OMB Supporting Statement VRS/ASPECT Survey
Supporting Statement
Approval Request to Conduct
Customer Satisfaction Research
(OMB #1545-1432)
July 2011
A. Justification
1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
Executive Order 12862 directs Federal agencies to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the best service available in the private sector. In order to work continuously to ensure that our programs are effective and meet our customers’ needs, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeks to obtain OMB approval of a customer satisfaction survey to collect qualitative feedback on our service delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions, but are not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the population of study.
This collection of information is necessary to enable the IRS to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with our commitment to improving service delivery. The information collected from our customers and stakeholders will help ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience with the IRS’s programs. This feedback will provide insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus attention on areas where communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable communications between the IRS and its customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement of program management.
2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection
The Virtual Service Delivery Project is an opportunity to test the feasibility of providing virtual face-to-face contacts with taxpayers at Field Assistance Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC) via video conferencing technology. This technology will initially be tested in ten to twelve of the current 401 TAC locations or IRS partner sites.
The objective of the project is to provide taxpayers with alternative service delivery methods at TAC locations and outside of IRS facilities (IRS partner sites). This will allow the IRS to enhance the utilization of their current resources by correcting some staff and workload imbalances and providing access to face-to-face service interaction where currently unavailable.
The overall objective of the survey is gather data that will provide Field Assistance with information on the satisfaction of the newly implemented virtual service delivery from the taxpayers’ and employees’ perspective.
Specific research questions include:
Are customers willing to use the technology?
What are customers’ satisfaction levels with virtual service delivery?
The data collected will only be used internally for service improvement. The results of the review will be used to determine the success of the Virtual Service and determine its impact on customer service. Overall the project will help inform future decisions on whether it is beneficial to expand the virtual delivery service option.
3. Consideration Given to Information Technology
The surveys do not have a Web component because online administration is cost prohibitive.
4. Duplication of Information
No similar data are gathered or maintained by WIRA or are available from other sources known to the WIRA.
5. Reducing the Burden on Small Entities
Small businesses or other small entities are not involved in this research study.
6. Consequences of Not Conducting Collection
Without collecting taxpayer feedback about the Virtual Service Delivery Project, the IRS would not have timely information that could be used to identify potential areas where service improvements could be made.
7. Special Circumstances
N/A
8. Consultations with Persons Outside WIRA
N/A
9. Payment or Gift
The IRS will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to survey respondents.
10. Confidentiality
No personally identifiable information (PII) will be collected. Wage and Investment, Research and Analysis (WIRA) personnel will ensure the privacy, disclosure, and security of the survey results as allowed by law. Public and official access to the information will be tightly controlled as stipulated by the security requirements of the Computer Security Act of 1987 and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130.
11. Sensitive Nature
The surveys will not contain any questions that are of a sensitive nature.
12. Burden of Information Collection
The Virtual Assistance Survey is designed to minimize burden. The average time of survey completion is expected to be less than 5 minutes. The questions are generally on an elementary concept level and the structure is usually one sentence. Additionally, when designing the survey, we considered the amount of time it would take to complete the questionnaire. Accordingly, only the most important areas are being surveyed and each survey question ties back to a research question.
Based on a potential sample of 33,408 (16 taxpayers per day x 12 Virtual Assistant equipment x 174 days), and a response rate of 30 percent, we estimate 10,023 respondents. The burden hour estimate follows below.
Estimated Burden Hours
Virtual Service Customer Satisfaction Survey = 10,023 x 5 minutes = 835 hours
Total Burden – 835 hours
Estimated Annual Reporting Burden |
||||
Type of Collection |
Number of Respondents |
Annual Frequency per Response |
Hours per Response |
Total Hours |
Survey |
10,023 |
N/A |
0.083 |
835 |
13. Costs to Respondents
No costs are anticipated for respondents.
14. Costs to Federal Government
WIRA estimates that the total costs will include survey administration and data collection: $40,000 (contractor cost)
15. Reason for Change
N/A
16. Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans
WIRA will summarize the quantitative ratings of all survey items and create a report that presents the findings from the survey data. All relevant variables (from the survey) will be included in the analysis, and the survey responses will be weighted as necessary. Again, the findings are intended to improve taxpayer services provided by the IRS. WIRA will perform the following analyses for the report:
Survey counts and overall response rates
Frequencies for all survey items
Levels of customer satisfaction for various aspects of service delivery
Analysis of the relationship between survey responses
Analysis of the open-ended questions
While the WIRA does not intend to publish its findings, WIRA may receive requests to release the information (e.g., congressional inquiry, Freedom of Information Act requests). WIRA will disseminate the findings when appropriate, following IRS’s guidelines to disseminating information to the public.
17. Display of OMB Approval Date
We are not requesting an exemption.
18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
The data collection activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
B. Statistical Methods
1. Universe and Respondent Selection
Every taxpayer who receives assistance through Virtual Service will be offered the survey. The sample for the Virtual Service Project will include every taxpayer who received and participated in a virtual assistant call and who completed the survey.
2. Procedures for Collecting Information
WIRA will administer the Virtual Assistance customer satisfaction survey at a Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) or IRS partner site after every taxpayer contact. Either physical or electronic copies of the survey will be administered between October 2011 and May 2012. The survey asks respondents to evaluate various aspects of their experience during their virtual service including interaction with employee (courtesy, professionalism) and the degree to which expectations were met. The survey also asks respondents to provide an overall summary evaluation of their experience and level of satisfaction with the virtual call.
All of the surveys will be returned to WIRA where analysts will extract the data into a database and perform necessary analyses. WIRA will include any relevant database variables in the analysis and weight the survey responses as necessary.
3. Methods to Maximize Response
This study will invite every taxpayer who receives Virtual Assistance to complete the customer satisfaction survey which is intended to maximize the response rate. The survey length has also been minimized to reduce burden on the respondents which tends to increase response rates.
4. Testing of Procedures
Pretesting may be conducted with internal IRS staff.
5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
For questions regarding the study, survey design, or statistical methodology, contact:
Amber Thompson
401 W Peachtree ST NW 16-WI
Atlanta, GA 30308-3525
Telephone: (404) 338-9139
Email: [email protected]
Attachments
Field Assistance Virtual Service Customer Satisfaction Survey
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | cpclb |
| Last Modified By | mdsloa00 |
| File Modified | 2011-08-03 |
| File Created | 2011-08-03 |