[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 89 (Wednesday, May 8, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Page 20204]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-09243]



[[Page 20204]]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

[OMB Control Number 2900-New]


Agency Information Collection Activity: Service Level 
Measurement--VBA Contact Center Survey

AGENCY: Veterans Experience Office, Department of Veterans Affairs.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Veterans Experience Office (VEO), Department of Veterans 
Affairs (VA), is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the 
proposed collection of certain information by the agency. Under the 
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, Federal agencies are required to 
publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed 
collection of information, including each proposed extension of a 
currently approved collection, and allow 60 days for public comment in 
response to the notice.

DATES:  Written comments and recommendations on the proposed collection 
of information should be received on or before July 8, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments on the collection of information 
through Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) at www.Regulations.gov 
or to Michael Jacobsen, Veterans Experience Office, Department of 
Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20420 or email 
to [email protected]. Please refer to ``Service Level 
Measurement--VBA Contact Center Survey'' in any correspondence. During 
the comment period, comments may be viewed online through FDMS.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Danny S. Green at (202) 421-1354.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA of 1995, Federal agencies must 
obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each 
collection of information they conduct or sponsor. This request for 
comment is being made pursuant to Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA.
    With respect to the following collection of information, VEO 
invites comments on: (1) Whether the proposed collection of information 
is necessary for the proper performance of VEO's functions, including 
whether the information will have practical utility; (2) the accuracy 
of VEO's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of 
the collection of information on respondents, including through the use 
of automated collection techniques or the use of other forms of 
information technology.
    Authority: OMB Circular A-11 (2018), Section 280.
    Title: Service Level Measurement--VBA Contact Center Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 2900-New.
    Type of Review: New collection.
    Abstract: The Enterprise Measurement and Design team (EMD) team is 
tasked with conducting transactional surveys of the Veteran population 
to measure their satisfaction with the Department of Veterans Affairs 
(VA) numerous services. Thus, their mission is to empower Veterans by 
rapidly collecting feedback on their interactions with such VA entities 
as NCA, VHA, and VBA.
    The Veteran Benefits Administration (VBA) oversees numerous 
government programs supporting Veterans, including those furthering 
their education or filing for pension benefits. These programs engage 
Veterans through the National Call Center (NCC) or other benefit-
specific call centers. The Veterans Experience Office (VEO) was 
procured by VBA to measure the customer satisfaction of persons 
contacting the following call centers: NCC, Pension, and Education.
    Customer experience and satisfaction are usually measured at three 
levels: the enterprise level, the service level patterns, and point-of-
service feedback. This measurement may bring insights and value to all 
stakeholders at VA. Front-line VA leaders can resolve individual 
feedback from Veterans and take steps to improve the customer 
experience; meanwhile VA executives can receive real-time updates on 
systematic trends that allow them to make changes.
    (1) To collect continuous customer experience data that make or 
break the service experience.
    (2) To help field staff and the national office identify areas of 
improvement.
    (3) To understand emerging drivers and detractors of customer 
experience.
    To accomplish this task, the VEO will invite random samples of 
recent callers to these call centers via email to complete a brief 
transactional online survey. Samples will be drawn three times a week 
to ensure that callers can accurately respond to their most recent 
call. The selected callers are given two weeks to respond to the 
survey, receiving an email reminding them about the survey invitation 
if they did not respond one week after the initial email. Sampled 
callers will report their experiences through Likert-scale questions 
designed to measure the customer experience driver metrics published by 
OMB in the A-11 Budget Directive. Sampled callers will also be asked to 
respond to an open-ended question about their experience with the VBA 
Contact Centers that will allow them to provide any further information 
about their experience that was not captured in the previous questions. 
Once data collection is completed, the participant responses in the 
online survey will be weighted so that the samples represent the caller 
population. Weighting models will rely on the following: Call Center 
Type and Subsidiary Call Center (NCC only). Weighted estimates will be 
published through dashboards on the Veteran Signals (VSignals) system 
for interactive reporting and data visualization.
    This data collection was previously approved and conducted under 
the VA Generic Clearance Number 2900-0770: Generic Clearance for the 
Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery. Under 
this clearance, the VEO could collect and report this data to 
stakeholders internal to VA for program and procedure improvement. 
However, the stakeholders directed VEO to present the results that are 
statistically rigorous and generalizable to the target population from 
this survey to the public, which was not allowed under Generic 
Clearance Number 2900-0770.
    Therefore, the VEO is creating a new information collection request 
to be able to meet the quantitative goals of the VBA Contact Center 
Survey of 1) being representative of the VBA Contact Center population 
and 2) allow for accurate statistical analysis and to allow it to be 
released to the public.
    Affected Public: Individuals.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 1,957 hours.
    Estimated Average Burden per Respondent: 2 minutes.
    Estimated Average Cost per Respondent: $0.74.
    Frequency of Response: Once.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 58,712.

    By direction of the Secretary.
Danny S. Green,
Interim VA Clearance Officer, Office of Quality, Performance and Risk, 
Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2019-09243 Filed 5-7-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8320-01-P