CS-09-200 Supporting Statement

Introduction

Background/Overview

IRS engages a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. This initiative is part of the Service-wide system of balanced organizational performance measures mandated by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998. This is also a result of Executive Order 12862, which requires all government agencies to survey their customers and incorporate customer preferences in their process improvement efforts.

Wage and Investment (W&I)-Compliance- Automated Collection Service (ACS) 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 needs feedback from customers to continuously improve its operations.

Objectives of Data Collection

The objectives for this task request are to:

• Administer the current survey utilizing Pinpoint,

• Identify customer expectations of ACS through this research,

• Track customer satisfaction at eight ACS sites and nationwide, and

• Identify actionable improvement opportunities.

The mean overall satisfaction response reported is the Automated Collection System Customer Satisfaction Measurement for Compliance.

Methodology

Sample Design

The contractor prepares a formal sampling plan for the survey. The contractor stratifies 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 1,092 completed questionnaires each quarter (136 per site). This results in a total of 10,400 attempts and 4,368 completed questionnaires per year (546 per site). The sampling procedures put in place are designed to accomplish a precision margin of 5% and confidence level of 95%.

The sampling is performed by W&I quality control monitors in the call sites and reported to the contractor on a daily basis. The contractor monitors the sampling process and coordinates with appropriate W&I personnel on sampling and related matters. The contractor provides the sampling specifications to W&I to apply to the sampling database.

The survey contains drill down questions which 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. Weighting procedures are used to help ensure that the results reflect the opinions of all ACS customers served by W&I. The need to weight data is assessed on an annual basis.

Data to be Collected

W&I Automated Collection System customer satisfaction response data is collected.

How Data is Collected and Used

The ACS Survey is administered by the contractor via telephone using Pinpoint and IVR on a continuous basis. Standard procedures are used in order to obtain the highest response rate possible.

The survey responses are scored on a 5-point rating scale, with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied. All survey responses will be released only as summaries. The contractor shall hold the identities, of the taxpayers responding to the survey, private to the extent permitted by law. 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 uses 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.

Dates of Collection Begin/End

Data collection runs the 2010 calendar year from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.

Who is Conducting the Research/Where

The survey is conducted by Pacific Consulting Group (PCG) and their subcontractor, Pinpoint Research. PCG determines the sample and conducts data analysis. Pinpoint Research administers the telephone surveys and provides the dataset to PCG.

Cost of Study

The estimated cost for administering this survey is $84,390.

Expected Response Rates

Although our current response rate is 42% (9,400 were invited to take the survey, 4,000 completed the survey), measures are in place to increase this rate to 50% for calendar year 2010. Customer responses are lower than the targeted completion rate of 200 per site per reporting period, especially for Fresno and Seattle. Procedures are in place to make the sites more accountable in their survey attempts and to increase response rates to 50%. PCG will continue to monitor this situation and propose future changes to the survey administration plan as necessary.

Methods to Maximize Response Rate

The questionnaire length is minimized to reduce respondent burden; thereby, tending to increase response rates. Respondents are assured anonymity of their responses. Also, weighting procedures can be applied to adjust aggregated data from those who do respond.

Test Structure and Design

The Automated Collection System Customer Satisfaction Survey has already been developed and is currently in use. The survey is conducted via an automated computer system. Completion of the survey takes approximately ten minutes. It contains a standard set of questions, but allows flexibility to vary questions as needed. To maintain the ability to compare results from quarter to quarter, changes that impact the meaning of questions will occur minimally.

Efforts to not Duplicate Research

The W&I Automated Collection System Customer Satisfaction survey is currently the only ACS survey being conducted for customer satisfaction by the business operating unit of W&I Compliance.

Participants Criteria

The survey is conducted as an automated survey administered to taxpayers who call the ACS line. At the conclusion of the ACS call, callers are randomly selected and ask to participate. Willing participants are asked a few questions and then transferred into the survey.

Privacy, Disclosure and security issues

The IRS will ensure compliance with the Taxpayer Bill of Rights II. All participants will be treated fairly and appropriately.

