GB ICE OMB 83-i SUPPORTING STATEMENT 2013_0507_V5

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR

THE INTERACTIVE CUSTOMER EVALUATION/

ENTERPRISE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER SYSTEM

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Need for Information Collection

The purpose of the Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) /Enterprise Voice of the Customer (EVoC) system is to provide the Defense community with an on-line customer feedback system, replacing the current paper comment cards and other customer satisfaction data collection mediums used by DoD organizations. Members of the public who respond on the ICE system are authorized customers and have been provided a service through DoD customer service organizations. The ICE provides a direct channel for customer needs, complaints, and suggestions in areas such as Education, Housing, Medical Facilities, Pass and ID, and installation shopping centers.

In accordance with DoD Directive 5105.53, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Administration and Management, has the responsibility to review, evaluate and develop recommendations to improve the organization, functions and management of DoD activities and programs. The ICE/EVoC system provides a medium required by Executive Order 12862 to survey customers and make information, services and complaint systems easily accessible. The ICE/EVoC system also furthers on the DoD’s information management goals, which implements Section 5123 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. The goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agency operations through the use of information technology by providing services that satisfy customer information needs.

2. Use of Information

Customer responses are sent to the appropriate facility and/or service manager. This system was developed to improve the timeliness, quality, and quantity of feedback given by customers to DoD service providers. This timely feedback allows service providers to quickly improve the quality of their services, thereby enhancing the quality of life for all members of the defense community. The data residing in the ICE system also gives community commanders, deputy commanders in chiefs, and others an opportunity to review, assess, and improve current service quality.

The following six (6) questions and a text comments block are displayed on every ICE online comment card (all non-DA&M services).

• Facility Appearance (Excellent to Awful)

• Employee/Staff Attitude {Excellent to Awful}

• Timeliness of Service {Excellent to Awful}

• Hours of Service {Excellent to Awful}

• Did the product or service meet your needs? {Y/N}

• Were you satisfied with your experience at this office / facility? {Y/N}

The following twelve (12) questions and a text comments block are displayed on every EVoC online comment card (DA&M use services only).

Please provide your level of satisfaction with the following statements:

Overall experience (Very Satisfied to Very Dissatisfied)

Quality of the completed request (Very Satisfied to Very Dissatisfied)

Time it took to complete the entire service (Very Satisfied to Very Dissatisfied)

Please provide your level of agreement with the following statements:

Individual who provided service was professional. (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)

Individual who provided service had the expertise to handle my request. (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)

Individual who provided service understood my needs and requirements. (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)

I was kept informed while my request was being processed. (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)

I understood the service process and knew what to expect. (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)

I was promptly informed about the completion of the service. (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree)

Please provide information about the service you requested:

How long did it take for the individual who provided service to respond to your initial contact?

How long did it take to complete the entire service?

Please provide information about yourself:

Please select the name of your organization:

In addition to the standard questions listed above and displayed on the screenshots included as part of the current OMB submission, one or more questions of the following types may be displayed on an individual comment card.

• Customer’s demographic grouping
  For example:

  • Your Status {list: Active Duty, Reserve, etc.}

  • Your Rank {list: Officer, Enlisted, etc.}

  • Your Branch of service {list: Air Force, Army, Navy, etc.}

  • Did you present yourself as a family member of a military sponsor when you requested/received this service? {Y/N}

Note: In the future, the specific demographic questions listed above may become standard on all cards

• Customer’s familiarity with or utilization of the indicated service
  For example:

  • How familiar are you with [our] services? {list}

  • How often do you contact us for support? {list}

  • What is your primary method of contacting [us]? {list}

  • What level of importance is [this specific service] to you? {list}
    
    

• Clarification of the specific service utilized
  For example:

  • Which service did you use? {list}

  • Which office provided you the service? {list}

  • What facility was used? {list}

• Rating of or satisfaction with attribute of indicated service/product
  For example:

  • Rate usefulness of the [service] {{Excellent to Awful}

  • How would you rate the availability of employees to assist you? {Excellent to Awful}

  • How would you rate the quality of the service that you received? {Excellent to Awful}

  • How satisfied were you with the timeliness of the services? {list}

  • How would you rate the site overall in ease of use? {Excellent to Awful}

• Rating of or satisfaction with specific underlying services, products or specific sub-tasks
  For example:

