measurements need to be refined.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the irs has made big improvements in answering phones, but the service still leaves a lot to be desired … more than the irs measures or admits.
before we get into the gripe, let’s look at the improvements.
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over the past two years, the irs has hired more than 20,000 new taxpayer services employees. many of them are the customer service representatives (csrs) who answer the phones. and many csrs were moved from other duties to do phone duty on what’s called accounts management (am) lines.
and it worked … sort of.
what doesn’t it measure?
all those extra hands made it possible for the irs to claim an 88 percent level of service, three percentage points higher than the goal established by the 2019 taxpayer first act.
but wait a cotton-pickin’ minute. that admirable loc applies only to am calls and only during the tax season. the los for the whole organization was a dismal 56 percent.
and anyway, what does los mean? what does it measure?
or, more apropos, what does it not measure?
the measurement is rather complicated. it isn’t just a matter of how often somebody answered the phone. it’s more than that. but still –
- it doesn’t measure whether the customer (taxpayer or tax practitioner) was satisfied with the service.
- it doesn’t measure whether the call increased confidence in the irs.
- it doesn’t measure where the caller’s problem was resolved.
- it doesn’t measure how easy it was to do what needed to be done.
- it doesn’t measure whether what needed to be done got done in a reasonable amount of time.
- it doesn’t measure whether the customer was treated fairly.
- it doesn’t measure whether the customer understood whatever was asked of him, her, them or it.
- it doesn’t measure whether the csr was helpful in the least.
- it doesn’t mention how many calls got transferred or how many times per call.
- it doesn’t measure how many time callers got disconnected.
- it doesn’t measure whether a problem was solved or information delivered on a first call.
- it doesn’t mesure how absolutely tickled the taxpayer is after interacting with america’s favorite federal agency.
so the irs has some measuring to do.
how about first-contact resolution?
by a different measurement, the 88 percent los doesn’t account for the fact that during the tax season, only 32 percent of am callers reached an actual person, and for the full fiscal year, only 29 percent of them did so.
the irs measurements also neglect to consider non-am calls such as calls to compliance lines, the taxpayer protection program (for identity theft) and automated collection system lines. these account for a third of all incoming calls. those callers faced longer hold times and lower levels of service.
our national taxpayer advocate, erin m. collins, is on the case.
“any measure of irs phone performance should focus on whether the irs has resolved the taxpayer’s problem or addressed their questions,” collins writes in her 2024 annual report to congress. “private sector phone call centers often use measures like ‘first-contact resolution’ to assess whether they have resolved the caller’s problem or whether it remains outstanding. the irs should measure outcomes at least as much as it measures the ability to get through on phone lines.”
ironically, there is also a problem with csrs sitting around doing nothing as they wait for the phone to ring. during the 2024 filing season, csrs spent 29 percent of their time – 1.1 million hours – ready but idle.
the problem was caused by the irs assigning more agents to the phones in order to meet the requirements of the taxpayer first act. they were needed during peak calls but not so much during quieter times.
unfortunately, it would be unrealistic to expect csrs to switch to, say, answering correspondence while awaiting a ring.
the tax pro solution
one partial solution to the customer satisfaction problem is the implementation of taxpayer 360, which, once developed and deployed, will allow a given csr to access all of a taxpayer’s records, history, deadlines, correspondence and other details. ai may be able to help with this.
another part of the solution is to give tax pro accounts more functionality. if practitioners, who, collins says, “play a vital role in the tax system,” could solve more of their clients’ problems online, they wouldn’t need to contact the irs.
the nta’s recommendations:
- adopt a better measurement of service.
- prioritize staffing of phone lines that service the most vulnerable taxpayers.
- prioritize development of taxpayer 360.
- augment access to taxpayer assistance centers.
- expand functionalities of online accounts for better self-service options.
- provide callers with information on wait times.