[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 105 (Monday, June 1, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33085-33087]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-11709]


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

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Agency Information Collection Activities; Generic Clearance 
Improving Customer Experience (OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 
Implementation)

AGENCY: Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; request for comment.

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (DOC), as part of its commitment to 
improving customer service delivery, is announcing an opportunity for 
public comment on a new proposed Generic Clearance, ``Improving 
Customer Experience (OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation)''. 
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), we invite 
the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, 
and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the 
impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the 
public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 
60 days of public comment preceding submission of the collection to 
OMB.

DATES: To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed 
information collection must be received on or before July 31, 2020.

ADDRESSES:  Submit comments identified by Information Collection 0690-
NEW, Improving Customer Experience (OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 
Implementation), by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted 
electronically, including attachments to https://www.regulations.gov, 
will be posted to the docket unchanged.
     E-Mail: Department of Commerce PRA Clearance Officer at 
[email protected], Please reference OMB Control Number 0690-NEW A-11 
Section 280 Improving Customer Experience.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 0690-NEW, Improving Customer Experience (OMB Circular A-11, 
Section 280 Implementation), in all correspondence related to this 
collection. To confirm receipt of your comment(s), please check 
regulations.gov, approximately two-to-three business days after 
submission to verify posting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be directed to Amira Boland, Office of Management and Budget, 
725 17th St. NW, Washington, DC 20006, or

[[Page 33086]]

via email to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract

    In March 2018, the Administration of President Trump launched the 
President's Management Agenda (PMA) and established new Cross-Agency 
Priority (CAP) Goals. Excellent service was established as a core 
component of the mission, service, stewardship model that frames the 
entire PMA, embedding a customer-focused approach in all of the PMA's 
initiatives. This model was also included in the 2018 update of the 
Federal Performance Framework in Circular A-11, ensuring `excellent 
service' as a focus in future agency strategic planning efforts. The 
PMA included a CAP Goal on Improving Customer Experience with Federal 
Services, with a primary strategy to drive improvements within 25 of 
the nation's highest impact programs. This effort is supported by an 
interagency team and guidance in Circular A-11 requiring the collection 
of customer feedback data and increasing the use of industry best 
practices to conduct customer research.
    This new request will enable the Department of Commerce to act in 
accordance with OMB Circular A-11 Section 280 to ultimately transform 
the experience of its customers to improve both efficiency and mission 
delivery, and increase accountability by communicating about these 
efforts with the public.
    Commerce will collect, analyze, and interpret information gathered 
through this generic clearance to identify services' accessibility, 
navigation, and use by customers, and make improvements in service 
delivery based on customer insights gathered through developing an 
understanding of the user experience interacting with Government. To 
support this, OMB Circular A-11 Section 280 established government-wide 
standards for mature customer experience organizations in government 
and measurement. To enable Federal programs to deliver the experience 
taxpayers deserve, they must undertake three general categories of 
activities: conduct ongoing customer research, gather and share 
customer feedback, and test services and digital products.
    These data collection efforts may be either qualitative or 
quantitative in nature or may consist of mixed methods. Additionally, 
data may be collected via a variety of means, including but not limited 
to electronic or social media, direct or indirect observation (i.e., in 
person, video and audio collections), interviews, questionnaires, 
surveys, and focus groups. DOC will limit its inquiries to data 
collections that solicit strictly voluntary opinions or responses. 
Steps will be taken to ensure anonymity of respondents in each activity 
covered by this request.
    All High Impact Service Providers listed at https://www.performance.gov/cx/HISPList.pdf are required to ask questions in 
these domains of their customers. However, all agencies are encouraged 
to conduct their customer experience measurement in line with these 
standard measures.
    As discussed in OMB guidance, agencies should identify their 
highest-impact customer journeys (using customer volume, annual program 
cost, and/or knowledge of customer priority as weighting factors) and 
select touchpoints/transactions within those journeys to collect 
feedback. For the purposes of this collection, Federal customer 
experience will focus on real-time transaction-level measures.
    The results will be used to improve the delivery of Federal 
services and programs. It will also provide government-wide data on 
customer experience that can be displayed on www.performance.gov to 
help build transparency and accountability of Federal programs to the 
customers they serve.
    As a general matter, these information collections will not result 
in any new system of records containing privacy information and will 
not ask questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and 
attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly 
considered private.
    The Department of Commerce will only submit collections under this 
generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:
     The collections are voluntary.
     The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on 
considerations of total burden hours or burden-hours per respondent) 
and are low-cost for both the respondents and the Federal Government.
     The collections are non-controversial and do not raise 
issues of concern to other Federal agencies.
     Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions 
from respondents who have experience with the program or may have 
experience with the program in the near future.
     Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected 
only to the extent necessary and is not retained.
     Information gathered is intended to be used for general 
service improvement and program management purposes.
     Upon agreement between OMB and the agency all or a subset 
of information may be released as part of A-11, Section 280 
requirements only on performance.gov. Summaries of customer research 
and user testing activities may be included in public-facing customer 
journey maps.
     Additional release of data must be done coordinated with 
OMB.
    These collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and 
actionable communications between the Agency, its customers and 
stakeholders, and OMB as it monitors agency compliance on Section 280. 
These responses will inform efforts to improve or maintain the quality 
of service offered to the public. If this information is not collected, 
vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on services will be 
unavailable.

II. Method of Collection

    The Department of Commerce will collect this information by 
electronic means when possible, as well as by mail, fax, telephone, 
technical discussions; and customer experience activities such as 
feedback surveys, focus groups, user testing, and in-person interviews. 
Department of Commerce may also utilize observational techniques to 
collect this information.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0690-NEW.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Review: New.
    Affected Public: Collections will be targeted to the solicitation 
of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or 
may have experience with the program in the near future. For the 
purposes of this request, ``customers'' are individuals, businesses, 
and organizations that interact with a Federal Government agency or 
program, either directly or via a Federal contractor. This could 
include individuals or households; businesses or other for-profit 
organizations; not-for-profit institutions; State, local or tribal 
governments; Federal government; and Universities.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 752,925.
    Estimated Time per Response: Varied, dependent upon the data 
collection method used. The possible response time to complete a 
questionnaire or survey may be 3 minutes or up to 2 hours to 
participate in an interview or focus group.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 55,450.

[[Page 33087]]

    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: 0.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.

IV. Request for Comments

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information 
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-11709 Filed 5-29-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-BP-P