A key part of our transformation is that we've made it easy for the majority of customers to interact with us digitally. For example, customers have been claiming credits for donations they make to registered charities. They're scanning and verifying donation receipts and we're processing and paying straightforward claims quickly.
"I am an 'older person and found to complete my church donation rebate so easy to do online, and within about 4 days back came the correspondence of how much I get back."
Inland Revenue customer.
We expect most customers with straightforward needs will use digital services and that customers with more complex needs would still need to contact us. When customers call us, we aim to help them get to the point that they know what to do, and they do not need to be transferred or call us back. We achieved this for approximately 70% of calls this year.
We know that there will always be customers unable to use digital services or who need to contact us for other reasons. As you'll read below, we're working to ensure everyone is included.
- 80% of customers founds us easy to deal with this year.
- 98.7% of returns were filed digitally.
- 99% of people paid their income tax digitally.
- 79.7% of customers claimed donation tax credits digitally.
Read more about how customers interact with us.
Through our transformation programme, we have invested in our people who work with customers across our voice and web channels, and in our community compliance and front-of-house teams so customers continue to get assistance when they need it.
This year, we looked at how we can further assist customers who find digital services hard to access - some are among our most vulnerable customers and most in need of our services.
A team came together to identify the issues that customers from different communities can face when they're effectively excluded from government services that are digital. Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) New Zealand gave us powerful insights from its 'Leave No One Behind Campaign to Address Digital Exclusion'. Many of CAB's clients cannot readily access a computer or other appropriate device, or don't have reliable internet. A lack of finances, language, or ICT skills and confidence can also disadvantage people and contribute to their digital exclusion.
Our team identified improvements we can make quickly. For example, we’ve had great feedback on a pilot project launched in November 2021 to prioritise calls from deaf and hearing-impaired customers who contact us using NZ Relay services. Our people are working to enrol more customers in VoiceID, which unlocks a range of non-digital self-service options to interact with us. We're also taking a closer look at why some customers do not actively use myIR.
For the longer term, Inland Revenue is putting in place a formal customer design approach that ensures customers who are at risk of being digitally excluded always have channels to engage with us in ways that work best for them.