Conclusions and recommendations
1. Although the Department has achieved recent
improvements in answering telephone calls, its performance remains
well below industry best practice standards. Its target to achieve,
by March 2012, a standard of answering 90% of calls also falls
short of best practice.
It should commit to achieving by March 2012 the industry best
practice standard of answering at least 95% of calls.
2. People have to wait too long to speak to
an advisor when they call, creating frustration and unnecessary
costs for callers. Callers have to wait
on average two minutes, and nearly four minutes during peak periods,
before they speak to an advisor, compared to the public sector
benchmark of up to one minute. The Department should introduce
an additional target for achieving this benchmark by 2012.
3. The Department uses 139 telephone numbers.
It plans to reduce this number, but it could do more by reducing
the costs of contacting the Department by telephone.
The Department plans to reduce the telephone numbers it uses for
Income Tax in 2010, and has committed in principle to moving any
new services to price-capped '03' numbers. It should review and
rationalise the remaining helplines, textphone numbers and orderline
numbers, and decide which helplines should be free to call. It
should also move new and existing services to '03' numbers unless
there is an overriding case for not doing so, such as significant
extra costs for customers or the Department.
4. The Department is piloting a call-back
service for more vulnerable customers on the Child Benefit helpline.
The pilot does not cover Tax Credits helplines, although many
claimants, being on low incomes, might benefit most from such
a service. The Department should extend
its piloting of call-back technology to include Tax Credits phone
lines, so that decisions about providing such a service are informed
by a fuller understanding of the benefits to those most likely
to use it.
5. The Department does not know how often
it gives incorrect advice by telephone, or its likely effect on
peoples' tax assessments, credits and benefits.
6.8 million calls failed the Department's internal accuracy standard
in 2008-09 but the test used does not distinguish between failure
to follow Departmental guidance and procedures and failure to
provide correct advice. The Department should reduce the number
of calls that fail its accuracy standards. It should also identify
how often incorrect advice is actually given, its consequences
and how to prevent this happening.
6. The Department could make far more efficient
use of contact centre staff time and thereby improve the service
it provides. Staff spent only 38% of their
time handling calls or on follow-up work compared to the industry
best practice benchmark of 60%. The Department should match staffing
levels more closely to the fluctuating levels of demand throughout
the year. While the Department has achieved some success in reducing
sickness absence, it should reduce this further to at least match
the average level achieved in the private sector of 4%.
7. The Department is not doing enough to realise
savings from reducing avoidable calls.
The Department estimates that 35% of calls received are avoidable
and plans to make savings by reducing these by 50% by March 2011,
but it does not have a good understanding of why people call unnecessarily
in the first place. The Department should obtain more accurate
information on why people call and the extent of calls which are
avoidable. It should produce a robust assessment of the reduction
in avoidable calls it will achieve by March 2011 and the associated
cost savings.
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