0625-0275 - Supporting Statement Part A for User Satisfaction Impact and Needs 2024 FINAL

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENT

U.S. Department of Commerce

International Trade Administration

Surveys for User Satisfaction, Impact, and Needs

OMB Control No. 0625-0275

A. JUSTIFICATION

This is a request to update a currently approved information collection.

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.

The International Trade Administration’s (ITA) is mandated by Congress to create prosperity by strengthening the international competitiveness of U.S. industry, promoting trade and investment, and ensuring fair trade and compliance with trade laws and agreements. ITA accomplishes this by providing counseling, programs and services to help U.S. organizations export and conduct business and overcome challenges abroad, addressing unfair trade practices, providing actionable data, information, and assistance related to trade agreements, and defending against unfair trade. ITA’s programs include information products, data tools, services, trade events, and educational events. To fulfill its mission effectively and demonstrate the agency’s commitment to continual improvement, ITA requires ongoing feedback on all of its programs.

This information collection instrument allows ITA to solicit customer opinions about their use of and engagement with ITA websites, programs, products, services, and events. To promote optimal use and provide focused and effective improvements to ITA programs, we are requesting approval for this clearance package; including: use of Comment Cards (i.e. transactional-based surveys) to collect feedback immediately after ITA assistance is provided to customers; use of annual surveys (i.e. relationship-based surveys) to gauge overall satisfaction, impact and needs for customers with ITA assistance provided over a period time. Without this information, ITA is unable to systematically determine the actual and relative levels of performance for its programs and products/services and to provide clear, actionable insights for managerial intervention. This information will be aggregated as part of ITA’s Voice of Customer (VOC) program, an enterprise approach to analyze, report and act on customer feedback captured across key touchpoints. ITA will use this data for continued evaluation and improvement, strategic planning, allocation of resources, stakeholder reporting, and to ultimately improve customer experiences.

This document includes a revised list of questions that will be utilized and tailored to specific programs, where appropriate. As a result, ITA requests approval to renew this information collection and its set of questions for all the associated instruments.

2. Explain how, by whom, how frequently, and for what purpose the information will be used. If the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support information that will be disseminated to the public, then explain how the collection complies with all applicable Information Quality Guidelines.

ITA is seeking approval for the following data collection methods to provide flexibility in conducting customer satisfaction surveys and to reduce the burden on respondents: 1) an e-mail message delivering a hot link to a web enabled survey with an email reminder sent if the customer does not respond to the survey within two weeks; 2) a telephone survey/interview; and 3) a web-enabled survey conducted in-person at trade shows/events via a laptop, tablet or mobile phone so participants can immediately respond without having to provide their e-mail address.

The collection is voluntary and the frequency will be on-going and will depend upon the demand U.S. companies have for ITA’s services and programs. These forms are used by firms to indicate their interest in participating in a service or program; therefore, if a firm is not interested in obtaining a service or participating in an export-related program, there is no need for the firm to complete a form. Companies access these forms via ITA websites or electronic mails and they may submit them via the Internet.

The responses to two of the questions in the comment cards (i.e. the highly likely to recommend ITA and were your objectives met questions), will be disseminated to the Office of Management and Budget, Congress and the American public as part of CS’s Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) metrics and in compliance with ITA’s High Impact Service Provider (HISP) Designation.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology.

ITA will use multiple data collection methods such as web-enabled surveys sent via email, telephone interviews, and in-person surveys via mobile devices/laptops/tablets at trade events/shows to enable customers to conveniently respond to requests for feedback; and a forecast of burden hours. ITA will initiate surveys, store and ingest qualitative and quantitative feedback data, analyze and report information through Medallia, a Voice of Customer (VOC) program and Customer Experience (CX) SaaS platform.

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.

There is no duplication of information within the DOC or another government entity. The information collected represents unique customer feedback that is required by ITA to efficiently and effectively assess the service provided to its stakeholders.

ITA uses Medallia to apply restrictions and rules to limit the frequency of survey distribution to its customer database. ITA also maintains survey guidelines to ensure necessary checks are in place to avoid and eliminate duplication and burden on its customers due to feedback collection activities.

5. If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.

This information collection involves small businesses. ITA only asks questions that are pertinent to assessing the service provided and minimal information will be collected to provide the best customer feedback. Moreover, the majority of these forms have been in use by ITA for several years and during this time we have not received any negative feedback from either customers or customer-facing staff regarding the use of these surveys. ITA will continually monitor, and streamline where possible, these customer feedback activities.

6. Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.

If the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, the quality of service that ITA provides to private sector customers may drastically decrease and we may be hindered in meeting our customer’s specific needs and requirements. Also, if approval is not granted for use of these documents, ITA’s ability to conduct its congressional mandate of broadening and deepening the export base may not be met.

7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.

This collection will be conducted in a manner consistent with OMB guidelines.

8. Provide a copy of the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments received in response to that notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.

The Federal Register Notice soliciting public comment was published on September 10, 2024 (Volume 89, page 73357). This announcement did not generate any comments from the public.

9. Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

Respondents will not receive payments or gifts.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.

All responses to this collection of information will be provided confidentiality to the extent allowed by law. This assurance will be printed at the bottom of each form.

11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

No questions of a sensitive nature are asked.

12. Provide an estimate in hours of the burden of the collection of information.

ITA estimates that there will be 44,149 respondents. The average time to complete a survey is 30 minutes so the total annual burden hours will be 22,075.

Information Collection Instrument (i.e., Type of Response)	Type of Respondent / Occupational Title	Number of Respondents (a)	Number of Responses Per Respondent (b)	Total Number of Responses  (c) = (a) x (b)	Burden Hours Per Response (d)	Total Burden Hours  (e) = (c) x (d)
Combined Customer Survey Questions	Business or other for-profit organizations; Not-for-profit institutions; State, Local, or Tribal government; and Federal government.	44,149	1	44,149	0.5	22,075
Total						22,075

13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or record-keepers resulting from the collection (excluding the value of the burden hours in

Question 12 above).

Based on the following customer makeup of ITA’s client population shown below, and median salary data taken from glassdoor.com, ITA estimates that the total annual to our respondents will be $666,444 (estimated total burden time is 22,075 hours).

Respondent Occupation	% of Customer Pop.	Median Salary	Hourly Rate	Weighted Avg. Rate
Executive	27%	$102,690.00	$49.37	$13.55
International Business Development	25%	$52,649.00	$25.31	$6.43
Sales	20%	$24,809.00	$11.93	$2.39
Customer Service	9%	$31,493.00	$15.14	$1.33
Government Relations	7%	$79,168.00	$38.06	$2.60
Export Logistics	6%	$50,612.00	$24.33	$1.43
Policy Director	3%	$78,029.00	$37.51	$1.16
External Consultant/Legal Representative	1%	$78,120.00	$37.56	$0.52
In-house Legal Counsel	1%	$143,307.00	$68.90	$0.78
Other	8%	$59,039.00	$28.38	$2.21
Weighted Avg. Hourly Rate				$30.19
			x 22,075 hours	$666,444

14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.

Domestic and International

It will take ITA staff approximately 5 minutes to review each response and the total burden hours to review 44,149 responses will total 3,679 hours.

3,679 hours x $30/hour staff time = $110,372

Medallia services: $159,247.63

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported.

Our agency has seen an increase in the number of customers being assisted, thereby increasing the number of customers being surveyed.

16. For collections whose results will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and publication.

Not applicable.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons why display would be inappropriate.

Not applicable.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement.

"The agency certifies compliance with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3)."