A11-23-10

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for Improving Customer Experience: OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation”

(OMB Control Number: 1545-2290)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Field Assistance (FA) Comment Card

PURPOSE OF COLLECTION:

What are you hoping to learn / improve?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. This initiative is part of the Service-wide effort to maintain a system of balanced organizational performance measures mandated by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA) of 1998. This is also a result of Executive Order 12862 that requires all government agencies to survey their customers.

The purpose of this collection is to measure visitor satisfaction with the FA Comment Card Survey. Information collected at all 392 Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) and/or Virtual Service Delivery (VSD) sites will be used to provide meaningful feedback to managers and staff responsible for use in prioritizing feature and usability enhancements. The surveys will assist in assessing overall customer satisfaction and overall quality for balanced measures.

How do you plan to use what you learn?

Identify ways to reduce the time between scheduling and the appointments, particularly among Spanish-language customers. Provide alternative methods for scheduling an appointment.

Are there artifacts (user personas, journey maps, digital roadmaps, summary of customer insights to inform service improvements, performance dashboards) the data from this collection will feed?

We have OMB and W&I Performance Dashboards.

TYPE OF ACTIVITY: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Research (Interview, Focus Groups)

[X] Customer Feedback Survey

[ ] User Testing

ACTIVITY DETAILS

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[X] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Who will you collect the information from?

The information will be collected from taxpayers who are seeking assistance with tax related issues at their local Taxpayer Assistance Center and/or Virtual Service Delivery (VSD) Sites.

3. What will the activity look like?

The survey will comprise 15 questions, inclusive of the questions required per the A-11 Section 280 guidance.

4. Please provide your question list.

Attached.

5. When will the activity happen?

The FA survey is administered each day, on odd-numbered days, or on randomly selected business days based on customer volume with a goal of completing 200 surveys per site per year. FA’s service representatives hand their customers the survey and request they complete it prior to leaving the TAC. Locked boxes are available at each TAC for survey return. FA staff mail survey packets directly to the contractor to be scanned/processed.

6. Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants?

[ ] Yes [X] No

If Yes, describe:

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Individual Taxpayers	80,000	5 minutes	6,667
Totals	80,000	5 minutes	6,667

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; and,

7. Information gathered will only be shared publically in the manner described in the umbrella clearance of this control number.

Name: _Jean T. Willis______________________________________________

All instruments used to collect information must include:

OMB Control No. 1545-2290

Expiration Date: 07/31/2026

Sample PRA statement:

This report is authorized under the Paperwork Reduction Act.  The approval is OMB No: 1545-2290, expiration date 7/31/2026. Data collected will be shared with IRS staff, but your responses will be used for research and aggregate reporting purposes and will not be used for other non-statistical or non-research purposes such as direct enforcement activities. The information that you provide will fully be protected as allowable under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 5 minutes. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Special Services Section, SE:W:CAR:MP:T:M:S, Room 6129, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20224.

HELP SHEET

(OMB Control Number: 1545-2290)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on xxxx)

Field Assistance Comment Card Survey

PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please include this in your explanation.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enlists a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer experience, and employee satisfaction. This initiative is part of the Service-wide effort to maintain a system of balanced, organizational performance measures mandated by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA) of 1998. This is also a result of Executive Order 12862, which requires all government agencies to survey their customers and incorporate customer preferences in their process improvement efforts.

The IRS Balanced Measurement System rates the IRS, its managers and employees, on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and business results. This balanced measurement system draws on direct customer feedback, including independent surveys of customers and an annual census survey of employees. The customer satisfaction portion of these performance standards necessitates the identification of W&I’s customers and mechanism(s) gauging the level of satisfaction with interactions and services of the Internal Revenue Service. Further, Executive Order 12862 requires all government agencies to survey their customers and incorporate customer preferences in their process improvement efforts.

Field Assistance’s mission is to enhance the taxpayer experiences by providing quality face-to-face assistance and facilitated self-assisted services that resolve tax issues and educate the taxpaying public. FA’s vision is to provide the right service to the right taxpayer at the right time. The FA customer experience survey is conducted to incorporate their customer’s perspective to improve service interactions

TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.

FA Comment Card Survey

CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will be disapproved.

Personally Identifiable Information: Agencies should only collect PII to the extent necessary, and they should only retain PII for the period of time that is necessary to achieve a specific objective.

BURDEN HOURS:

Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households;(2) Private Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government. Only one type of respondent can be selected per row.

Individual Taxpayers who visit TACs.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents. 80,000

Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus group) 5 minutes

Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses and the participation time and divide by 60.

6,667

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