The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) has welcomed the recent introduction of cheaper 0300 phone numbers for callers to HMRC but says lengthy waiting times and a disjointed service remain persistent problems.
Anthony Thomas, chairman of LITRG, pointed to evidence presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding performance at HMRC's contact centres which showed the department only managed to answer 16% of calls received to the Tax Credits Helpline on 31 July 2013, the deadline day for notifying changes of circumstances.
'The rate at which calls are answered on deadline and peak days is still unacceptably low. One or two exceptionally bad days can have a detrimental effect upon a whole year's performance. HMRC's poor customer service performance also jeopardises the forthcoming rollout of any new telephone model, providing an additional incentive for the department to enact swift improvements', Thomas said.
LITRG is calling for HMRC to implement a freephone line or an immediate call-back service.
HMRC has just published the final report on the Building Capacity Project which investigated how the tax authority could use private sector best practice to improve call handling. A trial using two private sector providers ran for a year from February 2012 to February 2013. Each supplier was provided with 90 desks in two HMRC contact centres and operated as a stand-alone unit with its own culture, management structure and performance management tools in place.
HMRC concedes that because the department stipulated that the suppliers should follow HMRC's operating model in order to compare performance on a like for like basis, suppliers did not have the discretion to implement their own operating models or adopt new approaches to the work.
As a result, the report says the trial 'presented only limited opportunity to learn from the external providers' methods of working, including, in particular, any innovative ways of working not already used by HMRC'.
Analysis shows that the suppliers' combined average call handling time of nine minutes and 13 seconds was consistently higher than HMRC's time of seven minutes and one second, largely because of the need to train up new recruits in how to handle tax credit enquiries. As the advisers gained experience over time suppliers achieved a higher agent utilisation rate than HMRC's internal centres (82% compared with 78%).
Similarly, as the trial progressed suppliers' performance against all of the quality measures improved considerably and by the end of the trial reached a combined average of 91.55% compared to 99% in HMRC.
HMRC says the trial demonstrated a number of areas of best practice, for example recruitment, resourcing and scheduling where HMRC could learn from the private sector.
The suppliers proposed a number of changes, including making more use of a first contact resolution model, better workforce scheduling and increased focus on customer service skills to complement the strong technical knowledge of HMRC's advisers.
The trial report concludes that while HMRC is capable of outsourcing contact centre work, 'the work is more complex and variable than the average contact centre business. Therefore, defining the right relationship with a private sector supplier, in order to achieve the right outcomes for both HMRC and its customers, is essential if further outsourcing is to be considered'.
