Supporting Statement

Request for Approval under the

“Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery”

OMB Control Number: 1212-0066 (expires 10/31/2026)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: PBGC Premium Filer Satisfaction Survey

PURPOSE: PBGC conducts an annual telephone survey of individuals listed as filing contacts on annual PBGC premium filings. These individuals are generally employees or consultants of private-sector companies with PBGC-insured defined benefit pension plans. The intent of the survey is to measure their satisfaction with PBGC’s service and to identify opportunities for improvement.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: Pension plan practitioners listed as filing contacts on annual PBGC premium filings

TYPE OF COLLECTIONS:

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [X] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software) [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [ ] Other: email survey

To conduct and analyze these satisfaction surveys, PBGC will utilize the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which is a data-driven and qualitative methodology used to measure customer satisfaction with agency interactions and processes. The primary metric of the ACSI is the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), and the CSI is determined by the weighted average of questions that ask directly about customer satisfaction. More information about the ACSI methodology can be found in the appendix accompanying this Supporting Statement.

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public, although an aggregate satisfaction score will be published, and overall findings may be mentioned in annual reporting.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have filed premium payments with PBGC.

Name: Monica O’Donnell, 202-229-8706, o’donnell.monica@pbgc.gov

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [] Yes [] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [] Yes [] No

Respondents may remain anonymous and are not required to provide PII to participate in the survey. From prior experience, PBGC is aware that some respondents may wish to provide PII voluntarily during a survey call to get help with a specific situation particular to them with PBGC. This PII, if collected during the survey, would not be covered under an existing PBGC System of Records. Therefore, PBGC will not collect PII under this survey.

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Plan contacts for plans that have filed premiums with PBGC	250	0.2 hours	50 hours
Totals			50 hours

FEDERAL COST: The Department of Interior’s Federal Consulting Group provides the services for this survey to PBGC via an interagency agreement; estimated cost is $50,000.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe?

[X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan). If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them.

The subcontractor randomly selects approximately 250 contact names from the previous July through November’s premium filings. This provides a sufficient sample to complete the survey timely and includes both peak-season and off-peak filings.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[X] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

Appendix

American Customer Satisfaction Index Methodology

The American Customer Satisfaction Index uses customer interviews as input to a multi-equation econometric model developed at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. The ACSI model is a cause-and-effect model with indices for drivers of satisfaction on the left side (customer expectations, perceived quality, and perceived value), satisfaction (ACSI) in the center, and outcomes of satisfaction on the right side (customer complaints and customer loyalty, including customer retention and price tolerance).

The indices are multivariable components measured by several questions that are weighted within the model. The questions assess customer evaluations of the determinants of each index. Indices are reported on a 0 to 100 scale. The survey and modeling methodology quantifies the strength of the effect of the index on the left to the one to which the arrow points on the right. These arrows represent “impacts.” The ACSI model is self-weighting to maximize the explanation of customer satisfaction (ACSI) on customer loyalty. Looking at the indices and impacts, users can determine which drivers of satisfaction, if improved, would have the most effect on customer loyalty.

Customer Expectations
Customer expectations is a measure of the customer's anticipation of the quality of a company’s products or services. Expectations represent both prior consumption experience, which includes some non-experiential information like advertising and word-of-mouth, and a forecast of the company's ability to deliver quality in the future.

Perceived Quality
Perceived quality is a measure of the customer's evaluation via recent consumption experience of the quality of a company's products or services. Quality is measured in terms of both customization, which is the degree to which a product or service meets the customer's individual needs, and reliability, which is the frequency with which things go wrong with the product or service.

Perceived Value
Perceived value is a measure of quality relative to price paid. Although price (value for money) is often very important to the customer's first purchase, it usually has a somewhat smaller impact on satisfaction for repeat purchases.

Customer Complaints
Customer complaints are measured as a percentage of respondents who indicate they have complained to a company directly about a product or service within a specified time frame. Satisfaction has a negative relationship with customer complaints, as the more satisfied the customers, the less likely they are to complain.

Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is a combination of the customer's professed likelihood to repurchase from the same supplier in the future, and the likelihood to purchase a company’s products or services at various price points (price tolerance). Customer loyalty is the critical component of the model as it stands as a proxy for profitability.