  • Availability of Equipment {Excellent to Awful}

  • Quality of [Hunting & Fishing Gear] {Excellent to Awful}

  • How would you rate the training materials? {Excellent to Awful}

• Rating of or satisfaction with personnel providing the service
  For example:

  • How would you rate the professionalism of our staff? {Excellent to Awful}

  • Employee/staff knowledge/expertise {Excellent to Awful}

  • Staff Responsiveness to Your Issue {Excellent to Awful}

  • Satisfaction with staff in the process of obtaining additional info/guidance {Excellent to Awful}

3. Use of Information Technology

The ICE system is a totally web-based application that fully utilizes current information technology to collect customer feedback. Customers submit responses via the internet which minimizes burden and provides a very efficient method of providing valuable feedback to the service providers.

4. Non-Duplication

ICE was specifically designed at the enterprise level to be used by multiple components to assess customer satisfaction in a more centralized manner so that individual components won't need to develop and deploy their own systems. ICE makes it less likely that there will be a duplication of effort to collect feedback or a duplication of the actual customer satisfaction assessments as well.

5. Burden on Small Business

There is no significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

6. Less Frequent Collection

Response is totally voluntary in nature and only occurs when the customer chooses to provide feedback to the service provider.

7. Paperwork Reduction Guidelines

There are no special circumstances. This collection of information is conducted in a manner consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).

8. Consultation and Public Comments

1. The Department of Defense, Office of the Director for Administration and Management, published a Federal Register notice on 02/19/13 seeking public comment regarding this information collection for a 60-day period. No comments were received.

2. WHS reviews on-going ICE user feedback about the ICE application and related services to improve the ICE/EVoC system via ICE system.

9. Gifts of Payment

No payment or gift is made to respondents.

10. Confidentiality

Submissions are completely anonymous unless the end user chooses to supply their contact information in order to receive a response from the service provider manager.

Appropriate steps are taken to protect the confidentiality of submissions within the ICE system. The ICE system is certified and accredited IAW DIACAP and is hosted at a secure facility by DISA. Manager access is by user accounts which are restricted by roles. The ICE Policy provides guidelines for appropriate control of data and access. In-person 3-day training provided to users/managers includes policy guidance, overview of confidentially, and guidance how to protect respondents’ confidentiality by limiting the number of demographics question on each comment cards.

11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions. The only responses are opinions on the service provided.

12. Respondent Burden Hour Estimate

1. Estimation of Respondent Burden: It takes approximately three minutes to fill out a comment card or survey. It is estimated that approximately 51,000 members of the public per year will submit responses via the ICE system. The estimate of public respondent burden is computed as follows: 51,000 @ 3 minutes each = 153,000 minutes or 2,550 hours.
   
   Note: Most submissions to the ICE system are from government employees providing feedback on services provided by a DoD organization in the performance of their duties. A small subset of total submissions come from the “public”.

2. b. Labor Cost of Respondent Burden: The hourly rate was computed using an average income based on U.S. OPM 2012 General Schedule, GS-9, Step 5, as follows;

1. 2,550 (hours) x $ 22.57 (per hour) = $57,553
   
   

13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs

1. Total capital and start-costs: There is no cost to respondents.

2. Total operation and maintenance costs: There is no cost to respondents.

14. Costs to the Federal Government

The estimated cost for collecting this data is $364,565 annually ($110,000 for server hosting at DISA and $254,565 for 3 Government FTEs to maintain the system and support users). This system and the afore mentioned FTEs also directly support the collection of over 900,000 submissions from DoD employees located at over 700 bases around the world annually.

15. Reason for Change in Burden

The reduction in burden estimates reflects a more accurate population classification. Specifically, it is now possible to more accurately differentiate between the two populations: members of the public vs. DoD employees. The 2010 OMB submission included DoD Employees in the cost of burden estimate, and that accounts for the large difference between the two submissions.

16. Publication of Results

Managers can view summarized responses for any specified time period. There is no published report.

17. Non-display of OMB Expiration Date

The OSD Office of Administration and Management is not seeking a waiver from the requirement to display the expiration date of the OMB approval of the information collection.

2. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

The ICE system does not employ statistical methods. There is no statistical sampling involved in the ICE system.

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