Question Period Note: CALL CENTRE SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS

Can the Minister tell us more about how the Canada Revenue Agency will improve its call centres?

• The Canada Revenue Agency (Agency) has taken a number of steps to improve its telephone service and accessibility.

• The Agency introduced the new Hosted Contact Centre Service (HCCS) platform at the end of 2018.

• The HCCS has improved service in key ways:
o Virtually all callers can now access the queue and are provided with estimated wait times.
o Wait times are also now available online.
o There is more efficient service through national routing that sends callers to the next available agent across the country.

• The CRA introduced the option for Canadians to set a unique Personal Identification Number (PIN) for their account.

• Changes have also been made to call centre agent training. Agents are provided with post-training coaching and support, including additional and redesigned tools , which all contribute to improving quality and accuracy of information provided to Canadians.

On November 21, 2017, the Auditor General tabled an audit report in Parliament which included a chapter on Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) call centres.
On June 12, 2018, the Minister of National Revenue tabled the Government of Canada’s response to the 41st report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts entitled, “Call Centres – Canada Revenue Agency,” part of the 2017 Fall Reports of the Auditor General of Canada. All the recommendations in the report were accepted and reiterated the Government’s commitment to improving the service that the CRA’s call centres offer to Canadians.

The Agency issued a news release on June 13, 2018: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/news/2018/06/government-of-canada-responds-to-the-report-of-the-standing-committee-on-public-accounts-on-canada-revenue-agency-call-centres.html

While the use of the CRA’s online services continues to grow, the telephone still continues to be a popular channel for many Canadians year-round and not only during the T1 Filing season.
With a previous investment from Budget 2016, the Agency has already taken a number of steps to improve its telephone service and accessibility, including hiring more agents, improving the way the Agency monitors agent feedback, and providing additional training to staff so information is more accurate and to ensure Canadians get the information they need.
Budget 2018 made further investments of $78.3 million over 5 years starting in 2018 2019 and $17.4 million per year ongoing to support these efforts and continue the progress being made to improve client services.
With the new platform technology, virtually all calls are able to access the queue. Callers get estimated wait times to speak with an agent and they can make an informed decision on whether to wait in the queue, call back later, or use self-serve options.

A new quality monitoring framework was established that includes processes for call recording selection, assessment and agent feedback to help identify additional coaching and training needs for the agent.

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