Illinois Department Of Revenue Improves Service, Cost-Efficiency And Taxpayer Compliance With Rightnow®-Powered Multi-Channel Contact Center
Goals
- Deliver timely, accurate information to taxpayers and businesses
- Cope with rapidly rising volume of email
- Overcome wave retirement among most experienced staff members
- Keep up with continuous changes in tax code and policies
Achievements
- Answers to hundreds of common questions available on the web 24 hours a day
- Email volume slashed by 83 percent in one year
- System paid for itself within six months
- Easy-to-search knowledge base provides ready answers for staff and constituents
Not too long ago, life was pretty stressful at the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). Growing use of the internet by taxpayers and businesses was driving email volume through the roof – putting tremendous strain on the agency’s staff. At the same time, an early retirement program the state implemented as a budget-tightening measure was causing the agency to lose many of its most experienced and knowledgeable people.
These factors, combined with an ever-changing tax code, were making it more difficult for IDOR to respond to taxpayer questions in an accurate and timely manner, often frustrating the taxpayers. Since they weren’t able to get answers they needed, they were more likely to have errors when they filed their returns—errors that would have to be dealt with later at greater cost and with greater inconvenience to both the taxpayer and IDOR.
Fortunately, IDOR discovered and implemented RightNow Service™, the public sector’s leading multi-channel contact center solution. With RightNow, IDOR has been able to deliver fast, consistent answers to the public across all channels. The agency has also been able to reduce its workloads and maintain an up-to-date knowledge base. As a result, taxpayers are getting the answers they need to file accurate returns—while allowing IDOR to operate more efficiently.
“RightNow lets us use the internet to maximum advantage, so we can better serve the taxpaying public,” declares IDOR communications specialist Adrianne Erley. “The system we’ve put in place makes everyone’s life easier and paid for itself within six months.”
Answers On The Web And In The Contact Center
At the heart of IDOR’s tax information system is RightNow’s patented knowledge base technology. This knowledge base provides a central repository where IDOR can quickly and easily update important tax information. As new issues arise or policies change, knowledge base answers can be added or modified by IDOR staff without assistance from its internal IT resources. By taking advantage of RightNow’s easy-to-use content management tools, IDOR has built up a knowledge base of almost 500 question-and-answer pairs. Just as important, by letting taxpayers’ day-to-day questions drive the creation of this content, IDOR has achieved very tight alignment between the information it provides online and the real needs of the state’s customers.
This highly relevant knowledge base is available to taxpayers on the web through an intuitive interface that makes it easy for site visitors to zero in on the specific topic they’re looking for. So, instead of hunting through dozens of static FAQs (which is how IDOR formerly offered information to the public), taxpayers can now simply search on a keyword or phrase to find what they need. RightNow also automatically maintains a “Top 20” question list so that a significant percentage of site visitors can find their answer with a single mouse-click.
RightNow’s web self-service system—which is very sophisticated in its underlying intelligence, yet extremely easy for taxpayers to use—has made a tremendous difference in IDOR’s operations. Few taxpayers bothered to use the old FAQ pages, preferring instead to simply pick up the phone or send an email with their question. Now, thousands of site visitors are finding the information they need without needing any personal assistance from an IDOR staff member.
As a result, email volume has dropped dramatically. In fact, the number of emails the agency received dropped 83 percent in one year. This means that taxpayers are getting their questions answered immediately, rather than having to wait days for an answer that might help them complete their tax return. It also means that IDOR’s staff is freed up to address other important work, instead of dealing with a relentless barrage of emails.
IDOR’s contact center staff also uses the knowledge base for their own internal reference—allowing less experienced personnel to give the same accurate answers as an expert. The knowledge base also ensures that the answers IDOR provides are consistent, regardless of whether a taxpayer speaks to an IDOR staff member or gets the information from the web.
Improving Insight And Taxpayer Compliance
IDOR uses the insights it gets from its RightNow system to do more than just refine its knowledge base content. The agency can also generate reports that indicate if particular aspects of the tax code are giving the general public trouble. That way, it can take corrective action such as clarifying language in its documentation. Such actions promote taxpayer compliance, decrease taxpayer frustration, and save IDOR time and money—since it doesn’t have to process as many errors and corrections.
For example, one RightNow report highlighted a growing number of questions concerning the different avenues available for electronic filing and payment of tax returns. IDOR was able to respond to this situation by adding items to the knowledge base about all available electronic options. The information will also be incorporated into future tax publications.
“Our main objective is to make it easier for taxpayers to comply with the provisions of the tax code,” explained Erley. “By helping us determine where that code is confusing, RightNow’s reporting capabilities enable us to better fulfill that mission.”
In addition to using RightNow to deliver faster, more accurate answers to taxpayers across all communication channels, IDOR is using RightNow Marketing™ to better communicate with the public. IDOR sends out newsletters to all tax practitioners authorized to send income tax returns in an electronic format, keeping them updated about system errors and problems, upcoming events, and pending legislation. Having the ability to send communication like this through a trackable email system saves the department paper, printing and postage costs. IDOR also plans on sending even more types of communication to the public utilizing the marketing tool in the near future.
Erley emphasizes that RightNow is generating all of these high-value benefits without consuming the agency’s IT resources or burdening her team with a lot of time-consuming technology implementation. Under RightNow’s on demand delivery model, the IT infrastructure required to support the system is hosted in one of RightNow’s data facilities and managed by RightNow technicians.
She also says the RightNow system was very easy to learn. “I’ve been able to teach myself most of what I needed to know, so I could allocate my training credits to managers who I believed could benefit from familiarity with the system,” she explained.
Erley added that working with RightNow has been a consistently positive experience—from pre-sales through ongoing technical support. “Everyone at RightNow has been responsive, accessible and very knowledgeable,” she said. “They’ve proven time and again that they are committed to helping us achieve our goals and that our investment in their technology was a wise one.”
IDOR Support Site | IDOR Homepage
About State of Illinois Department of Revenue
The primary responsibility of the Department of Revenue is to serve as the tax collection agency for state government and for local governments. The department also regulates riverboat gaming and the state’s horse racing industry, administers the state’s lottery, and regulates the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages. The department also oversees local property tax assessments, collects delinquent child support on behalf of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and functions as the funding agent for the Illinois Housing Development Authority. In FY 2005, the department was given additional responsibilities related to grant program payments for local officials. Circuit Breaker/Pharmaceutical Assistance program responsibilities were transferred to the Department of Aging at the onset of FY 2005.
Greg Gianforte