The security of the data used in this project and the privacy of participants will be carefully safeguarded at all times. Security requirements are based on the Computer Security Act of 1987 and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130, Appendices A7B. Physical security measures include a locked, secure office. Audiotapes are stored in locked cabinets. Transcription of audiotapes are stored in locked cabinets or shredded. Data security at the appropriate levels has been accomplished. Systems are password protected, users profiled for authorized use, and individual audit trails generated and reviewed periodically. The IRS will apply and meet fair information and record keeping practices to ensure privacy protection of all participants. This includes criterion for disclosure—laid out in the Privacy Act of 1974, the Freedom of Information Act, and Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code—all of which provide for the protection of taxpayer information as well as its release to authorized recipients. Privacy will be safeguarded; participants will not be identified to IRS personnel. In addition, no participant names will be mentioned in the reports or data files. Participants will be advised that comments will be audio taped. Privacy is assured by virtue of agency policy.

Pursuant to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Title III of the E-Government Act of 2002, P.L. 107-347, the contractor shall provide minimum security controls required to protect Federal information and information systems. The term ‘information security’ means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide confidentially, integrity and availability.

The contractor shall provide information security protections commensurate with the risk and magnitude of the harm resulting from the unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction of information collected or maintained by or on behalf of the agency; or information systems used or operated by an agency or by a contractor of an agency. This applies to individuals and organizations having contractual arrangements with the IRS, including employees, contractors, vendors, and outsourcing providers, which use or operate information technology systems containing IRS data. The contractor shall comply with Department of Treasury Directive TD P 85-01, Treasury Security Manual TDP 71-10, and Internal Revenue Manual 10.8.1 Information Technology Security Policy and Guidance. The contractor shall comply with IRS Internal Revenue Manuals (IRM) and Law Enforcement Manuals (LEM) when developing or administering IRS information and information systems. The contractor shall comply with the Taxpayer Browsing Protection Act of 1997 - Unauthorized Access (UNAX), the Act amends the Internal Revenue Code 6103 of 1986 to prevent the unauthorized inspection of taxpayer returns or tax return information. Contractors systems that collect, maintain, operate or use agency information or an information system on behalf of the agency (a General Support System (GSS), Major or Minor Application with a FIPS 199 security categorization) must ensure annual reviews, risk assessments, security plans, control testing, a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), contingency planning, and certification and accreditation, at a minimum meet NIST guidance, if required by the IRS.

The contractor shall be subject to at the option / discretion of the agency, to periodically test, (but no less than annually) and evaluate the effectiveness of information security controls and techniques. The assessment of information security controls may be performed by an agency independent auditor, security team or Inspector General, and shall include testing of management, operational, and technical controls of every information system that maintain, collect, operate or use federal information on behalf of the agency. The agency and contractor shall document and maintain a remedial action plan, also known as a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) to address any deficiencies identified during the test and evaluation. The contractor must cost-effectively reduce information security risks to an acceptable level within the scope, terms and conditions of the contract. The contractor shall maintain procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to security incidents, and mitigating risks associated with such incidents before substantial damage is done to federal information or information systems. The contractor shall immediately report all computer security incidents that involve IRS information systems to the IRS Computer Security Incident Response Center (CSIRC). Any theft or loss of IT equipment with federal information / data must be reported within one hour of the incident to CSIRC. Those incidents involving the loss or theft of sensitive but unclassified (SBU) data (i.e. taxpayer, PII) shall be reported to CSIRC, first-line manager, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). Based on the computer security incident type, CSIRC may further notify the Treasury Computer Security Incident Response Capability (TCSIRC) in accordance with TCSIRC procedures.

Burden Hours

The survey interview is 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 10 minutes, 1 minute to transfer the call and 9 minutes to complete the survey. 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. Based on an annual sample of potential respondents of approximately 10,400 (200 x 8 call sites x 4 quarters) we expect approximately 4,368 survey participants, leaving 6,032 non-participants. The contact time to determine non-participants could take up to one minute, with the resulting burden for non-participants being 6,032 x 1 minute/60 minutes =100.5 burden hours.

For participants, the time to complete the survey is 10 minutes. This reflects the time to get into the automated survey (1 minute) as well as the time to complete the survey (9 minutes maximum).The time burden for participants being 4,368 x 10 minutes/60 minutes = 728 burden hours.

Thus the total burden hours for the survey would be (100.5+ 728) 828.5 burden hours.

Attachments

Automated Collection System, Wage and Investment survey script.

W&I ACS OMB, CY2010 6 of 6