White Paper for 0814

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Non-Substantive Change Request

Request to Add Customer Experience Question to Existing Customer Experience Survey

OMB Control Number 2900-0814

Justification

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) seeks a Non-Substantive Change to existing VA Customer Experience Survey instrument – OMB Control Number 2900-0814. This change will support the life of VA, because VA is responsible for a timeless mission: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan”— by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s Veterans. To fulfill its mission, VA has identified four agency priority goals (APG) in FY16-17. One APG is to Improve Veterans Experience with VA by providing Veterans with effective and easy experiences in which they feel valued.

In accordance with Memorandum for the President’s Management Council dated January 2006, it is noted in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget guidance, that a high response rate increases the likelihood that the survey results reflect the views and characteristics of the target population. VA through the Veterans Experience Office (VE) has developed four new survey questions to track it. The VE APG specifies that these four survey questions must be incorporated into existing customer experience surveys by Q1 FY2016. Therefore, VE seeks to incorporate the APG questions into existing VA customer experience surveys. The goal is that by September 30, 2017, VA will reach 90% agreement with the statement “I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to Veterans.”

VA expects that it will take approximately one minute for each survey respondent to answer these new questions. This change is expected to affect 1 instrument approved under OMB control number 2900-0814. This instrument involves the receipt of approximately 5,000 responses per year. The annual burden of this change is approximately 83 hours ((1 minute per submission * 5,000 submissions) / 60 minutes per hour = 83.333 hours).

Update for this Existing VA Customer Experience Survey

In reaching out to J.D. Power and Associates, the BVA was informed that all four questions created by VE could not be added to this particular survey; otherwise, the contract would be affected and need to be renegotiated. J.D. Power and Associates stated that we could add one question to the survey. In speaking with VE, that office indicated that the “Trust question” must be asked, and it is understood by VE that all four questions could not be added to this particular survey. Thus, the following question will be added to the end of the survey collected under OMB Control Number 2900-0814:

Now think about your experiences with all the services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (which include healthcare, benefits programs, or memorial services). Please tell us how you feel about the following statement:

“I trust VA to fulfill our country’s commitment to veterans.”

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

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