Supporting Statement
Approval Request to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research (OMB #1545-1432)
Collection Field Inventory Process Improvement Team
JUSTIFICATION
Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enlists a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. This initiative is part of the service-wide effort to maintain a system of balanced organizational performance measures mandated by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA) of 1998. This is also a result of Executive Order 12862 that requires all government agencies to survey their customers.
We want to target taxpayers assigned to Collection Revenue Officer inventory, within the three pilot inventory types, whose case was worked by a Revenue Officer and closed. Our goal is to solicit feedback from taxpayers on their experiences within Collection case processing and attitudes on the Revenue Officer’s working of the case. The IRS would like to determine taxpayers’ level of satisfaction with having their cases worked within one of the three inventory pilots so we can then compare these measures with the Field Collection taxpayer satisfaction survey results.
Purpose and Use of the Information Collection
Collection management is motivated to identify changes in case processing which will improve the taxpayer experience as well as Revenue Officer satisfaction. This project will assess the level of taxpayer satisfaction for those taxpayers whose case was assigned to an RO using the Field Collection inventory pilots. This information, along with measures of productivity, quality, and employee satisfaction, will be used by Field Collection to measure the overall impact of the three pilots.
Consideration Given to Information Technology
The taxpayer customer satisfaction survey will be administered by mail as a one-time survey.
Duplication of Information
This survey will provide valuable information that is not available in any internal IRS data source.
Reducing the Burden on Small Entities
This survey will be sent to all taxpayers who had their cases assigned to Revenue Officer inventory using one of the three alternative inventory methods and their case was closed. Small entities will only be contacted if their case was worked and closed by an RO participating in the inventory pilot.
Consequences of Not Conducting Collection
If this survey is not conducted, Collection, Field Inventory Process Improvement Team will not know the impact of these three inventory pilots and would not be able to measure the success or failure of any pilot.
Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be voluntary. These statistics will be used to make decisions on future Revenue Officer inventory assignments.
Consultations with Persons Outside the Agency
IRS will not consult with others outside the agency on this survey.
Payment or Gift
Participation in this customer satisfaction survey is voluntary. Payments and/or gifts will not be provided to those completing the survey.
Confidentiality
The data returned to IRS will have no identifying information which relates specific records to individual taxpayers. Nonetheless, IRS will ensure that privacy to the extent allowed by law and security of the aggregated results will receive the utmost attention. Public and official access to the information will be tightly controlled. The computer files containing this tabulated information will remain password protected at all times. We will apply fair information and record-keeping practices to ensure protection of all taxpayers. The criterion for disclosure laid out in the Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, provides for the protection of taxpayer information as well as its release to authorized recipients.
Sensitive Nature
No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature.
Burden of Information Collection
The survey is designed to minimize burden on the taxpayer. The time that a respondent takes to complete the mail survey is carefully considered and only the most important areas are being surveyed. The average time of participation is expected to be 5 minutes. The questions are generally one sentence in structure and on an elementary concept level.
Based on our universe of 4,820 potential respondents and a response rate of 20%, we expect 964 survey participants, leaving 3,856 non-participants. The contact time to determine potential participation could take up to two minutes to read the pre-contact letter, with the resulting burden for potential participants being 4,820 x 2 minutes = 9,640/60 minutes = 160.67 burden hours.
Participation time is expected to be 5 minutes or less. The burden for participants is 964 x 5 minutes = 4,820/60 minutes = 80.33 burden hours.
The total burden hours for the survey is (160.67 + 80.33) = 241 burden hours
Minor revisions, that will not impact the burden hours, may be made to the survey questionnaire. If changes are made to the questionnaire, only minor changes are expected. Revising the coding scheme for comments is one example.
Customer Satisfaction Survey Collection
Category of Respondent |
No. of Respondents |
Participation Time |
Burden |
Customer Satisfaction Survey Collection for Potential Participant |
4,820 |
2 min |
160.67 |
Customer Satisfaction Survey Collection for Participants |
964 |
5 min |
80.33 |
Total Burden |
|
|
241.00 |
Estimated Response Rate: 20%
Total Burden Estimate = 241 hrs.
Costs to Respondents
There is no cost to respondents resulting from the collection of information.
Cost to Federal Government
The estimated cost is $4,678.
Reason for Change
No change is being requested. This is a new request.
Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans
The survey data will be collected via mail questionnaire. Our method will be to conduct a survey of taxpayers who, based on their case status, have been selected by Collection Field to be in Revenue Officer work inventory, specifically the inventory of an RO who is involved in the inventory pilot. We will ask taxpayers about their satisfaction with the service received by the Revenue Officer during the process of working their cases.
Our first step will be receiving the information on taxpayers who have been selected by Collection to be in the pilot inventory and whose case has been closed.
The entire population of taxpayers whose case was worked and closed by a Revenue Officer within the inventory pilot will be included in the survey. No sampling will be used. Taxpayers will be contacted via the mail. Pertinent demographic characteristics will be retained from the profile for each taxpayer in the survey, so we can later determine whether these variables are correlated with expressed customer satisfaction and experiences gathered from the surveys, or with fact of responding (for a non-response analysis). We will compare our results to results of Field Collection customer satisfaction survey results, which will run in parallel to this survey.
Our total population size is 4,820 taxpayers, and we anticipate a response rate of 20%, based on SB/SE Research experience with the ongoing customer satisfaction survey.
Display of OMB Approval Date
IRS is seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval, as this is a one-time, limited-duration survey.
Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
Dates collection will begin and end
May 1, 2017 through March 31, 2018
B. STATISTICAL METHODS
Universe and Respondent Selection
The target population is all the collection cases assigned to each pilot.
1.) Fresh cases (work inventory more strategically to address taxpayer’s as early as possible in the work stream),
2.) Virtual work (leverage the existing staffing regardless of where the inventory might be located)
3.) Large Inventory (inventory, equivalent to one year’s worth of RO cases, assigned at once with no replacement of cases as they are closed).
Procedures for Collecting Information
IRS will administer the survey by mail. Standard procedures will be used in order to obtain the highest response rate possible for the mail survey. These will include: 1) a pre-notification letter on IRS letterhead about the survey, 2) cover letter and questionnaire, 3) a postcard reminder, and 4) a cover letter and a copy of questionnaire to non-respondents.
Methods to Maximize Response
The questionnaire length is minimized to reduce respondent burden; thereby, tending to increase response rates. Respondents are assured anonymity of their responses. Also, weighting procedures can be applied to adjust aggregated data from those who do respond.
Testing of Procedures
The survey was designed in conjunction with Field Inventory Process Improvement Team. It includes qualitative and quantitative questions. If changes are made to the questionnaire, they are expected to be minor. For example, revising the coding scheme for comments is one example.
Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
For questions regarding the study or questionnaire design or statistical methodology, contact:
Henry Rolon Miranda Jr.
SB/SE Research, Statistician
Henry.RolonMirandaJr@irs.gov
Survey instruments include the following and are included as a separate file.
Pre-notification letter on IRS letterhead
Cover letter and questionnaire
Postcard reminder
Cover letter for non-respondents
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE |
| Author | 558022 |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-22 |