Supporting Statement
Information Collection (ICR) Approval Request to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research (OMB #1545-1432)
Title: CSCO Customer Satisfaction Survey Card Insert
JUSTIFICATION
Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary – Wage and Investment Compliance Services Collection Operation (CSCO) is required to use customer satisfaction surveys to assess how well taxpayers are being served as part of the IRS Balanced Measures. Right now, the CSCO survey procedure involves a follow-up phone survey. The phone-based survey is not ideal because of a one month delay involved in accumulating a sample, and because phone numbers are not captured for all taxpayers with CSCO cases. The survey proposed in this document would test of a new survey administration technique wherein the customer satisfaction questionnaire is included in the closing letter as a postage-paid postcard. It is believed that, if response rates are acceptable, this method is preferable because of potential recall and sampling biases possible within the current phone-based testing procedure.
Purpose and Use of the Information Collection – Comparison between the information collected using this survey and the existing survey will provide an estimate of the effectiveness and accuracy of a insert-based method of testing taxpayer satisfaction with the service provided by CSCO. It is believed that This survey will be run concurrently with the existing phone-based survey to facilitate accurate comparison. The comparison will include, response rate and consistency of responses.
Consideration Given to Information Technology – Because we would like to test the effectiveness of providing a survey with the closing letter, limited consideration was given to using information technology to administer this survey
Duplication of Information – There will be duplication of information collected because of concurrent collection through survey card insert and phone-based survey methods. This redundancy is necessary to permit comparison between the two methods.
Reducing the Burden on Small Entities – This survey, because it is administered in written form potentially imposes much less burden on the respondent compared to the phone-based interview currently in use. In addition, the comparable or superior response rate anticipated with this mode will mean a smaller sample may be necessary, reducing overall burden in addition to decreasing cost.
Consequences of Not Conducting Collection – Not conducting this survey would mean that the decision about whether to switch to a insert-type closing survey instead of a phone-based closing survey would not benefit from data based comparison.
Special Circumstances – N/A
Consultations with Persons Outside the Agency – N/A
Payment or Gift – N/A
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.
Sensitive Nature – No information of sensitive nature will be collected
Burden of Information Collection
The total annual burden hours requested (86.67 hrs.). The estimated time to complete the survey is four minutes and a 40 percent response rate is assumed. We expect to contact 2000 (2000x1/60=33.33) potential participants of which 800 (800x4/60=86.67) are expected to respond to the survey. The contact time to determine non-participation is 1 minute.
Type of Collection |
Participation |
Response Time (minutes) |
Total Burden (Hours) |
Potential participants |
2000 |
1 minute |
33.33 hrs. |
Customers who respond to survey (subset of above) |
800 |
4 minutes |
53.33 hrs. |
Grand Total (column 4) |
|
|
86.67 hrs. |
Costs to Respondents
Not Applicable.
Costs to Federal Government
Under the USPS guidelines provided here [ https://www.usps.com/business/reply-mail.htm ] return postage will be paid only for survey cards returned to W&I Research and Analysis. Assuming a 40% response rate for 2000 survey questionnaire cards, the postage cost will be $264. This survey will incur no additional outgoing cost as the questionnaire will be included as part of a regular closed case letter.
Reason for Change
Not applicable.
Tabulation of Results, Schedule, and Analysis Plans – Results will be tabulated on Mondays for responses received during the prior week. Tabulation will continue for six weeks after the close of the survey fielding period. Tabulation of survey results includes scanning categorical responses as well as transcription of open-ended responses.
Display of OMB Approval Date
Not applicable
Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
19. Dates Collection of Information will Begin and End: November 2013 – November 2014
B. STATISTICAL METHODS
Universe and Respondent Selection – for the purposes of testing the effectiveness of this mode of administration, the sample will be drawn by manually including survey questionnaires in randomly selected closing letters.
Procedures for Collecting Information – Respondents will return postage prepaid questionnaire cards. Returned cards will be scanned using teleform technology, automatically converting results into a data set.
Methods to Maximize Response - The survey will be of lesser length than the existing phone-based survey, and it will be provided to potential respondents at the moment they receive letters closing their CSCO action. The current method relies on phone calls weeks after the case is closed. We believe that an opportunity to provide feedback at the moment of resolution may increase response rate, help better target the CSCO area, and decrease recall bias.
Testing of Procedures – The questionnaire is an established and tested survey instrument. If changes are made to the questionnaire, only minor changes are expected. Revising the coding scheme for open-ended questions is one example.
Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
Ben Shackleford
Wage and Investment Research and Analysis
Desk: 404-338-8970
Mobile: 678-860-1279
Kahoa Bonhomme
Wage and Investment Research and Analysis
Desk: 404-338-8474
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE |
| Author | 558022 |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-30 |