[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 242 (Tuesday, December 19, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 87791-87793]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-27827]



[[Page 87791]]

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

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of the Secretary

[234XD0102DM; DS6CS00000; DLSN00000.000000; DX.6CS25; OMB Control 
Number 1090-0012]


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

AGENCY: Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we, 
the Department of the Interior are proposing to renew an information 
collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
January 18, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under Review--Open for 
Public Comments'' or by using the search function. Please provide a 
copy of your comments to Jeffrey Parrillo, Departmental Information 
Collection Clearance Officer, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240; 
or by email to [email protected]. Please reference OMB Control Number 
1090-0012 in the subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this ICR, contact Jeffrey Parrillo, Departmental Information 
Collection Clearance Officer, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240; 
or by email to [email protected], or by telephone at 202-208-7072. 
Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of 
hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or 
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals 
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within 
their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in 
the United States. You may also view the ICR at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), we 
provide the general public and other Federal agencies with an 
opportunity to comment on new, proposed, revised, and continuing 
collections of information. This helps us assess the impact of our 
information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting 
burden. It also helps the public understand our information collection 
requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format.
    A Federal Register notice with a 60-day public comment period 
soliciting comments on this collection of information was published on 
May 11, 2023 (88 FR 30337). No comments were received.
    As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent 
burdens, we are again soliciting comments from the public and other 
Federal agencies on the proposed ICR that is described below. We are 
especially interested in public comment addressing the following:
    (1) Whether or not the collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether or not the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection 
of information, including the validity of the methodology and 
assumptions used;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) How might the agency minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of 
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of response.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, email 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal 
identifying information--may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.
    Abstract: The Agency will collect, analyze, and interpret 
information gathered through this generic clearance to identify High 
Impact Service Providers' 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.
    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.
    ``Service delivery'' or ``services'' refers to the multitude of 
diverse interactions between a customer and Federal agency such as 
applying for a benefit or loan, receiving a service such as healthcare 
or small business counseling, requesting a document such as a passport 
or social security card, complying with a rule or regulation such as 
filing taxes or declaring goods, utilizing resources such as a park or 
historical site, or seeking information such as public health or 
consumer protection notices.
    Under this request, three types of activities will be conducted to 
generate customer insights:
    Customer Research (User Persona and Journey Map Development): A 
critical first component of understanding customer experience is to 
develop customer personas and journey maps. This process enables the 
Agency to more deeply understand the customer segments they serve and 
to organize the processes customers interact with throughout their 
engagement with the Federal entity to accomplish a task or meet a need. 
In order to adequately capture the perspective of the customer and the 
barriers or supports that exist as they navigate these journeys, it is 
necessary to directly interact with customers rather than relying 
solely upon the Agency's stated policy of how a process should work or 
employees' interpretation of how services are delivered. This can occur 
through a variety of information collection mechanisms that include 
focus groups, individual intercept interviews at a service site, 
shadowing a user as they navigate a Federal service and documenting 
their reactions and frustrations, customer free-response comment cards, 
or informal small discussion groups.
    Regardless of the format, the Agency will apply Human Centered 
Design (HCD) Discovery methods to generate personas and journey maps, 
ultimately identifying customer insights. An approach to recruiting 
participants, resources for preparing and structuring interviews, and a 
consent form for interviewees can be found at https://www.gsa.gov/cdnstatic/HCD-Discovery-Guide-Interagency-v12-1.pdf. This document is 
also included in the package.
    Insights documented, summarized and presented in customer personas 
and

[[Page 87792]]

