[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 76 (Thursday, April 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24384-24386]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08301]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Office of the Secretary


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Generic Clearance Improving Customer Experience (OMB Circular 
A-11, Section 280 Implementation)

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites 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 June 20, 2023.

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ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments to 
the Department Paperwork Reduction Act Clearance Officer, Department of 
Commerce, 14th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230 or via 
the internet at [email protected]. All comments received are part of 
the public record. Comments will generally be posted without change. 
Please reference OMB Control Number 0690-0035 in the subject line of 
your comments. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument and instructions should 
be directed to S. Dumas, DOC PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under 
Secretary for Economic Affairs, 14th and Constitution Avenue NW, 
Washington, DC 20230 (202) 482-3306 or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract

    This is a request for an extension of a currently approved 
information collection.
    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 twenty-
five 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.
    The continuation of this information collection 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 measurements 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, and religious beliefs.
    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.
    The Department of Commerce may also utilize observational 
techniques to collect this information.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0690-0035.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Review: Regular submission, extension without change of a 
currently approved collection.

[[Page 24386]]

    Estimated Number of Respondents: 300,000.
    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: 27,725.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to the Public: Zero.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    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.

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 Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2023-08301 Filed 4-19-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-17-P