1. Georgia Dept. of Revenue
Improving Customer Service Through Effective Staffing and the Use of Technology

2. AGENDA
Recruiting
Planning
Technology

3. Recruiting
Creating a culture of understanding that support is not routing calls to other people, but solving inquires on the first contact.
Global search specific to industry skill set and experience
Call Center Manager
Workforce manager
Supervisors

4. Recruiting Call Center Manager Workforce manager Supervisors
High level plan for improvement through technology, training & morale
Workforce manager
Vendor liaison
Forecasting & Reporting
Resource allocation
Supervisors
Performance
Root Cause Analysis

5. Workforce Forecasting Proposal to be “right-sized”
Utilized historical data to plan ahead
Proposal to be “right-sized”
60 full time year-round employees
60 seasonal employees
Budgeting for seasonal vs. borrowing staff
Focus on Refund Inquiry Calls
Funded 120 positions
29 Regular – no change
91 Contract

6. 2016 % of call volume Individual vs Business

7. Improvements Affecting Call Volume
Refund issuance from the taxpayers view
From the refund approval date to the return receive date
First-in | First-out
90-day messaging
Fraud
Cross training
Co-Location of staff
Electronic verification – identity and return (119,264)
Plain language letters
Proposed & official assessment
Statement of Taxpayer
Notice of return changes
Submission ids on letters

8. Other Business Changes
New billing process - December 2016
Mail (four letters) increase 51%
47M collected since December 19
Income statement due date change
From March 31 to January 31
Password reset – server could not handle the volume and throttled delivery
Forms request

9. 2017 Call Trends

10. Key Performance Analysis
Due to the changes in call trends staffing was misaligned
Changed the following
Prioritize business skills over individual skills
Proficiency settings on lower staffed skills
Result
Reduce average hold time 4 minutes year-to-date
Reduce Longest Hold time 2.6 hours
2016:
13:16
2017:
9:46
2016:
3.8
2017:
1.2

11. ASA

12. Fraud Transfer Reduction

13. Plain Language - Before

14. Plain Language - After

15. Plain Language – After continued…

16. Call Center Management
Root Cause Analysis
Determining appropriate service level
Why is our abandonment so high?
Short abandons
Industry standard – 1/3 of SLA
7 – 13% of calls abandoned in 30 seconds or less
Robotic calls
Automated calling lines getting through
Transfers
Software counts the same call multiple times
Cross-queue

17. Root Cause Analysis Reporting
Identify & correct report inconsistencies
Finding root cause
Work with vendor to repair
Supervisors to develop a more effective way to report data

18. Technology Changes Reduction of Paper Vendor Certification Returns
Added 2D barcode to 500 form series
1D barcode returns reduced 30% (YTD)
POA electronic submission – 50% increase
Vendor Certification
All electronic
Tied paper approval to electronic

19. Technology Changes Uptick in web use
Opt-in for notifications (Individual) 71%
Power of Attorney 50%
Account maintenance 40%
Payment plan requests up 32%
E-1099G 22%
Registration 19%
Mobile 18%

20. Technology Changes Skype for business Remote view access
Increase seat time
Lowers taxpayer hold time
Remote view access
Used when walking taxpayers through Georgia Tax Center
Replace older computers

21. GTC Usage
New Web Logons

22. GTC Usage by Year

23. Monthly Calls Offered

24. Future Initiatives
Require e-filing for all credit generation and utilization
GTC mobile compatible
Help Desk Analyst
Knowledge Base & Visit Manager (CRM)

25. Questions ?

26. CPE Code
B7101C