Tax Administration: IRS' 1999 Tax Filing Season Page: 37 of 84
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Chapter 3
IRS' Telephone Service Deterioratedstaff on the assumptions that (1) productivity would increase through
improved call routing and (2) demand would be leveled through around-
the-clock service. However, IRS' expectations about productivity and
demand leveling were not realized, as previously discussed. Therefore,
attempting to answer these more complex, lengthy calls with "live"
assistors contributed to longer on-hold times and busy signals for other
taxpayers.
A cognizant official said that the decision to discontinue voice messaging
in 1999 was a mistake, considering that these complex calls take longer to
resolve. In response to longer on-hold times for assistance and excessive
busy signals, IRS reestablished voice messaging in mid-February.
According to a cognizant official, IRS plans to continue using voice
messaging in 2000.Limited Use of New
Call Router During
Parts of the 1999 Filing
SeasonIRS' new call routing equipment was designed to route a taxpayer's
telephone call where it could most quickly be answered on the basis of the
availability of an assistor and the type of question. However, at various
times, IRS had to limit its use of the call router because of various
problems, such as a lack of standardized programming among call site
computers. Also, at the time we completed our audit work, IRS had not
reviewed the performance of the call router and, therefore, could not
determine if the desired results were achieved or what impact the
equipment had on taxpayer access to the telephone system.
Before the 1999 filing season, calls were routed to a call site by area code
or on the basis of the percentage of the total available staff the site had
scheduled to work (known as the staff allocation-based routing system).
These methods could have caused service disparities for taxpayers. Calls
routed to a busy site might have had long on-hold times or received busy
signals, while another site might have had low demand and provided
immediate assistance. Calls could not easily be rerouted. Historically, IRS
call sites operated with a great degree of independence; there were no
comprehensive, uniform standards as to how taxpayer calls would be
handled. Therefore, taxpayers could experience a different quality of
service depending on where their calls were answered.
IRS' new call router was designed to remedy any disparities by performing
"intelligent" routing in two stages. First-stage intelligent routing was to
send the call to the site that, on the basis of assistor availability and
expected on-hold times, appeared to be the site that would most quickly
answer the taxpayer's call. Second-stage intelligent routing was to be done
after the call had been routed to a site and the taxpayer had responded toGAO/GGD-00-37 IRS' 1999 Tax Filing Season
Page 35
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United States. General Accounting Office. Tax Administration: IRS' 1999 Tax Filing Season, report, December 15, 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc292866/m1/37/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.