Every year HMRC receive 79 million phone calls to its network of contact centres across the country. A vital part of the transition project is to create web content that means users don't always need to call HMRC in order to get help. To do that we need to understand the reasons why people call HMRC in the first place.
Earlier this week I went to Glasgow and East Kilbride with GDS and HMRC staff working on transition, to listen to calls in the contact centre.
VAT helpline
The Glasgow contact centre deals with some of the lower-volume and more specialist HMRC helplines. We each sat with advisers on the VAT helpline, listening to the conversations and watching the advisers.
The callers were mainly small businesses and companies who would have very specific queries that they needed help with. The nature of calls ranged from resetting passwords for the online service, to giving detailed guidance on the VAT treatment of exporting bags to Iran.
We were really impressed by the adviser's depth of knowledge and their ability to work with numerous data sources and systems at the same time. The way advisers could talk a caller through logging into HMRC's online VAT service (from their memory, without having the website on their screen), whilst they might also be looking up a specific VAT Notice and also logging details of the call, was also impressive.
We also had time away from the phones to chat with a wide range of advisers from the Corporation Tax, Stamp Duty and tax credits helplines.
We gained some important insights about how advisers direct callers to content on the website, sometimes to very specific content in the HMRC manuals. We'll be using this to help improve GOV.UK ready for when HMRC content is transitioned.
Taxes helpline
We spent the afternoon in the contact centre in East Kilbride, which handles calls on the taxes helpline.
Listening to the calls here was a very different experience from the morning. The callers were individuals and employees, not businesses, and were often not as certain about what they needed from HMRC.
Many calls required updating a tax code to deal with changing circumstances. This would often require detailed investigation into the individual's employment history.
Often one glance at the caller's records would be enough for the experienced adviser to be able to recognise the problem and resolve it quickly. Many times the caller was simply seeking reassurance that they had understood something correctly.
The contact centre staff dealt with different challenges from the staff on the VAT helpline. Callers would often speak little English (one we observed had to go through a translation service) and even where language was not a problem, the adviser would be explaining complex issues in a way that any caller would understand.
Reducing calls
Our conversation with a larger group of tax helpline staff gave us a good insight into the kind of GOV.UK content that would really help to reduce calls. There are a number of specific activities that users are struggling with, some of which are already being worked on at GDS. We'll keep working to create content that doesn't leave users confused and reaching for the phone.
If we can help users to understand the UK tax system through relevant content on GOV.UK, then hopefully we can reduce unnecessary calls to contact centres and help the advisers concentrate on helping other callers.
2 comments
Comment by John Andrews posted on
You need to look for solutions further up the supply chain...poor forms...poor letters...out of date processes...things done for HMRC convenience rather than customer understanding...etc. etc.
Comment by Stephen Edwards posted on
Hi John,
Thanks for your comment. In GDS our approach is always to look at user needs first to help us understand how GOV.UK can provide user-focussed solutions. Reviewing calls made to contact centres is just one of the many ways we are working with HMRC to analyse user needs. We will be blogging with HMRC about some of the other approaches we have taken over the coming weeks so keep an eye on the blog.
Best wishes,
Stephen Edwards
Product Manager - HMRC transition to GOV.UK