Generic Clearance for Improving Customer Experience(OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation)

A modern, streamlined and responsive customer experience means: raising government-wide customer experience to the average of the private sector service industry; developing indicators for high-impact Federal programs to monitor progress towards excellent customer experience and mature digital services; and providing the structure (including increasing transparency) and resources to ensure customer experience is a focal point for agency leadership. This proposed information collection activity provides a means to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner in accordance with the Administration's commitment to improving customer service delivery as discussed in Section 280 of OMB Circular A–11 at https://www.performance.gov/​cx/​a11-280.pdf. As discussed in OMB guidance, agencies should identify their highest-impact customer journeys (using customer volume, annual program cost, and/or knowledge of customer priority as weighting factors) and select touchpoints/transactions within those journeys to collect feedback. These results will be used to improve the delivery of Federal services and programs. It will also provide government-wide data on customer experience that can be displayed on www.performance.gov to help build transparency and accountability of Federal programs to the customers they serve. As a general matter, these information collections will not result in any new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private. The Environmental Protection Agency will only submit collections if they meet the following criteria. The collections are voluntary. The collections are low burden for respondents (based on total burden hours or burden-hours per respondent) and are low cost for respondents and the Federal Government. The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues of concern to Federal agencies. 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. Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected to the extent necessary and not retained. Information gathered is intended to be used for general service improvement and program management purposes. • Upon agreement between OMB and the agency all or a subset of information may be released as part of A–11, Section 280 requirements only on performance.gov. Summaries of customer research and user testing activities may be included in public-facing customer journey maps or summaries. Additional release of data must be done coordinated with OMB. These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable communications between the Agency, its customers and stakeholders, and OMB as it monitors agency compliance on Section 280. These responses will inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on services will be unavailable.

The latest form for Generic Clearance for Improving Customer Experience(OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation) expires 2027-06-30 and can be found here.