deliver anonymous data files through Pinpoint. The contractor will weight the survey responses to reflect accurately the entire customer base.
Estimate of the Burden of Data Collection
The survey interview has been designed to minimize burden on the taxpayer. The time that a respondent takes to complete the phone survey has been carefully considered and only the most important areas are being surveyed. The average time of survey completion is expected to be 8 minutes. The questions are generally one sentence in structure and on an elementary concept level.
We have made every attempt in designing this survey to maximize response rate. Using the response rate of 60%, the total estimated annual burden in hours is estimated to be 555 hours, broken down as follows:
Respondents: 6,240 x 8 minutes = 832 hours
Non-respondents: 4,160 surveys x 30 seconds = 35 hours
The grand total is estimated to be 867 hours.
Cost
The estimated cost for administering this survey is $101,692.
Other Information
The following information will be provided to Human Capital Office within 60 days after the close of the survey data collection operations:
Findings: A brief summary of significant findings that were evidenced in the results.
Actions taken or lessons learned: A brief summary of any action taken or lessons learned as a result of the findings.
Taxpayer participation (number of requests for taxpayer participation and number of interviews completed).
Dates on which the data collection began and ended.
Cost (excluding regular salaries of IRS employees).
Statistical Contact
For questions regarding the study, questionnaire design, or the statistical methodology, contact:
Elaine Lowitz
Pacific Consulting Group
399 Sherman Avenue, Suite 1
Palo Alto, California 94306
(602) 371-8150
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | STATEMENT OF WORK |
| Author | Ron Bradley |
| Last Modified By | mdsloa00 |
| File Modified | 2008-10-16 |
| File Created | 2008-09-02 |