SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENT
U.S. Department of Commerce
International Trade Administration
Surveys for User Satisfaction, Impact, and Needs
OMB Control No. 0625-0275
A. JUSTIFICATION
This is a request to update a currently approved information collection.
1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.
The International Trade Administration’s (ITA) U.S. Commercial Service (CS) is mandated by Congress to broaden and deepen the U.S. exporter base. The CS accomplishes this by providing counseling, programs and services to help U.S. organizations export and conduct business in overseas markets. These programs include information products, services, and trade events. To accomplish its mission effectively, ITA needs ongoing feedback on its programs.
This information collection instrument allows ITA to solicit clients’ opinions about the use of ITA products, services, and trade events. To promote optimal use and provide focused and effective improvements to ITA programs, we are requesting approval for this clearance package; including: use of Comment Cards (i.e. transactional-based surveys) to collect feedback immediately after ITA assistance is provided to clients; use of annual surveys (i.e. relationship-based surveys) to gauge overall satisfaction, impact and needs for clients with ITA assistance provided over a period time. Without this information, ITA is unable to systematically determine the actual and relative levels of performance for its programs and products/services and to provide clear, actionable insights for managerial intervention. This information will be used for program evaluation and improvement, strategic planning, allocation of resources and stakeholder reporting.
More importantly, the update entails a revised list of questions that will be asked and each set of questions of will be tailored to a specific program type and will vary slightly with each program. ITA staff use this information to gain an understanding of client’s needs and objectives so that they can provide appropriate and effective export assistance tailored to an exporter’s particular requirements.
As a result, ITA requests approval to renew this information collection and the set of questions used to generate the customized forms have been approved under the aforementioned information collections.
2. Explain how, by whom, how frequently, and for what purpose the information will be used. If the information collected will be disseminated to the public or used to support information that will be disseminated to the public, then explain how the collection complies with all applicable Information Quality Guidelines.
ITA is seeking approval for the following data collection methods to provide flexibility in conducting customer satisfaction surveys and to reduce the burden on respondents: 1) an e-mail message delivering a hot link to a web enabled survey with an email reminder sent if the client does not respond to the survey within two weeks; 2) a telephone survey/interview; and 3) a web-enabled survey conducted in-person at trade shows/events via a laptop, tablet or mobile phone so participants can immediately respond without having to provide their e-mail address.
The collection is voluntary and the frequency will be on-going and will depend upon the demand U.S. companies have for Global Markets’ (CS) services and programs. These forms are used by firms to indicate their interest in participating in a service or program; therefore, if a firm is not interested in obtaining a CS service or participating in an export/import-related program, there is no need for the firm to complete a form. Companies access these forms via ITA websites or electronic mails and they may submit them via the Internet.
The responses to two of the questions in the comment cards (i.e. the highly likely to recommend ITA and were your objectives met questions), will be disseminated to the Office of Management and Budget, Congress and the American public as part of CSs Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) metrics.
3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology.
ITA will use multiple data collection methods such as web-enabled surveys sent via email, telephone interviews, and in-person surveys via mobile devices/laptops/tablets at trade events/shows to enable clients to conveniently respond to requests for feedback; and a forecast of burden hours.
4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.
There is no duplication of information within the DOC or another government entity. The information collected represents unique client feedback that is required by the CS to efficiently and effectively assess the service provided to U.S. exporters.
ITA maintains a Comment Card system and uses Qualtrics for its survey needs. Client information is stored in Comment Card and Qualtrics database and ITA staff can check to see whether they were sent a survey thereby eliminating duplication of resending the same survey.
5. If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.
This information collection involves small businesses. ITA only asks questions that are pertinent to assessing the service provided and minimal information will be collected to provide the best client feedback. Moreover, the majority of these forms have been in use by ITA for several years and during this time we have not received any negative feedback from either clients or client-facing staff regarding the use of these surveys.
6. Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.
If the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, the quality of service that ITA provides to private sector clients may drastically decrease and we may be hindered in meeting our customer’s specific needs and requirements. Also, if approval is not granted for use of these documents, the CS’s ability to conduct its congressional mandate of broadening and deepening the export base may not be met.
7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.
This collection will be conducted in a manner consistent with OMB guidelines.
8. Provide a copy of the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments received in response to that notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.
The Federal Register Notice soliciting public comment was published on February 28, 2018 ( Volume 83, page 8651). This announcement did not generate any comments from the public.
9. Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.
Respondents will not receive payments or gifts.
10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.
All responses to this collection of information will be provided confidentiality to the extent allowed by law. This assurance will be printed at the bottom of each form.
11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.
No questions of a sensitive nature are asked.
12. Provide an estimate in hours of the burden of the collection of information.
ITA estimates that there will be 50,000 respondents. The average time to complete a survey is 30 minutes so the total annual burden hours will be 25,000.
13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or record-keepers resulting from the collection (excluding the value of the burden hours in
Question 12 above).
Based on the following customer makeup of CS’s client population shown below, and median salary data taken from glassdoor.com, CS estimates that the total annual to our respondents will be $754,651 (estimated total burden time is 25,000 hours).
Respondent Occupation |
% of Client Pop. |
Median Salary |
Hourly Rate |
Weighted Avg. Rate |
Executive |
27% |
$102,690.00 |
$49.37 |
$13.55 |
International Business Development |
25% |
$52,649.00 |
$25.31 |
$6.43 |
Sales |
20% |
$24,809.00 |
$11.93 |
$2.39 |
Customer Service |
9% |
$31,493.00 |
$15.14 |
$1.33 |
Government Relations |
7% |
$79,168.00 |
$38.06 |
$2.60 |
Export Logistics |
6% |
$50,612.00 |
$24.33 |
$1.43 |
Policy Director |
3% |
$78,029.00 |
$37.51 |
$1.16 |
External Consultant/Legal Representative |
1% |
$78,120.00 |
$37.56 |
$0.52 |
In-house Legal Counsel |
1% |
$143,307.00 |
$68.90 |
$0.78 |
Other |
8% |
$59,039.00 |
$28.38 |
$2.21 |
Weighted Avg. Hourly Rate |
|
|
|
$30.19 |
|
|
|
x 25,000 hours |
$754,651.33 |
14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.
Domestic and International
It will take ITA staff approximately 5 minutes to review each response and the total burden hours to review 50,000 responses will total 4,166 hours.
4,166 hours x $25/hour staff time = $104,166.67
15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported.
Our agency has seen an increase in the number of clients being assisted, thereby increasing the number of clients being surveyed.
16. For collections whose results will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and publication.
Not applicable.
17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons why display would be inappropriate.
Not applicable.
18. Explain each exception to the certification statement.
Not applicable.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Jacqueline Harris |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-21 |