Attachment B Cust Sat Survey Recompete.docx

ATTACHMENT B

SOLICITATION # ED-FSA-10-R-0055

Customer Satisfaction Survey Services Statement of Work

1. BACKGROUND

Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the Department of Education, plays a central and essential role in America’s postsecondary education community.

FSA’s core mission is to be the most trusted and reliable source of student financial aid, information and services to the nation. The programs FSA administers comprise the nation’s largest source of student aid. In fiscal year 2009 alone, FSA provided approximately $109 billion in new student aid to nearly 12.8 million postsecondary students and their families. FSA’s staff of 1,000 is based in 10 cities, in addition to its Washington, D.C. headquarters.

2. SCOPE

FSA needs detailed customer service studies to assess satisfaction with its key aid delivery products and services. FSA is a performance-based organization and as specified in its enabling legislation, is mandated to not only improve service, but to develop the necessary metrics to demonstrate and report its progress and performance to Congress, customers, taxpayers and other critical stakeholders. In addition, to leverage budgetary resources, FSA needs to understand and quantify the effect potential improvements may have on downstream satisfaction and other customer outcomes.

FSA established its current customer satisfaction metric in FY2003 and has conducted annual measurements from that point onward. The results have been reported in the Department of Education’s Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) report as well as the PBO Annual Report. The FY2011 measurement will continue the prior metric and as such, must be based upon a methodology that is comparable or convertible with the baseline metrics developed earlier.

The analytical methodology used to evaluate the survey results is consistent with that used in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI (www.theACSI.org), established in 1994 is a uniform, cross-industry measure of satisfaction with goods and services available to U.S. consumers, including both the private and public sectors. It is provided by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan Business School under the direction of Claes Fornell.

3. REQUIREMENTS

The government expects the contractor to provide valid and reliable analysis of the survey results obtained from FSA’s customers.

The contractor shall meet the following requirements:

a. Lead FSA in developing up to five unique customer satisfaction surveys of its major aid delivery products and services to various customer and partner segments.

b. Conduct surveys annually. Each survey may have additional sub-segmentation identified.

c. Develop measurement surveys that identify the key factors/contributors of satisfaction and ensure their appropriate inclusion on the measurement instrument.

d. Utilize an improvement model that can predict with accuracy the necessary measures FSA must undertake to improve its Customer Satisfaction Score in the areas surveyed. From the model predict the extent to which FSA’s Customer Satisfaction Score may improve.

e. Develop appropriate questionnaires that are tailored to the products and services measured, maintain respondent anonymity, are not overly burdensome, obtain valid responses and reveal satisfaction scores for each key product and service surveyed. The questionnaire may contain up to 50 separate questions, including questions that require the capture of verbatim comments and must obtain U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval.

f. Use proven survey and analysis methodologies to deliver valid and reliable results based upon widely accepted statistical principals.

g. Utilize collection techniques including mail, telephone, or electronic, that is appropriate for the client base and sample size.

h. Develop strategy for maximizing the response rates for all surveys. Calculate response rates for each survey group.

i. Taking the anticipated response rate into account, determine the appropriate sample size for each survey. In setting sample size, FSA seeks guidance on balancing the need for statistical power with the funds available for data collection.

j. For benchmarking purposes, provide satisfaction scores for the U.S. general economy and public and private entities that operate within the financial services industry. Scores will be available in a national index that is widely used by marketing research professionals and economist and is available to all, including the general public. The address of the offeror’s website providing this information must be provided.

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4. DELIVERABLES PER SURVEY

Deliverables

Questionnaire is written in a way that is easily understood by respondents; includes appropriate logic and skip patterns (where appropriate);

Within 7 business days after the initial survey content meeting

Data collection efforts yield the appropriate level of item and content responses to meet the agreed upon response rates to assure accuracy and reliability.

Within 3 weeks after receiving final approval of the questionnaire.

Within 10 business days of the delivery of the model and verbatim comments. Subsequent revision must be turned around within 2 business days after receiving FSA’s input.