From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency's promised fix for call centre complaints has hit a   
   snag  :CRA SOTW    
      
   Critics, meanwhile, suggest it won't be enough to address the auditor   
   general's complaints   
       
   Karina Roman • CBC News   
      
   A year after the release of a scathing auditor general's report on problems at   
   Canada Revenue Agency's call centres, the agency's promised new phone system   
   has been delayed — and critics are warning that, even when it's up and   
   running, it won't be the    
   silver bullet the government is promising.   
      
   The CRA's business enquiries line was finally moved over to a new telephone   
   platform last week, more than seven months after the date originally promised.   
   But the general enquiries and debt management lines have not been switched   
   over yet.   
      
   "Though the implementation of the new call centre platform has taken more time   
   than expected to ensure a seamless transition, I am pleased that the migration   
   of the business enquiries line has been successful," said National Revenue   
   Minister Diane    
   Lebouthillier in an email to CBC News.   
      
   "I am looking forward to the platform's full implementation across the CRA's   
   call centres."   
      
   Last fall's auditor general report found dismal service standards at the CRA's   
   nine call centres across the country, with the agency answering only 36 per   
   cent of all incoming calls and providing incorrect answers to callers nearly a   
   third of the time.   
      
   The audit found the CRA blocked more than half of the 53.5 million incoming   
   calls during the audit period — which meant callers either heard a busy   
   signal or a message to try back later.   
       
   It found that the agency's internal assessment of its response rate to calls,   
   and the accuracy of the information agents provided, grossly overstated the   
   agency's success in meeting its service standards.   
      
       
   At the time, the CRA accepted all of the audit's recommendations, pinning much   
   of its promised improvements on moving to a new, more modern telephone   
   platform that will direct calls to available agents, no matter where they are   
   in the CRA's network of    
   call centres.   
      
   The new system will be able to give callers an estimate of how long they'll   
   have to wait to talk to a human being, allowing them to decide whether they   
   want to stay on hold.   
      
   It's also expected to allow for the use of voice, web chat, email, social   
   media and videoconferencing, in addition to automated self-service options.   
      
   The contract for the phone platform was awarded to IBM. The project, called   
   the Hosted Contact Centre Service (HCCS), is being overseen by Shared Services   
   Canada, the federal government's IT department.   
      
   Delays a concern: MP   
   Originally, the agency promised the new system's rollout would begin in March   
   2018, with the project completed by the end of this year, but the business   
   line was only moved to the new system Nov. 11. The goal now is to have the   
   general enquiries line,    
   also known as the individual line, operating on the new system in time for   
   tax-filing season.   
      
   Critics worry about whether that will happen.   
      
   "We really aren't that very far from the next tax season, if that's part of   
   what they're targeting to have this fully functional for Canadians," said   
   Conservative national revenue critic Pat Kelly, adding he is concerned about   
   further delays. "It may    
   mean we're going to have a lot of frustrated Canadians."   
      
   Minutes from a joint CRA-Union of Taxation Employees technological change   
   subcommittee in May 2018 indicate that challenges related to bandwidth, queue   
   capacity, accessibility and language issues contributed to the delays.   
      
   But those minutes also show the federal government seems to be learning its   
   lesson from the Phoenix pay system debacle: it's far better to test a new   
   system successfully before rolling it out.   
      
   "This project was considered high risk and management would not proceed if   
   there were doubts about the functionality of HCCS," the subcommittee minutes   
   say.   
      
   Still, the delays mean millions of Canadians are still struggling to get   
   through on the phone.   
      
   "What I have heard, by anecdote, especially from tax preparers who deal with   
   it consistently, is that things are not significantly better," said Kelly.   
      
   Privacy a challenge   
   Experts say the best call centre phone systems are ones that don't force   
   callers to give their information over and over to different agents as they   
   are routed through the system. For the CRA — where privacy concerns mean   
   different departments often    
   don't share information — meeting that standard might prove to be a   
   challenge.   
      
   "Good data lead to good insights," said Zeus Kerravala, principle analyst at   
   ZK Research in Westminster, MA, where he covers communications and network   
   technology. "And so, if the data [are] siloed ... you can spend all the money   
   on new technology but it'   
   s not really going to improve things."   
      
   While the new system promises the addition of web chat and email, Kerravala   
   warned that many people will still want to talk to an actual person at the   
   other end of the line — and that includes younger, more tech-savvy taxpayers.   
      
   "The one thing that I've learned over the years is that when people want to   
   talk about money, they want to talk to somebody," he said. The more complex   
   the taxation issue, he added, the more a caller will want to talk to an agent.   
      
   The CRA says that while the delays are unfortunate, it has made other   
   improvements to its services, including hiring additional call centre agents   
   and expanding the number of self-serve options available through the automated   
   telephone service and online.   
      
   And to address another problem identified by the auditor general, the agency   
   has extended its wait times in the phone queues from two to five minutes,   
   which the audit said would reduce the number of callers getting a busy signal   
   or a message to call back    
   later.   
      
   Canadians continue to complain about getting inconsistent information from   
   different call centre agents.   
      
   Accuracy improves slightly   
   In response to the auditor general's finding that agents were giving incorrect   
   information at least one third of the time, the CRA promised more and better   
   training and the creation of a national quality assurance team.   
      
   The agency conducted a self-assessment during a two-week period last February   
   and found the accuracy rate had improved, but only slightly — to 78 per cent.   
      
      
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