Achieving Customer Service Goals Is Expected to Benefit Both Taxpayers and IRS

IRS’ customer service goals are to greatly improve both its service to taxpayers and its efficiency in using resources. IRS intends to achieve these goals by consolidating several taxpayer interaction functions in customer service centers, giving customer service representatives broad training and responsibility, and using better technology. Another IRS goal is to improve telephone accessibility. IRS plans to give its customer service representatives additional on-line access to taxpayer data nationwide. IRS has made progress in recent years in handling its correspondence. Intended Revenue Benefit Is Improved Compliance With Tax Laws

IRS has stated that achievement of its customer service vision will contribute to improved compliance with tax laws. Challenges Facing IRS

In reviewing IRS’ early progress toward its customer service vision, we identified four important challenges that IRS must cope with and which we intend to monitor: (1) how to manage the transition to a substantially different organization while meeting ongoing workload demands, (2) how to define the responsibilities of customer service representatives to achieve a successful balance of generalization and specialization, (3) how to realize the expected benefits of new technology, and (4) how to measure success and balance multiple workload goals in the new centers. The problems we identified have not had a serious adverse effect to date because IRS’ implementation of the customer service vision is still in the early stages.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO reviewed the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) progress in realizing its plan for improving its customer service, focusing on: (1) IRS customer service goals and its plans to meet these goals; (2) the difficulty IRS has in meeting these goals; (3) current management concerns; and (4) important challenges IRS faces.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) IRS customer service goals are to provide better service to taxpayers, utilize its resources more efficiently, and improve taxpayers' compliance with tax laws; (2) IRS expects to improve its efficiency by having fewer work locations and automated workload management, giving customer service representatives better computer resources and access to taxpayer accounts, improving taxpayers' accessibility to telephone service, and allowing taxpayers to resolve their inquiries after a single telephone contact; (3) IRS has made progress toward its vision by initiating limited operations in new customer service centers; (4) current IRS management concerns include the lack of ownership for customer service, the absence of owner involvement during project development, and inadequate quality control to measure interactive telephone systems performance; (5) these management concerns have not had serious adverse effects on IRS goals because implementation of the customer service vision is still in the beginning stages; and (6) IRS will have to determine how to manage the transition to a different organization while maintaining ongoing workloads and developing and using new information technology in order to attain its customer service goals.