End-of-call Customer Satisfaction Survey for the Collection of Stakeholder Feedback Concerning Call Center Performance

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number 3060-1149)

TITLE OF THE STUDY: End-of-call Customer Satisfaction Survey for the Collection of Stakeholder Feedback Concerning Call Center Performance.

PURPOSE:

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) administers the Universal Service Fund (USF). It strives to ensure that external stakeholders are continuously receiving quality service. USAC seeks approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) to collect feedback from persons who have called into USAC’s call centers with questions concerning USF programs.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents will include individuals and representatives of carriers, service providers, and governmental entities, who contact one of USAC’s call center.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other:

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who will contact our call centers

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ x ] Yes [ ] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? Yes (see attached).

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? Yes (see attached). FCC/WCB-1, Lifeline Program, 82 Fed. Reg. 38686 (2017).

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ x ] No

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondent	Call Volumes (Monthly Number of Calls)	Estimated Number of Respondents (est. 15% of Callers)	Participa-tion Time	Burden (Total Minutes)
High Cost	200	30	1 minute	30 minutes
Lifeline	20,000	3,000	1 minute	50 hours
Rural Health Care	700	105	1 minute	1.75 hours
Schools and Libraries Division	5,500	825	1 minute	13.75 hours
TOTALS	26,400	3,960	1 minute	66 hours

FEDERAL COST: There will be no additional costs to the Federal Communications Commission because the costs of administering the USF, including the costs of assessing customer and stakeholder satisfaction with the services provided, are already budgeted as part of USAC’s operations as USF Administrator. Moreover, this survey is included in USAC’s contract with the third party contractor who runs the call centers. Therefore, there are no additional costs to the Federal government.

Appendix

Background:

USAC administers the collection and disbursement of USF funds under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The law adopted explicit goals to guide the implementation of universal service policies. These goals include: (1) promoting the availability of quality services; (2) increasing access to advanced telecommunications services throughout the nation; (3) advancing the availability of such services to all consumers, including those with a low income and those who live in rural, insular, and high cost areas, at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas; (4) increasing access to telecommunications and advanced services in schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities; and (5) providing equitable and nondiscriminatory contributions from all providers of telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal service programs.

In an effort to better understand the stakeholder experience and improve the service that USAC provides its stakeholders; USAC will conduct an optional satisfaction survey at the end of the call with a call center agent. The survey will be conducted over the telephone using an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) and will ask stakeholders a limited number of questions about their experience with the call center agent. At the end of a call, the stakeholder will be given the option to participate in the survey or decline participation. If, at any time during the survey, the stakeholder decides they do not want to continue to take the survey, they can simply hang up the telephone. The survey will ask no more than four questions and respondents will rate their call center experience on a scale of 1-5 (1- Very Satisfied, 2- Satisfied, 3- Neutral, 4- Dissatisfied, 5- Very Dissatisfied) or they will be asked a question that can be answered with Yes- Press 1, No- Press 2, and Neutral- Press 3, using the numbers on their telephone to make their selection.

Stakeholders will have the opportunity to rate their satisfaction based on the interaction that took place. Survey questions will focus on overall satisfaction, courtesy, knowledge, and professionalism of their call center agent. The survey data will be used to give the USAC call center agents feedback on how they handled calls and to improve the experience that is provided. The goal is to improve the overall level of service and hold our contractors accountable to the experience they provide our stakeholders.

The customer satisfaction questions will be asked of those who have called the Call Centers for the various USF programs, and thus information such as the caller’s first and last name, telephone number, and email address, Study Area Code/ Service Provider Identification Number and Company or organization name is already being collected. For the Lifeline program, this information contains personally identifiable information (PII) under the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a and is part of an existing system of records, FCC/WCB-1, Lifeline Program, 82 Fed. Reg. 38686 (2017). For the other programs, this information consists of business contact, entrepreneurial capacity information that is not PII. The systems (including these questions) used by the call center administrators will be FISMA accredited before the system is implemented.

We will ask the four questions listed below and respondents will rate their call center experience on a scale of 1-5 (1- Very Satisfied, 2- Satisfied, 3- Neutral, 4- Dissatisfied, 5- Very Dissatisfied) or they will be asked a question that can be answered with Yes- Press 1, No- Press 2, and Neutral- Press 3 using the numbers on their telephone to make their selection.

1. How satisfied were you with your Customer Service experience?

Rate 1-5 (1- Very Satisfied, 2- Satisfied, 3- Neutral, 4- Dissatisfied, 5- Very Dissatisfied)

2. How satisfied were you with the professionalism and courtesy of the representative?

Rate 1-5 (1- Very Satisfied, 2- Satisfied, 3- Neutral, 4- Dissatisfied, 5- Very Dissatisfied)

3. Do you feel the representative had enough knowledge to answer your question?

Yes- Press 1, No- Press 2, Neutral- Press 3.

4. Was your question or issue resolved the first time you contacted us?

Yes- Press 1, No- Press 2, Neutral- Press 3.

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