Justification_12_May_2015

Department of Justice

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

Information Collection Request

Supporting Statement

Renewal # 1140-0101

Firearms & Explosives Services Division Customer Service Survey

1. Justification

1. The Firearms & Explosives Services Division (FESD) provides services to the firearms and explosives industry with respect to dealer licensing, and the importation and transfers of weapons. To ensure the FESD is providing the highest level of customer satisfaction, feedback from our customer base is essential to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the customer service that is provided by FESD. This anonymous survey allows FESD to gauge the level of customer satisfaction, and allow for focused attention to areas of potential deficiency. In addition, internal audits have demonstrated the requirement of a Division level survey allows for the benefits described above.

2. The FESD survey will be available to the public through online submission, as well as paper submission, but only upon request of the respondent. The information will be submitted anonymously, unless the submitter willfully chooses to furnish their name and contact information so that management can contact the submitter regarding any concerns stated in the survey. The submission of the survey is strictly voluntary. The decision to submit or not submit a survey would have no bearing on the service provided to any one individual who is deciding whether or not to submit a survey. The purpose of the survey is to gather information related to the customer services provided to the firearms and explosives industry in whole, and to determine how customer satisfaction in general can be increased.

3. The collection of responses to the FESD Customer Service Survey will be conducted online through a link that is posted on the Firearms Industry page and the Service Centers Contact page of the ATF.gov website. The survey will be run by industry standard software that will allow for the collection of the data in whole with the ability to sort the data by respective branch response. The use of electronic remission will improve the overall process efficiency in several ways. First, the review of the information submitted in the responses will be in a format that is easily sorted, reviewed and summarized for identification of areas that may require attention to enhance customer service. Second, the electronic submission of the survey will reduce the public burden related to responding to the survey by eliminating the need for hand written responses, preparation of mailing material, and cost of postage. Finally, electronic submission will drastically reduce the cost to the government by eliminating the costs of stationary and postage related to survey disbursement, and reduce the manpower hours required to review survey submissions.

4. ATF uses a uniform subject classification system to identify duplication and to ensure that any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purpose of this information collection. No surveys currently exist that meet this requirement.

5. The collection of information related to this survey will have no impact on small businesses.

6. The absence of this collection would result in a negative impact on customer service within the Division branches.

7. There are no special circumstances. This data will be collected in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. A 60-day and 30-day Federal Register Notice was published in order to solicit comments from the general public. No comments were received.

9. No payments or gifts are provided to respondents.

10. Confidentiality is not assured. The survey is submitted anonymously. The survey stated that submissions are anonymous, and the decision to provide any contact information is voluntary and provided in non-required fields within the survey.

11. There are no questions of a sensitive nature asked within the survey.

12. The estimated number of responses is 18,200. The estimated time to complete the survey is 5 minutes, per respondent. This estimate is based upon the execution of the survey during testing phases and anticipated responses once the survey is fully utilized. The estimated total annual burden hours associated with this collection is 1517. (18,200 responses x 5 minutes = 91,000 divided by 60 = 1517) While FESD services all individuals and businesses within the firearms and explosives industry, it is not anticipated that surveys will be submitted each time a business or individual has contact with FESD or one of its branches.

13. There is no cost burden to the respondents.

14. The total capital and start-up cost component for this survey was $3,000.00. Since the expected useful life of the survey can be indefinite, the annualized costs cannot be exactly determined, but would decrease for each year the survey would be in place. The operational cost component would be measured in manpower hours executed inside the scope of duty of individuals responsible for the survey (no additional costs above normal).

15. There are no changes or adjustments.

16. The results of the information collected will not be published.

17. ATF does not request approval to not display the expiration date of OMB approval for this information collection.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement.

2. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

The survey itself is not being sent out to a defined group or the public as a whole, but rather to a combination of a defined group (individuals and businesses who are licensed or have had permits issued by ATF) and a small population of the public (individuals or businesses who are not currently licensed or have not currently obtained permits from ATF, but are contacting the Firearms and Explosives Services Division to inquire into or initiate the procedure to do so).  While the universe for the survey cannot be determined to be an exact number, ATF estimates that the size may be 182,000. ATF estimates 18,200 responses may be obtained based upon a universe size of 182,000 and an estimated response rate of 10 %. The estimated response rate of 10 % was determined based upon internet research obtained from PracticalSurveys.com’s Query Group that states that survey response rates from the general public may be between 1% and 20%. For our purposes, we used 10% with the understanding that a defined number of responses would be obtained after further awareness of the survey is established, and that this defined figure would be used in future approval processes. (182,000 x 10% = 18,200; or 18,200/182000 = 10%).

The response to the survey is completely voluntary, and participation in the survey would be initiated by the individual responding, not the agency.  The procedure for the data collection will be via an online link provided on the agency website.  The link will open the electronic survey and answers will be collected within a database dedicated to the survey.  Hardcopies of the survey will be made available during conferences attended by the Division for submission via mail, and the results will be included with the electronic submissions.  Responses will be maximized by offering the link to the survey on the agency website, as well as instructing our Customer Service Representatives to inform callers about the option to fill out a survey online.  In addition, the survey will be discussed at public functions attended by the Division.  Missing data would not be relevant to the survey since each question is separate to itself and an answer to one question would not impact an answer to another.  Responses to all questions are voluntary.

The primary method of dissemination will be via a link on the ATF website.  Industry members who contact FESD or one of its branches will be told about the link on the website if they would like to participate in the survey.  There has been discussion to have targeted pop-ups (individuals who visit FESD locations within the ATF website, email signature links (not unsolicited – responses to industry or public) or methods such as this to promote the survey.  Industry members who contact FESD via phone, or who have contact with FESD employees at functions such as conferences, will also be given the option (should they ask) to receive a paper copy of the survey that they could fill out and mail into FESD.  At present, FESD does not have plans to have the link to the survey in any unsolicited emails (only in the signature block of a respondent).  If FESD decides to use an unsolicited email method in the future, we would first go through OMB for approval since this would have an effect on respondent base and estimated burden hours.