Summary: Improving service to taxpayers is one of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) highest priorities. IRS' "Customer Service Vision" calls for IRS to reduce written correspondence and walk-in contacts with taxpayers and serve more taxpayers over the phone. One of the ways IRS planned to improve telephone access was through the use of the telephone routing interactive system, which directs taxpayer calls to difference sources of assistance, including customer service representatives, recorded messages on various topics, and interactive applications. Although GAO reported earlier that IRS had significantly improved accessibility, the improvements resulted primarily from increasing the number of employees who were able to help taxpayers rather than many more taxpayers being served by interactive applications. (See xxx/GGD-98-33, Dec. 1997.) This report discusses (1) taxpayers' use of the telephone routing interactive systems' applications and (2) the system's expected benefits as presented in IRS' business case.
