Output expense 3
Output expense 3
Information services
Description
This output expense provides services that help taxpayers and other customers to meet their payment obligations of their own accord and to receive payments they are entitled to. This is achieved through a range of proactive and reactive services to make people aware of their entitlements and obligations, and the services available to help them comply. This output expense also contributes to confidence in the tax administration system through managing individual customer complaints quickly, fairly and in confidence.
Activities undertaken:
- providing information to taxpayers on the application of the tax laws
- responding to enquiries from taxpayers and social support programme clients (excluding child support - see output expense 7)
- providing assistance to the public, businesses and tax agents.
| Revenue $000 |
Expenses $000 |
Net surplus/(deficit) $000 |
|---|---|---|
|
127,993 |
124,473 |
3,520 |
Output 3.1 Information services
Description
This output involves responding to public enquiries on tax and social support programme matters through correspondence, telephone, personal appointments and the Complaints Management Service.
|
Budget |
Actual | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | |||
| We will give taxpayers an answer that is correct, complete, clear, timely and appropriately referenced, that also shows an understanding of their environment. We will improve performance in this area to at least 85%. |
85% |
82.5% | |
| We will ensure that at least 87% of taxpayers and other customers who have contacted us are satisfied with the quality of the service we provide. |
87% |
79%35 | |
| We will fully resolve at least 85% of all calls at the time, requiring no follow-up action. |
85% |
77.3%36 | |
| We will ensure that at least 70% of family assistance recipients who receive a weekly or fortnightly payment are not overpaid. |
70% |
83.0% | |
| We will ensure that at least 90% of resident student loan borrowers meet their repayment obligations. |
90% |
92.6%37 | |
| We will collect at least 75% of student loan repayments due. |
75% |
78.6% | |
| We will ensure that the number of new debt cases is less than 505,000. |
< 505,000 |
485,328 | |
| Timeliness |
|
| |
| We will respond to: |
|
| |
| at least 85% of correspondence within 3 weeks |
85% |
81.8% | |
| 100% of correspondence within 6 weeks |
100% |
95.5% | |
| of receipt. | |||
| We will answer at least 80% of: | |||
| tax agents' telephone enquiries |
80% |
49.5%38 | |
| employers' telephone enquiries |
80% |
52.6%39 | |
| returns and debt collection telephone enquiries |
80% |
33.1%40 | |
| within 20 seconds. | |||
| We will answer at least 50% of all other calls within 60 seconds, except on days when the total number of calls exceed 17,500. |
50% |
41.2%41 | |
| For the days when total calls exceed 17,500: | |||
| the average speed-to-answer will be 5 minutes or less, and |
5 min |
5:17 min42 | |
| callers will be advised of the potential delay and offered alternative services. | |||
| We will ensure that at least 49% of taxpayers file their returns on time. |
49% |
47.9% | |
| 35 Results this year are not directly comparable to previous years because we made significant changes to our customer satisfaction survey to improve our understanding of our eight key customer groups. Results for the individual customer groups range from 63% to 92%. The reported figure is the overall customer satisfaction level across all eight customer groups. Customer satisfaction gradually improved during the year. | |||
| 36 Due to the higher number of less experienced staff this result is slightly down on last year's performance. Refer to "Context for call management performance". | |||
| 37 Our reported performance for this output has improved significantly this year because we have included non-resident borrowers in the past. This has resulted in our performance being under-reported because the percentage of non-resident borrowers who meet their obligations is significantly lower than for resident borrowers. | |||
| 38 Although we did not achieve our performance target, 93% of customers who called our tax agent line were satisfied with our service this year. The average speed-to-answer for the year was 1:20 minutes. Refer to "Context for call management performance". | |||
| 39 and 40 Performance standards were not met for the period. However the average speed-to-answer in the employer's line was 1:27 minutes and for the returns and debt collection line it was 3:13 minutes. Refer to "Context for call management performance". | |||
| 41 Results in the third and fourth quarters improved from the same period last year. Refer to "Context for call management performance". | |||
| 42 There were 100 days during the period where the call volumes exceeded the threshold, which was 34 more days than planned. The call volumes on those days represent 49% of all calls received during the year. This result shows a significant improvement of 39 seconds from 5:56 minutes last year. Refer to "Context for call management performance". | |||
|
Budget |
Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity |
|
|
| We will answer an expected 7.3 to 8.4 million specific customer contacts. |
7.3-8.4 million |
7.4 million |
Context for call management performance
Call Management had a challenging year with performance measures not being achieved, although we maintained a high level of customer satisfaction with our general enquiries at 81% and the tax agent line at 93%.
We have developed a performance improvement plan to address the challenges we faced this year. The plan will be in place by September 2006.
Overall, a combination of factors (summarised below) have had flow-on effects on our call management performance measures.
New telecommunications provider
In the third and fourth quarters, we changed to a new telecommunications provider and platform. This was a significant change to the way in which we manage our telephony environment. There were periods where customers experienced difficulties in accessing our services due to the system's instability and this also increased our call volumes on subsequent days.
Growing call complexity
During the year, our customer service representatives were anecdotally saying that customers who previously contacted us with straightforward enquiries are making greater use of self-service options (such as our website) to obtain information. As a result, a greater proportion of telephone customer enquiries cover a range of increasingly complex or involved issues. Therefore, it takes longer to address each enquiry, which is evidenced by the increasing call handling times. Call centres in other industries (for example banking) report similar trends.
The average call handling time in the tax agents' and return and debt collection queues increased by 20 seconds and 87 seconds respectively. The average call handling time for all other queues was 57 seconds longer this year.
During the year, we implemented the Influencing Call Outcome initiative so that our customer service representatives were more skilled in dealing with the changing nature of our customer enquiries. This approach focuses on training staff to control call lengths while still meeting customer service.
Staff capability
During the year, we made greater use of experienced customer service representatives to train two large intakes of new recruits to respond largely to the heightened demand from Working for Families and student loans initiatives.
These initiatives were, and still are, a high priority for Government and Inland Revenue. These new initiatives have also increased the complexity of training requirements for our customer service representatives.
Output 3.2 Advisory services
Description
This output involves proactively providing advice to the public and tax agents on tax and social support programmes through visits, meetings, temporary tax offices and seminars.
|
Budget |
Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| Quality |
|
|
| We will ensure that at least 97% of taxpayers and other customers are satisfied with the quality of advisory services we provide. |
97% |
97.3% |
|
Budget |
Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity |
|
|
| We will complete between 112,000 and 129,000 hours of advisory services. |
112,000-129,000 |
127,385 |
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