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###### Department of the Interior

###### Office of the Secretary

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

# 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                         *DOI-PRA@ios.doi.gov.*                         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                         *DOI-PRA@ios.doi.gov,*                         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                           ( print 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.                          ( print 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