Supporting Statement
Approval Request to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research (OMB #1545-1432)
C&L Customer Satisfaction Survey
JUSTIFICATION
Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
In order to work continuously to ensure that Communications & Liaison are effective and meet our customers’ needs, C&L seeks to obtain OMB approval to collect qualitative feedback on services provided by C&L through the Tax Forums. 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 C&L to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner, in accordance with our commitment to improving service delivery. 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.
Purpose and Use of the Information Collection
Improving agency programs requires ongoing assessment of service delivery. C&L will use a vendor to collect, analyze, and interpret information gathered to identify strengths and weaknesses of current services. C&L will make improvements in service delivery based on survey feedback.
By conducting this survey, C&L expects to accomplish the following objectives:
To measure the level of customer satisfaction concerning services provided to the customer during Tax Forums.
To gain insight on improvements that can be made to products and services.
Consideration Given to Information Technology
Surveys will be distributed using email to reduce burden.
Duplication of Information
This survey will provide valuable information that is not available in any IRS data source.
Reducing the Burden on Small Entities
NA
Consequences of Not Conducting Collection
Continued improvement of the program’s effectiveness and its ability to meet our customer needs would not be possible without continuous evaluation and examination of through customer and stakeholder feedback. Conducting a customer satisfaction survey is the most efficient and cost effective way to gather valuable feedback and improve service delivery.
Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be voluntary and will not be used for statistical purposes.
Consultations with Persons Outside the Agency
NA
Payment or Gift
C&L will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to respondents of its various forms of collecting feedback.
Confidentiality
No PII will be collected during the survey.
Sensitive Nature
No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature.
Burden of Information Collection
The estimated time to complete the survey is ten minutes, but some variation in the length of time required to answer the survey is expected. Assuming a 45 percent response rate, the burden hours (390) requested are based on the number of collections we expect to conduct over the requested period for this clearance (collection start date: June 1, 2012; collection end date: September 30, 2012).
Estimated Annual Reporting Burden |
||||
Type of Collection |
No. of Respondents |
Annual Frequency per Response |
Hours per Response |
Total Hours |
Solicitation via email to take the survey (5197 x 1 minute /60 = 87) |
5,197 |
1 |
1 minute |
87 hours |
Private Sector: Tax Forum Participants (5197 requests with a 45% response rate of 2339 x 10 mins/60=390) |
2,339 |
1 |
10 minutes |
390 hours |
Total |
|
|
|
477 hours |
Costs to Respondents
No costs are anticipated.
Costs to Federal Government
Contract Cost: $49,840.
Reason for Change
Not applicable.
Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans
Feedback collected provides useful information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the overall population. Findings will be used for general service improvement, but are not for publication or other public release.
Although C&L does not intend to publish its findings, C&L may receive requests to release the information (e.g., congressional inquiry, Freedom of Information Act requests). C&L will disseminate the findings when appropriate, strictly following IRS’ "Guidelines for Ensuring the Quality of Information Disseminated to the Public.", and will include specific discussion of the limitation of the qualitative results discussed above.
Display of OMB Approval Date
We are requesting no exemption.
Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
B. STATISTICAL METHODS
The primary purpose of these collections will be for internal management purposes; there are no plans to publish or otherwise release this information.
Universe and Respondent Selection
Attendees of the Tax Forum complete a questionnaire at the end of the Forum to rate the seminars, the venue and other services provided at the Forum. We ask if we may contact them for additional information regarding their experience. If they answer "yes", we ask that they provide an email address at which the may be contacted. We use the email addresses to develop a sample size.
Procedures for Collecting Information
The survey will be emailed to customers who agree to participate. Surveys links will be emailed for easier access/completion. See Attachment A for copy of email script, Attachment B for a copy of the survey. Two follow-up email will be sent, copies of those messages are included in Attachment A.
Methods to Maximize Response
Following up:
The feedback received will not institute new policy, yet enable the C&L to meet taxpayer needs.
As a reminder to complete the survey, a follow-up email script has been developed. The Vendor will send this out to those customers who received the survey as a reminder to complete the survey as soon as possible. This will be sent two weeks after the conclusion of the Tax Forum. A third and final email reminder will be sent two weeks from the reminder email. See Attachment A for a copy of the follow-up script.
Testing of Procedures
Testing of procedures will be conducted by the vendor contracted to conduct the customer satisfaction survey.
Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
All development, design, conduct and data analysis is being done by the vendor contracted to conduct the customer satisfaction survey.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Supporting Statement |
| Author | mdsloa00 |
| Last Modified By | mdsloa00 |
| File Modified | 2012-04-12 |
| File Created | 2012-04-12 |