OPE Strategic Planning Customer Satisfaction Survey

OPE Customer Satisfaction Survey

Strategic Planning Staff

The Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) seeks information in order to improve its service to its customers, in particular grantees for its discretionary grants. OPE staff conduct this customer service survey in order to better understand and improve business practices related to our grantees and applicants. This survey will take no more than fifteen minutes to complete. We would like to receive a survey from every grantee, so that we can improve our services to you.

This customer satisfaction survey is being conducted during 2010; it will provide baseline data. OPE Strategic Planning staff will analyze the data obtained, combine it with feedback from other sources, and set priorities for customer service improvement actions. Staff plans to follow up this survey periodically as part of a continuing improvement effort.

1. Customer (Grantee) Information

1. We are specifically contacting two types of grantees: new grantees (in their first year of the grant), and grantees in the last year of their grant. If your grant is not in one of these two categories, please do not fill out this survey.

[Some of you work on more than one OPE grant. Please specify the program for whichever of your grants belongs to one of the two categories below. If you have both, please check both boxes in question 2. and answer all sections of the survey.]

___ Check here if your grant is in its first year (funded between 10/1/2008 and 9/30/2009). Select the program your grant is in from the drop-down menu.

___ Check here if your grant is in its last year (even if you will request a one-year no-cost extension). Select the program your grant is in from the drop-down menu.

2. What is your role with this grant?

o

Project director

o Other (please describe)

B. Quality and Utility of Program Services and Outreach (for new grantees only; if you are a last-year grantee please skip to question 9).

2. Please provide your overall assessment of the initial award process.

[Performance drop-down][Have not encountered]

2. Did you have sufficient time between the publication of the Closing Date Notice for this grant and the submission deadline to prepare your application? (Y) (N) (Not involved in application)

2. Name one or two changes that would most improve the initial grant award process.

6. Did you attend a pre-application workshop? (Y) (N) (If you did not attend a pre-application workshop for this grant, please skip to question 9)

7. How would you rate the workshop’s usefulness in preparing your application? [Performance drop-down] (Not involved in application)

8. Please describe aspects that were most helpful and least helpful:

Most helpful:

Least helpful:

3. Technical Assistance and Individual Support

9. Have you, or any of the grantee staff, received technical assistance or individualized support during the past year? (Y) (N) [If you answered “No”, please skip to question 12.]

10. Where/how did it take place?

__ Project Directors’ meeting sponsored by the Education Department

__ Conference call/email exchange with your Project Officer

__ Project Officer, other Program (or other Department) staff site visit

__ Regional group meeting: ______________________________________

__ Technical support contractor: __________________________________

__ National association meeting: __________________________________

__ Other: _____________________________________________________

11. Please list below one or two areas that the technical assistance or individualized support received helped you improve:

D. Program Officer Skills and Knowledge

The following items include open-ended questions and ratings, based on two scales:

• For the importance scale, please rate the importance of each statement to your application or grant from ‘least important’ to ‘most important’. Please consider each rating independently; do not relate the importance of one rating to other ratings.

• For the performance scale, please indicate OPE’s performance from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’.

A response of ‘N/A’ means that the rating is not applicable to your project or application. A response of ‘Have not encountered’ means that the rating may apply to your project, but your project has not experienced or encountered it to date.

12. Identification of potential problems by your current Program Officer.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Resolution of problems by your current Program Officer.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Timeliness of responses to grantee requests by your current Program Officer.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Accuracy of responses to grantee requests by your current Program Officer.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Current Program Officer’s knowledge of applicable statutes, regulations, and policies.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Current Program Officer’s knowledge of relevant program content.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Current Program Officer’s knowledge of grant fiscal matters.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Current Program Officer’s knowledge of program performance indicators.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. Current Program Officer’s knowledge of project evaluation issues.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

12. We’d appreciate your sharing with us an example of the best (or worst) customer service experience you have had with your current Program Officer (or other OPE program staff).

5. Web Site Quality and Utility

If you have not visited your grant program’s website, please check here ___ and skip to the end of the survey.

The following items include open-ended questions and ratings, based on two scales:

• For the importance scale, please rate the importance of each statement to your application or grant from ‘least important’ to ‘most important’. Please consider each rating independently; do not relate the importance of one rating to other ratings.

• For the performance scale, please indicate OPE’s performance from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’.

A response of ‘N/A’ means that the rating is not applicable to your project or application. A response of ‘Have not encountered’ means that the rating may apply to your project, but your project has not experienced or encountered it to date.

22. Ease of finding information on the program Web site:

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

22. The extent to which information on the program Web site is current:

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

22. The usefulness of the information on the program Web site.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

22. The availability of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ on the program Web site.

[Importance to you drop-down][Performance drop-down][N/A][Have not encountered]

22. What additional information would you like to see on the program Web site?

Thank you for your help. We would welcome any suggestions that might help us improve this customer satisfaction survey. Please note them in the space below.

[Importance to you drop-down: Least Important Significant Most Important]

[Performance drop-down: Poor Mediocre Satisfactory Excellent]

Paperwork Burden Statement

According to the Paperwork reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number.  The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 1800-0011. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 15 minutes per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed and complete and review the information collection.  If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202-4537.  If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of this form, write directly to: Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street NW, Room 8073, Washington D.C. 20006.

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