Customer experience surveys are an important tool to help IR understand customers’ experiences and perceptions. Surveying our customers is critical to support accountability reporting and identify areas for improvement, and for individual capability development.
Survey performance measures have been selected because they provide information on the impact of our services on customers. We use this information to understand whether services met customer expectations, contributing towards our broader outcomes. The Performance Management Framework contains 12 customer survey-based measures from:
- our Customer Experience and Perceptions Survey
- our SME compliance cost survey
- the Better for Business survey run by MBIE.
Customer Experience and Perceptions Survey
This is our largest survey andan ongoing monitor that helps us measure trust, tax morale and customer experience over time. This continuous, online survey includes weekly random samples of the general public and those who have recently had an interaction with us.
Actual performance is measured from respondents’ ratings on a 7-point scale. Results represent respondents who gave a score of 5 or more. In 2023 -24, we received 2,655 responses from the general public, with an average survey response rate of 3.3%. We received a total of 4,467 responses from customers who had a recent interaction with IR, with an average survey response rate of 4.6%. The margin of error for the survey questions reported is below 2%. The survey was run on behalf of IR by Verian.
SME compliance cost survey
A key outcome indicator for our multi-year business transformation programme was a cumulative reduction in compliance costs for SME customers. We have tracked changes in the time and costs that small businesses incur in meeting their tax responsibilities through surveys run in 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2021. These results have been shared externally and published on IR’s website.
The transformation programme closed on 30 June 2022 but reporting on benefit commitments continued to 30 June 2024. The final survey was run between April and May 2024, with 5,348 responses provided. The response rate for the survey was 11% and the margin of error for the survey questions reported is below 2%.
Better for Business survey
The purpose of the Better for Business research monitor run by MBIE is to measure the experience of business when engaging with government. The survey captures information on business interactions with government as a whole as well as with individual agencies. The survey has been running since 2013 and gains feedback from over 2,000 businesses each year across New Zealand’s business population.
The all-of-government Customer Experience Index (CXI) in the survey is scored from 0 to 100 (least to most positive) using 10 dimensions to generate insights into how government agencies can improve the experience that businesses have when they deal with them.