TIGTA says IRS callback system needs work

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says performance metrics aren't clear for the IRS Customer Callback System.

In the report, TIGTA said the IRS needs to enhance reporting of the system results to improve clarity and transparency and establish goals to measure performance.

The IRS developed the Customer Callback system to allow taxpayers to leave their telephone number and opt for an IRS employee to call them back, rather than continuing to wait on hold. 

Callbacks were offered to taxpayers on a limited basis beginning in 2019, and as of last January the IRS had expanded this functionality to 43 telephone services with a long-term strategy of expanding the callback capability to nearly all of its viable telephone services. 

"The IRS's customer service strategy should include best practices similar to those provided by private industry, including telephone callback services," said TIGTA after its audit, adding that the service reported that it offered callbacks to some 11 million callers and saved callers 3.6 million hours of hold time. In January, the IRS updated the system to include better estimates of wait times.

TIGTA identified two further ways the IRS could enhance the reporting of CCB system:

• Revise external performance measures to be more comprehensive. This would reduce inconsistency in the performance measures and allow stakeholders to better understand how many callers were offered a callback. For example, in Fiscal Year 2022, only some 11% of callers seeking live assistance were offered callbacks.
• Establish goals for CCB system performance measures. In addition, callers with estimated wait times longer than an hour are ineligible for callback consideration and must instead continue waiting on hold. Eliminating this restriction would improve service to callers who may have the greatest need for it because their wait time is the longest.

The IRS is considering removing this ineligibility rule but did not agree to establish baseline goals for CCB performance "because management believes that it is not viable to establish program goals for a customer experience tool when use of the tool is reduced due to positive business changes," the report said. "TIGTA believes that services designed to mitigate customer burden are not excepted from establishing goals."