Customer Survey Template

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE

OF CUSTOMER SERVICE SATISFACTION COLLECTIONS

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

(the collection that is the subject of the 10-day review request)

[ ] SURVEY [ X] FOCUS GROUP [ ] SOFTWARE USABILITY TESTING

DESCRIPTION OF THIS SPECIFIC COLLECTION

Purpose of the Research, Need for the Collection, and Planned Use of the Data

The office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), working in conjunction with its vendor, Campbell-Ewald, is conducting a study to evaluate the effectiveness of designs for FSA’s new customer website and social media properties in supporting brand messaging and user segmentation.

The study will determine:

1. User perceptions of the brand identity as displayed on the FSA website and new media properties (Facebook, YouTube)

2. User expectations of the website (e.g., what information they expect to find)

3. How users progress through the segmentation of the website (e.g., do users find the information relevant to their needs)

The study will collect feedback from participants that will be used to validate and/or refine the FSA’s interactive creative components. Additionally, this research will evaluate how well the interactive assets meet the needs of the organization’s core audience.

Dates, Locations, and Collection Procedures

The interviews will be conducted Dec. 19-22, 2011. The research will be conducted via 30 minute, one-on-one online interviews. Interviewees will participate from the comfort of their own homes and will be shown the creative via an online system/website. This methodology replicates the experience respondents will have when viewing the live website and minimizes research bias. The methodology will also enable FSA and its vendor to recruit participants that are dispersed geographically.

Description of Respondents/Participants

The research will be conducted among five core audiences determined by FSA’s communication priorities for 2012: high school students, parents of high school students, non-traditional students, college students, and borrowers/college graduates.

The participants will be recruited from a national sample. Respondents must have access to the Internet via laptop or desktop; dial-up Internet subscribers will be excluded from the study. All participants will have a household income of less than $75,000; efforts will be made to obtain a representative sample of households with incomes under $50,000 and under $30,000. Quotas will be set to ensure that each segment has one African-American and one Hispanic respondent. Hispanic participants must be fluent in English.

35 Total Sample

5 High School Seniors

5 High School Juniors

5 Parents of High School Seniors

5 College Students, ages 18 – 24

5 Non-traditional students, ages 25+

10 College Graduates, age 25+

Parents of high school seniors must not be related to the students participating in the study.

College students must be enrolled in a two or four-year college or trade or vocational school and be pursuing an undergraduate education.

Non-traditional students must be either enrolled in a two or four-year college or trade or vocational school, or be planning to enroll in such an institution within six months of this study. They must not be currently enrolled in a graduate level program or serving in the military.

College graduates must have graduated from a two or four-year college or trade or vocational school and be paying back student loans. They must not be currently enrolled in a graduate level program or serving in the military.

Amount of Any Proposed Stipend or Incentive

Participants will be provided monetary incentives of $125 upon completion of their participation in the interview. The cost of incentives is included in the vendor contract. The incentives account for:

• The participants’ time 

• The difficulty in recruiting largely lower or middle income participants (i.e. those who are most likely to benefit for federal financial assistance for college)

• The difficulty in recruiting participants since the interviews will occur during the week of Hanukah and the week prior to Christmas  

Burden Hour Computation (Number of responses (X) estimated response or participation time in minutes (/60) = annual burden hours):

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
High School Seniors	5	30 minutes	2.5 hours
High School Juniors	5	30 minutes	2.5 hours
Parents of High School Seniors	5	30 minutes	2.5 hours
College Students (18 – 24)	5	30 minutes	2.5 hours
Non-traditional students (25+)	5	30 minutes	2.5 hours
College Graduates (25+)	10	30 minutes	5 hours
Totals	35		17.5 hours

Statistical Information If statistical methods are to be used, fully describe the methodology, sample selection, expected response rates, and any other concepts needed to provide a full understanding of those methods.

Since this is a qualitative study, statistical information will not be used.

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