journey maps can then be shared across the program, the Agency, other 
Federal, State, and Local government stakeholders and even with the 
public to validate and discuss common themes identified. These products 
can be used as ``indicator lights'' for where more rigorous qualitative 
and quantitative research can be conducted to improve Federal service 
delivery.
    Publicly shared personas and journey maps will include language 
that qualifies their use (see question #16), and high-level, non-
identifying descriptive statistics of the population(s) interviewed to 
develop it (ex. ``25 Service members that transitioned to civilian 
employment within the last decade, 14 female, 11 male, 21 enlisted and 
4 officers) to ensure that the perspective represented is understood. 
Quotes or insights will never be associated with an actual individual 
unless they have signed a release form (see link above for template) 
and this was included in the specific collection request.
    Customer Feedback (Satisfaction Survey): Surveys to be considered 
under this generic clearance will only include those surveys modeled on 
the OMB Circular A-11 CX Feedback survey to improve customer service by 
collecting feedback at a specific point during a customer journey. This 
could include upon submitting a form online on a Federal website, 
speaking with a call center representative, paying off a loan, or 
visiting a Federal service center.
    In an effort to develop comparable, government-wide scores that 
will enable cross-agency or industry benchmarking (when relevant) and a 
general indication of an agency's overall customer satisfaction, High 
Impact Service providers must refer to OMB Circular A-11 Section 280 
for required survey question wording and organization.
    As part of the Customer Experience CAP goal's strategy to increase 
transparency to drive accountability, the feedback data collected 
through the A-11 Standard Feedback survey is meant to be shared with 
the public. This collection is part of the government-wide effort to 
embed standardized customer metrics within high-impact programs to 
create government-wide performance dashboards. Data collected from the 
questions listed above will be submitted by the Agency to OMB quarterly 
for updating of customer experience dashboards on performance.gov. This 
dashboard will also include the total volume of customers that passed 
through the transaction point at which the survey was offered, the 
number of customers the survey was presented to, the number of 
responses, and the mode of presentation and response (online survey, 
in-person, post-call touchtone, mobile, email). This will help to 
qualify the data's representation by showing both the response rate and 
total number of actual responses.
    User Testing of Services and Digital Products: Agencies should 
continually review, update and refine their service delivery, including 
communication materials, processes, supporting reference materials, and 
digital products associated with a Federal program. This often requires 
``field testing'' program informational materials, process updates, 
forms, or digital products (such as websites or mobile applications) by 
interacting with past, existing, or future customers and soliciting 
feedback. These activities can include cognitive laboratory studies, 
such as those used to refine questions on a program form to ensure 
clarity, demo kiosks at a service center where customers can provide 
informal feedback while waiting for a service, or more formally 
scheduled in-person observation testing (e.g., website or software 
usability tests). These information collection activities are more 
specific than broad customer research and related to a particular 
artifact/product of a Federal program. As such, there will be a more 
structured interview/set of questions than more open-ended customer 
research. Findings from these activities are meant to support the 
design and implementation of Federal program services and digital 
products, and may only be shared in an anonymized/in aggregate if a 
particular insight is useful to include as part of a customer persona, 
journey map, or common lesson learned for improving service delivery.
    The Agency will only submit 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;
     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
     The agency will follow the procedures specified in OMB 
Circular A-11 Section 280 for the required quarterly reporting to OMB 
of trust data and experience driver data from surveys.
     Outside of the quarterly reporting mentioned in the bullet 
immediately above, if the agency intends to release journey maps, user 
personas, reports, or other data-related summaries stemming from this 
collection, the agency must include appropriate caveats around those 
summaries, noting that conclusions should not be generalized beyond the 
sample, considering the sample size and response rates. The agency must 
submit the data summary itself (e.g., the report) and the caveat 
language mentioned above to OMB before it releases them outside the 
agency. OMB will engage in a passback process with the agency.
    This clearance will help the Agency to establish a process where 
customer experience is regularly monitored and measured. The results 
will assist the Agency in the planning and decision-making processes to 
improve the quality of the Agency's products and services.
    Results from feedback activities and surveys will be used to 
measure against established baseline standards and for measuring the 
Agency's progress toward defined goals.
    Title of Collection: Improving Customer Experience (OMB Circular A-
11, Section 280 Implementation).
    OMB Control Number: 1090-0012.
    Form Number: None.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals and Households, Businesses 
and Organizations, State, Local or Tribal Government.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 146,384.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 146,384.
    Estimated Completion Time per Response: Varied, dependent upon the 
possible response time to complete a questionnaire or survey may be 3 
minutes up to 90 minutes to participate in an interview based on the 
data collection method used.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 13,876.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Frequency of Collection: One time.
    Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: None.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required 
to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number.

[[Page 87793]]

    The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Jeffrey Parrillo,
Departmental Information Collection Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2023-27827 Filed 12-18-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4334-63-P