Request for Approval

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

(OMB Control Number: 1090-0012)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:BTFA Delay in Distribution (Payment) Survey

PURPOSE OF COLLECTION:

What are you hoping to learn / improve? How do you plan to use what you learn? 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?

The purpose of the survey will be to the following:

1. Acknowledge the service delay situation and potential impacts on beneficiaries to build/repair trust with BTFA in the future.

2. Identify the impact (if any) on beneficiaries due to a delay in normal services as a result of the Service Manger system going down.

3. Identify beneficiary preferences and communication need, and updates during delays in their service. 

TYPE OF ACTIVITY: (Check one)

Customer Research (Interview, Focus Groups, Surveys)

Customer Feedback Survey

Usability Testing of Products or Services

ACTIVITY DETAILS

1. If this is a survey, will the results of this survey be reported to Touchpoints as part of quarterly reporting obligations specified in OMB Circular A-11 Section 280?

Yes

No

Not a survey

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

Web-based or other forms of Social Media

Telephone

In-person

Mail

Other, Explain

3. Who will you collect the information from?

Explain who will be interviewed and why the group is appropriate for the Federal program / service to connect with. 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(e.g., anyone who provided an email address to a call center rep, a representative sample of Veterans who received outpatient services in May 2019, do you have a list of customers to reach out to (e.g., a CRM database that has the contact information, intercept interviews at a particular field office?)

BTFA is responsible for the fiduciary trust responsibility of managing funds for approximately 4,200 Tribal accounts and more than 411,000 Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts with an estimated $8.6 billion in monetary assets that DOI holds in trust. In 2004, the Trust Beneficiary Call Center was created to provide an easy way to access a primary point of contact for individual beneficiaries to inquire about their trust assets (i.e. fractional owner interests, account balances, lease activity), checking the status of a requested service or requesting a disbursement form, or an update to their account maintained by BTFA.

Beneficiaries have multilpe options for requesting a disbrusement from their account

1. Call the Trust Beneficiary Call Center (TBCC) to request disbursment

2. Call their local BTFA agency to request disbursment

3. Walk into the local BTFA agency to request disbursement

4. Email a request for disbursment to BTFA staff or TBCC email account

5. Fax in disbursement request.

All options require inputting the request into our Service Manager system to start the disribution request. Recently, the system to process the distribution request went been down due to IT technical issues resulting in delays in processing and distributions to beneficiaries.

BTFA manually tracked the number of distributions that had a delaye by account holder. BTFA seeks to collect feedback for the specific population of account holders who have had a delay in their distribution due to the IT system issues. 

4. How will you ask a respondent to provide this information?

(e.g., after an application is submitted online, the final screen will present the opportunity to provide feedback by presenting a link to a feedback form / an actual feedback form)

BTFA will send a Dear Account Holder Letter to each of the affected beneficiaries that will include a QR Code linked to a Microsoft Forms survey that an indiviudal can scan with their phone or computer to send them to the digital survey and a physical link that they can type into a web browser to get to the survey if they do not use the QR code. 

5. What will the activity look like?

Describe the information collection activity – e.g. what happens when a person agrees to participate? Will facilitators or interviewers be used? What’s the format of the interview/focus group? If a survey, describe the overall survey layout/length/other details? If User Testing, what actions will you observe / how will you have respondents interact with a product you need feedback on?

BTFA will mail out a Dear Account Holder Letter with offer them two ways to access the volunary and anoyamous survey that is hosted on Microsoft 365 Forms :

1. The written out weblink to a Microsoft Office Forms survey. The beneficary will have to manually type the link into a web browers on their phone or computer to access the survey.

2. QR code that can be scanned using the individuals cell phone camera or computer camera that will link them directly to the survey.

The form is voluntary and anaynomous. The form is a combination of yes/no, open text and rating questions. Once the indivdiual has completed the form, they select submit. 

6. Please provide your question list.

Paste here the questions or prompts presented to participants in your activity. If you have an interview / facilitator guide, that can be attached to the submission and referenced here.

See attached. 

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

7. When will the activity happen?

Describe the time frame or number of events that will occur (e.g., We will conduct focus groups on May 13,14,15, We plan to conduct customer intercept interviews over the course of the Summer at the field offices identified in response to #2 based on scheduling logistics concluding by Sept. 10^th, or “This survey will remain on our website in alignment with the timing of the overall clearance.”)

BTFA plans to mail the letter out to affected beneficiaries over the month of July 2024. Feedback options will be open for 1 month for completing the voluntary survey. 

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

Yes No

If Yes, describe:

     

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Individual Trust Beneficiaries 	1,300	5 mins	109
     	     	     	     
     	     	     	     
     	     	     	     
     	     	     	     
     	     	     	     
Totals	     	     	     

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;

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. The agency will follow the procedures specified in OMB Circular A-11 Section 280 for the required quarterly reporting to OMB of trust data and experience driver data from surveys.

8. Outside of the quarterly reporting mentioned in the bullet immediately above, if the agency intends to release journey maps, user personas, reports, or other data-related summaries stemming from this collection, the agency must include appropriate caveats around those summaries, noting that conclusions should not be generalized beyond the sample, considering the sample size and response rates. The agency must submit the data summary itself (e.g., the report) and the caveat language mentioned above to OMB before it releases them outside the agency. OMB will engage in a passback process with the agency.

Name and email address of person who developed this survey/focus group/interview:

Name: Tamisha Tenorio

Email address: [email protected]

All instruments used to collect information must include:

OMB Control No. 1090-0012

Expiration Date: 2/27/2027

HELP SHEET

(OMB Control Number:1090-0012)

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…)

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.

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.

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.

No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.

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)

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

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