OMB Notice of Action Requirements

Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Voice of the Veteran (VOV) Surveys

Notice of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Action

OMB Notice of Action Requirements: By the time of the next submission, VA will provide an assessment of whether the items that are unrelated to customer satisfaction are necessary/appropriate in this set of surveys, and a re-assessment of whether any of the items can be obtained from administrative data.

VBA Response: VBA recognized a need to develop and design an integrated, comprehensive Voice of the Veteran (VOV) measurement program for its lines of business: Compensation Service (CS), Pension and Fiduciary Service (P&F), Education (EDU) Service, Loan Guaranty (LGY) Service and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Service. The results from the surveys will enable VBA to obtain customer satisfaction information from Veterans. As a result, VBA will be able to determine the effectiveness and usability of the benefits offered, as well as assess the level of satisfaction with the level of service provided by VBA. The data collected will be used by VBA to make improvements to the benefit application and enrollment process, which in turn, will enable VBA to maximize the efficiency and quality of service provided to its nation’s Veterans and their dependents.

The items that are unrelated to customer satisfaction are necessary and appropriate in this set of surveys. The entire Veteran experience influences a Veteran’s satisfaction level. This set of surveys encompasses the entire customer satisfaction experience as a whole. This comprehensive approach enables VBA to collect complex data that identifies areas for improvement and better enables VBA to formulate program and policy changes around these metrics. Initially, all surveys were streamlined as requested by OMB prior to the actual fielding of the VOV benchmark study. These surveys were streamlined to identify the most influential elements of the Veterans’ experiences pertaining to overall satisfaction. Findings from the benchmark study does not warrant any additional changes to the design of the surveys; however, changes were made to the servicing sampling definitions to ensure the entire population is captured across the lines of business, as well as an increase in the number of completed survey returns. (see Supporting Statements A & B)

All items obtained administratively are used in conjunction with information collected from respondents to deliver customer satisfaction measures. Assessment of the sample files provided by the lines of business and findings show that no items obtained in this set of surveys could be collected administratively. The satisfaction with the customer experience is based on perceived variables as well as actual data. Perception greatly impacts customer satisfaction scores. The methodology for the collection of this data is able to quantify the impact of perception on customer satisfaction scores. Items collected measure the customers’ perceived experience against their actual experience. Items collected administratively and from both the respondents form a whole picture of the overall Veterans’ experience/satisfaction.

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