FY 2010 Office Visitor Survey

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE
OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Office Visitor Survey
SSA SUB-NUMBER: D-02
DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY (give purpose of activity, provide specific information; i.e.,
date(s) of survey, number of focus groups, locations, etc.):
BACKGROUND:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) annually surveys individuals who do business with us
to assess their satisfaction with the specific mode of contact they used. As part of this effort, we
will conduct the FY 2010 Office Visitor Survey, in which we will survey members of the public
who visited one of SSA’s field offices (FO) or hearings offices (HO) to complete their business.
We have designed the survey, which we will conduct shortly after the participant visits the
FO/HO, to 1) assess public perception of the in-person service provided by SSA FOs/HOs and
2) collect information that helps SSA understand the customer experience behind satisfaction
ratings. The Office Visitor Survey is one of three annual surveys (along with the 800 Number
Caller and Field Office Caller surveys) that SSA uses to produce its performance indicator,
“percent of individuals doing business with SSA who rate overall service excellent, very good or
good.”
SURVEY:
Description of Survey
The Office Visitor Survey uses a brief, scannable questionnaire that SSA mails out to selected
respondents. When SSA receives the completed surveys, we forward them to our contractors,
who scan them and prepare a data file of survey results. SSA then computes data tabulations and
conducts an analysis of the survey findings.
To ensure a higher response rate, SSA will send a Pre-Notice postcard letting participants know
they will soon be receiving a survey. Some time after we send the survey, we will mail out a
follow-up postcard to remind participants about the survey and encourage them to complete it.
The survey will cover multiple FO/HO visit customer satisfaction questions, including the
following:


Satisfaction with office location, hours, signs and instructions, comfort, appearance, privacy,
and waiting time;

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

Satisfaction with the performance of SSA employees, including their helpfulness, courtesy,
job knowledge and clarity of explanations;



Whether the person was able to take care of all business completely during the visit;



The person’s overall satisfaction with the service received during the visit;



The person’s service preferences for future business, including questions about use of the
Internet for SSA business.

We have attached a copy of the questionnaire and the accompanying survey correspondence to
this submission. This attached version is identical to the last approved version, except for the
following changes:


In Question 9, we revised “waiting time to be helped” to “waiting time to be served in the
office.” The new wording makes it clearer that the question is referring to the actual
physical waiting time and not referring to how long the customer may wait for SSA to
resolve a problem.



In Question 10, we revised the first time interval from “less than 10 minutes” to “up to
10 minutes.” This wording more accurately describes waiting times of 10 minutes or less.

Statistical Information
Sample Selection and Methodology
SSA maintains over 1,300 FOs and 140 HOs that serve over 40 million visitors annually. We
select 52 FOs and 13 HOs to participate in the Office Visitor Survey each year. We use random,
stratified selection to select FOs to ensure representation of each of SSA’s 10 regions. We select
HOs randomly on a national level.
We randomly assign each sampled office one week within a 4-week survey period to record
identifying information for every office visitor who conducts business with SSA. The
receptionist records each visitor’s name, address, telephone number, language preference, and
customer segment (which identifies the type of business the visitor conducted) into a database.
At the end of each work day, the office sends a file containing the visitor information collected
that day to the Office of Quality Performance (OQP) statistical staff in Central Office. OQP
selects a random sample of 275 FO customers from each day's visitors, proportional to the
number of visitors in each office that day, plus 35 HO visitors, to participate in the survey. This
results in approximately 5,890 sampled customers who receive a questionnaire during the course
of the survey. OQP combines the files, selects the sample cases, and transmits the names and
addresses of survey participants to the contractor, who prints and mails the survey questionnaire.
We repeat the sampling process on each business day of the 4-week period.

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Response Rate
SSA takes the following steps to maximize response rates for this survey:


To minimize the time between the customers’ service experience and the survey, thereby
ensuring salience, we select samples daily and transmit them to the contractor within
2-3 business days of the FO/HO visit.



We mail out a Pre-Notice postcard a few days after sample selection to inform participants
that 1) we have selected them for the survey and 2) they should be on the lookout for the
envelope containing the questionnaire. Using a postcard format allows the recipient to
quickly see that the survey is sanctioned by SSA. Additionally, the postcard identifies the
contractor who is conducting the survey for SSA, which should increase the likelihood that
participants will open the envelope when they receive the questionnaire.



We mail out the actual survey questionnaire within 3 business days of sending the PreNotice postcard. An SSA official signs an enclosed cover letter, which encourages the
individual to respond by emphasizing the importance of the survey and the confidentiality of
the responses.



Five business days after the first mailing, we mail out a follow-up letter and a duplicate
questionnaire to all individuals in the sample. We do not send more than one follow-up
because responses for service satisfaction surveys must be obtained shortly after the date of
the contact (while respondents' perceptions are still fresh) to ensure their validity and utility.



The questionnaire is short and has an eye-catching title. We have designed the scannable
questionnaire for ease of use by an aged and disabled population, e.g., font sizes are large,
difficult fill-in bubbles are not used.



We will send a Spanish version of the survey to those visitors identified in the sample
selection process as preferring doing business in Spanish.

Using methods similar to these, we have achieved a consistent response rate of approximately
50 percent response rate with past Office Visitor Surveys. These response rates are the highest
possible considering that time permits only a limited number of contacts. We expect to achieve
an equally good response rate in the upcoming survey.
Sampling Variability
The sample size of 5,890 is large enough, assuming a 50 percent response rate, to provide a
sampling variability at the 95-percent confidence level of +/-1.1 percent for the key indicator of
overall satisfaction (which was 88 percent in the most recent Office Visitor Survey).
The Office of Quality Performance (OQP) will perform all sampling and data analysis. Dan
Zabronsky, Director of SSA’s Division of Modeling in OQP, provides statistical support, and is
available for discussion of statistical-related issues.
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IF FOCUS GROUP MEMBERS WILL RECEIVE A PAYMENT, INDICATE AMOUNT:
We will not compensate participants for this survey.
USE OF SURVEY RESULTS:
SSA will use the results of this survey to evaluate and improve various aspects of its FO and HO
service. In addition, we will use the study results in combination with results from the Field
Office Caller and 800 Number Caller surveys to report a combined performance indicator of
customer satisfaction for the agency each year.
BURDEN HOUR COMPUTATION (Number of responses (X) estimated response time (/60) =
annual burden hours):
Number of Responses: 5,890
Estimated Response Time: 5 minutes
Annual Burden Hours: 491 hours
NAME OF CONTACT PERSON: Deborah A. Larwood
TELEPHONE NUMBER:

410-966-6135

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