(SBA)– Office of Field Operations (OFO) Customer Experience Data

Request for Approval under the “Improving Customer Experience (OMB
Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation)”
(OMB Control Number: 3245-0404)
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Small Business Administration
(SBA)– Office of Field Operations (OFO) Customer Experience Data
Evaluation
PURPOSE:

What are you hoping to learn / improve? How do you plan to use what you
learn? Include any artifacts your team may develop as a result of this
collection.

The intent of this customer research is to understand the
experiences of customers interacting with the SBA’s district
offices and how the agency’s Office of Field Operations (OFO)can
improve the customer experience during interactions with the
district offices. The proposed data collection extends the
customer experience knowledge gleaned from the District Office
Customer Satisfaction Survey. Findings will be incorporated into
the evaluation team’s final report, recommendations plan,
customer journey map, and presentation of results to the OFO.
This data will provide insights to support ongoing customer
experience improvements.
TYPE OF ACTIVITY: (Check one)
[X ] Customer Research
[ ] Customer Feedback Survey

(if selecting this option, include survey instrument

tool with this submission)

[

] User Testing of Services and Digital Products

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY
1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)
[ ] Web-based surveys
[X] Telephone interviews (focus groups)
[ ] In-person
[ ] Mail
For Customer Feedback Survey:
Explain who will be surveyed and why the group is appropriate for the Federal
program / service to connect with. Do you have a list of customers to reach
out to (e.g., email addresses of individuals who have visited a service
center in the past month)? Please provide a description of how you plan to
identify your potential group of respondents and if only a sample will be
solicited for feedback, how you will select them.

The SBA has contracted with 2M Research to conduct two 1-hour
focus groups. One focus group will consist of up to eight
customers/businesses currently in, or applying to, SBA’s 8(a)Business Development Program (8(a) Program). The second focus

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group will consist of up to eight customers who selected the
“receiving information about options to fund my business” as the
primary reason for interacting with the SBA when completing the
District Office Customer Satisfaction Survey. The focus groups
will occur remotely using an online conferencing platform (i.e.
Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype). The SBA will work with the
contractor to select a range of representation for the 8(a)
group based on variations in business type (NAICS industry or
other relevant criteria), stage in the certification process
(already obtained or applying for 8(a)Program certification),
and the average Customer Experience (CX) score across other 8(a)
customers of the prospective participant’s local district office
based on the results from District Office Customer Satisfaction
Survey. Representation for the second focus group will be
selected from the District Office Customer Satisfaction Survey
respondents who after selecting “receiving information about
options to fund my business” were asked about their willingness
to be contacted for participation in a focus group. Respondents
select “yes” were then asked for their name and contact
information.
DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENTS

Generally describe the information collection activity – e.g. will
facilitators or interviewers be used? What will respondents be asked? Or,
what actions will you observe / how will you have respondents interact with a
product you need feedback on?

Data will be collected during two focus group sessions. The
evaluation team used response data from the current District
Office Customer Satisfaction Survey to design the focus group
protocols. Focus groups will be recorded provided permission is
received from all participants; a notetaker will also join each
call to create notes that serve as a backup to the
transcriptions. The evaluation team will use discussion guides
for the focus groups that ask about customer experiences with
services received from the district offices, suggestions for
improvements in customer service, and recommendations for
collecting future customer feedback. The focus group discussion
guide is designed to be amenable to group discussion. Please see
Appendix A and Appendix B for the focus group discussion guides.
Recruitment materials for the focus groups are presented in
Appendix C.
Gifts or Payments:
Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token
of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ X ] No
BURDEN HOURS
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For each individual respondent, we estimate 70 minutes for
participation, which includes both recruitment time and response
time. Total burden hours for participation in the focus groups
is 18.66 hours.
Category of Respondent
Individuals (focus group concerning
customers selecting “receiving
information about options to fund my
business” on the District Office
Customer Satisfaction Survey)
Individuals (focus group concerning
customers/businesses in the
8(a)Program)
Totals

No. of
Responden
ts
8

Participat
ion Time*

Burden

70 minutes

9.33
hours

8

70 minutes

9.33
hours

16

1,120
minutes

18.66
hours

CERTIFICATION:
I certify the following to be true:
1. The collections are voluntary;
2. The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on
considerations of total burden hours or burden-hours per
respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the
Federal Government;
3. The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues
of concern to other Federal agencies;
4. Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions
from respondents who have experience with the program or may
have experience with the program in the near future;
5. Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected only to
the extent necessary and is not retained;
6. Information gathered is intended to be used for general
service improvement and program management purposes
7. Upon agreement between OMB and the agency all or a subset of
information may be released as part of A-11, Section 280
requirements on performance.gov. Summaries of customer
research and user testing activities may also be included in
public-facing agency publications.
Name: ________________________________________________
Title: ________________________________________________

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All instruments used to collect information must include:
OMB Control No. 3245-0404
Expiration Date: 02/28/2021

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