chatbot personality mini SS

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 1545-2256) 

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Chatbot personality unmoderated usability testing

 

PURPOSE:   

 

In line with the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) initiative 1.4 regarding self-service options, this study will help determine the appropriate personality for the IRS chatbot, which will facilitate increased taxpayer use of the chatbot and improve taxpayer satisfaction. IRS will conduct unmoderated usability testing of possible IRS chatbot personalities to get feedback from participants with different attitudes, aptitudes, and abilities to iteratively design and improve the IRS chatbot experience. Improved IRS chatbots will enable taxpayers to get information through self-service channels, which will save time and money and free up live assistors to address complicated issues more efficiently.

 

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:  

 

Respondents will have the option of volunteering to participate. They will be taxpayers (individual or business) or tax professionals who are at least 18 years old and who represent diverse demographic backgrounds (e.g., across US locations, genders, age groups, racial/ethnic backgrounds, income brackets, and filing statuses). Respondents’ email addresses will be collected for study distribution; no other PII will be collected.

 

 

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one) 

 

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

[ X ] 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 have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future. 

 

Name: Madeline Bossi

 

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, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974?   [ X ] Yes [  ] No    

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published?  [ X ] Yes  [  ] No 

Gifts or Payments: 

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

 

Respondents will be paid $10 for their participation. This amount aligns with best practice in the field of user experience research and fairly compensates respondents for their time.

 

 

BURDEN HOURS  

 

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individuals	100	15 minutes	25 hours
Totals			25 hours

 

 

FEDERAL COST:  The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $0. 

 

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions: 

 

The selection of your targeted respondents 

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ X ] Yes [ ] No 

 

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them.

 

Potential respondents will be selected from a pool of individuals who have agreed to participate in research studies and are registered on the third-party recruitment vendor Prodege’s internal database. Prodege will email potential respondents asking them to take an online screener to determine their eligibility (i.e. to ensure participant diversity across demographic criteria like US location, gender, age, race/ethnicity, income bracket, and filing status). Eligible participants will then be emailed a link to complete the study online.

 

Administration of the Instrument 

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

[ X ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media  

[  ] Telephone  

[  ] In-person  

[  ] Mail  

[  ] Other, Explain 

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used?  [  ] Yes [ X ] No