Supporting Statement
Approval Request to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research
OMB # 1545-1432
Return Preparer Office Customer Satisfaction Survey
A. JUSTIFICATION
1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
The IRS Return Preparer Office (RPO) Continuing Education Division is conducting an online survey to measure customer satisfaction for IRS Continuing Education (CE) Providers using the online IRS CE Provider system known as CEPARS. The RPO Continuing Education division has a contractual obligation with the external vendor Kinsail Corporation to perform a survey of CEPARS system users. Feedback from IRS customers (IRS Approved CE Providers) is very important in order to assess the current satisfaction rate and to evaluate the system ease of use and to consider needed improvement efforts if necessary.
2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection
The primary goals of the survey are to measure customer satisfaction, and to improve efficiency and usability of the CEPARS system.
3. Consideration Given to Information Technology Sample Design
The survey questionnaire will be administered online via the CEPARS system when IRS CE Providers visit their online CE provider secured email account.
4. Efforts Not to Duplicate Research
This is the only study being conducted by the IRS to measure the satisfaction of IRS Approved Continuing Education providers regarding vendor performance (Kinsail Corporation).
5. Reducing the Burden on Small Entities Expected Response Rate
N/A
6. Consequences of Not Conducting Collection
If the survey is not conducted, the Return Preparer Office (RPO) Division of the IRS will not be able to measure external customer satisfaction, or efficiency and usability of the vendor’s system. Feedback from customers is critical in order to assess perceptions of the CEPARS system and to help develop system improvement actions. This would prevent us from making system improvements and allow our vendor to fulfill a contractual obligation.
7. Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be completely voluntary for all IRS CE Providers using the CEPARS system during both online registration and renewal processes.
8. Consultations with Persons Outside
N/A
9. Payment of Gift
N/A
10. Confidentiality
The survey will not contain tax return or taxpayer information. Survey participants will not be identified in any of the documents or files used for this project. We will limit and control the amount of information we collect to those items that are necessary to accomplish the research questions. We will carefully safeguard the security of data utilized as well as the privacy of the survey respondents. We will apply the fair information and record-keeping practices to ensure protection of all survey respondents to the extent allowed by law. The criterion for disclosure laid out in the Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the protection of information as well as its releases to authorized recipients.
11. Sensitive Nature
No questions will be asked that are of personal or sensitive nature.
12. Burden of Information Collection
The RPO Continuing Education Provider Customer Satisfaction Survey has been designed to minimize burden. The time that a respondent takes to complete the survey has been carefully considered and only the most important areas are being surveyed.
It is anticipated that that 1,500 contacts will be made to solicit for survey responses of which the participation time of each respondent is 1 minute. When using a 30% response rate we expect 450 responses. The actual survey completion time is 5 minutes.
Category of Respondent |
No. of Respondents |
Participation Time (in minutes)* |
Burden (in hours) |
Requesting IRS CE Providers to take survey |
1500 |
1 minute |
25 hrs
(1min*1500prvdrs= 1500 min) or 25 hours (1500/60) |
IRS CE Providers that participate in survey |
450 |
5 min |
37.5 hrs
(5min*450 prvdrs= 2250 min) or 37.5 hrs (2250/60)
|
Totals |
|
6 min (1+5min) |
62.5 hrs (25+37.5 hrs) |
Estimated Response Rate: 30%
13. Costs to Respondents
N/A
14. Costs to Federal Government
None – Contractual obligation of vendor (Kinsail Corporation)
15. Reason for Change
N/A
16. Tabulation of Results, Schedule, and Analysis Plans
When IRS CE Providers use the CEPARS online CE Provider system, they will be asked to take the survey online during either the registration or renewal process. The RPO CE division will receive survey results information from the vendor (Kinsail Corporation) in a consolidated and timely fashion as the CE Providers take the online survey.
The survey results from the IRS Approved CE Providers will play a very important part to evaluate the system ease of use and to consider needed improvement efforts if necessary.
17. Display of OMB Approval Date
N/A
18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
These activities will comply with the requirement in 5 CFR 1320.9.
19. Dates collection will begin and end
Collection will begin shortly after OMB approval and will be an ongoing survey for new CE Providers and during CE Provider renewal season beginning October 1st, 2012 and ending June 30th, 2013.
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. The RPO Customer Satisfaction survey is attached. The survey asks respondents to evaluate various aspects of the CEPARS system. The results should facilitate more effective vendor services of by providing insight from the customer’s perspective about possible improvements. The surveys include several rating questions evaluating the vendors system (CEPARS). Satisfaction questions will utilize a 5-point rating scale, with 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree.
Universe and Respondent Selection
IRS CE Providers will be asked to take the survey during the IRS CE Provider registration and renewal process.
Procedures for Collecting Information
IRS RPO Continuing Education Division vender Kinsail Corporation will be responsible for collecting the data and the IRS RPO Division will be responsible for conducting the data analysis and making final recommendations for enhancements to the vendor. When IRS CE Providers use the CEPARS online CE Provider system, they will be asked to take the survey online during either the registration or renewal process. The RPO CE division will receive survey results information from the vendor (Kinsail Corporation) in a consolidated and timely fashion as the CE Providers take the online survey.
Methods to Maximize Response
RPO Continuing education will attempt to achieve an overall 30% response rate in the surveys. We plan to maximize the response rate by allowing CE Providers to access the survey during the registration and account renewal processes. The system will have pop-up messages to catch the CE Providers attention after the completion of the registration and renewal processes. Additionally, we plan to announce the survey opportunity via other communication means such as any conference calls, news bulletins on their provider page, or perhaps through secured emails in their CE Provider account. Please reference the attachment titled “Customer Satisfaction Survey and Basic Wording for all Communications”. The first tab in the document is titled “Screener Solicitation & Survey” displays the wording that will be used in the pop-up screener solicitations prior to respondents taking the survey. The second tab in the document is titled “Email Solicitation” contains the email solicitation language that will be used in the email solicitation to the provider’s secured email accounts. Both tabs display the basic language that will be used in all survey solicitation announcements.
Testing of Procedures
Pretesting will be conducted to ensure system business and technical requirements are met.
Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
For questions regarding the study, questionnaire design or statistical methodology, contact:
Susan Gaston
Director, Continuing Education Division
913-722-7566
Attachment
Survey and Basic Wording for all Communications
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | OMB SUPPORTING STATEMENT |
| Author | sherri.a.settle |
| Last Modified By | mdsloa00 |
| File Modified | 2012-08-01 |
| File Created | 2012-08-01 |