HMRC Web Chat

GingerBob_3

dori2o wrote: »

All phone calls to and from the contact centre/customer service centres are recorded. Calls to/from the back office are not recorded as they are made using a skype phone and not via the contact centres telephone software.

I'm not yet trained in the use of Web Chat but based on my colleagues experience this is what I can gather.

The conversation is not automatically recorded, neither is there currently the ability to provide a transcript via email etc as other companies can do.

However, so long as you are able before the conversation closes you can copy and paste the whole conversation from top to bottom into a word document.

This is how staff are currently having their web chats quality assurance checked, so I see no reason why the customer cannot do the same.

Whilst you are still in the same conversation you can scroll up and down to re-trace what has already been said earlier in the conversation. Therefore it ispossible to copyandpaste as long as this is done before you close the conversation.

Once the conversation is closed the information is lost.

I believe that the copy/paste function also provides the advisers Name/Pseudonym which is logged only to them and nobody else, and the date and time of the conversation.

The issue of being able to offer a transcript of the conversation is under discussion I believe.

As for theimpact that Web Chat has had on the rest of the service, having experienced 13 other January deadlines, this is by far the quietest I have experienced on the telephone lines.

More returns than ever have been submitted before the deadline and more than ever done online, and the web chat service seemed to take away the calls we would normally receive asking for help/hand holding as the customer completed the form whist they had you on the phone. This freed up advisers to take other calls.This meant that call waiting times were much reduced from the state they were in just a few months ago, with many customers suprised when I introduced myself into the conversation given the wait they thought they were going to have.

So from my point of view it has been a success, and I am looking forward to receiving the training for the service and to get going with it.

I think the one downside is probably the lack of available technical advisers, but it's always the same in January no matter what method of contact is used as there simply are not enough available, but they won't recruit more as during the rest of the year there is not the scope for them.

Here we go again. What gives you the right to describe tax-payers as "customers"? I can't imagine a more insulting description. HMRC has no idea whatsoever what constitutes a customer and don't realise that they don't have any "customers". Only businesses have customers.

GingerBob_3

Darksparkle wrote: »

As mentioned the last time you moaned about this, not everyone HMRC deals with are taxpayers so why should they call everyone that?

If they do have real customers (not sure who that might be) then by all means call them customers, but tax payers are not customers and shouldn't be referred to as such.

Money_maker

Has been edited.

lovinituk

GingerBob wrote: »

Well I'm sorry about that, but you should realise that all these organisations I complain about inhabit the stinking depths of a cess-pit: DVLA, HMRC, Insurance companies, CRAs and so on - they are all tarred with the same slime-ridden brush. Minimise your dealings with them, and only ever interact with them in writing. Do not ever give them your phone number, nor any irrelevant personal information.

The common factor is... YOU! :rotfl:

Pennywise

dori2o wrote: »

However, so long as you are able before the conversation closes you can copy and paste the whole conversation from top to bottom into a word document.

That's a start. Good to know for reference, i.e. so you don't have to ask the same question next year, for example, but wouldn't hold up as "evidence" in case of a resultant dispute with HMRC, on the grounds that the word document could easily be manipulated, so I doubt very much that HMRC would accept it as evidence against them. Very worrying that HMRC don't have a record of what was said - that's like them not recording a phone call - and after all, the reason for phone call recording is to prove who said what in case of dispute.

FOREVER21

dori2o wrote: »

All phone calls to and from the contact centre/customer service centres are recorded. Calls to/from the back office are not recorded as they are made using a skype phone and not via the contact centres telephone software.

I'm not yet trained in the use of Web Chat but based on my colleagues experience this is what I can gather.

The conversation is not automatically recorded, neither is there currently the ability to provide a transcript via email etc as other companies can do.

However, so long as you are able before the conversation closes you can copy and paste the whole conversation from top to bottom into a word document.

This is how staff are currently having their web chats quality assurance checked, so I see no reason why the customer cannot do the same.

Whilst you are still in the same conversation you can scroll up and down to re-trace what has already been said earlier in the conversation. Therefore it ispossible to copyandpaste as long as this is done before you close the conversation.

Once the conversation is closed the information is lost.

I believe that the copy/paste function also provides the advisers Name/Pseudonym which is logged only to them and nobody else, and the date and time of the conversation.

The issue of being able to offer a transcript of the conversation is under discussion I believe.

As for theimpact that Web Chat has had on the rest of the service, having experienced 13 other January deadlines, this is by far the quietest I have experienced on the telephone lines.

More returns than ever have been submitted before the deadline and more than ever done online, and the web chat service seemed to take away the calls we would normally receive asking for help/hand holding as the customer completed the form whist they had you on the phone. This freed up advisers to take other calls.This meant that call waiting times were much reduced from the state they were in just a few months ago, with many customers suprised when I introduced myself into the conversation given the wait they thought they were going to have.

So from my point of view it has been a success, and I am looking forward to receiving the training for the service and to get going with it.

I think the one downside is probably the lack of available technical advisers, but it's always the same in January no matter what method of contact is used as there simply are not enough available, but they won't recruit more as during the rest of the year there is not the scope for them.

Did you sign up to the official secrets act on becoming a Civil Servant?
If yes then some of your disclosure could be considered in breach of that.

I agree on line contact and e-mail is the way forward, both mediums should be adopted by HMRC, as long as you can have a hard copy of the discussion.

Too often telephone conversations result in disputes as to what was said against what someone thought was said.

GingerBob_3

FOREVER21 wrote: »

Did you sign up to the official secrets act on becoming a Civil Servant?
If yes then some of your disclosure could be considered in breach of that.

I agree on line contact and e-mail is the way forward, both mediums should be adopted by HMRC, as long as you can have a hard copy of the discussion.

Too often telephone conversations result in disputes as to what was said against what someone thought was said.

If this sort of stuff constitutes an official secret then it's no wonder HMRC and the rest of them are so incompetent. Then again, we do live in paranoid Britain, so it wouldn't surprise me to find out that it is classified as such.

dori2o

GingerBob wrote: »

If this sort of stuff constitutes an official secret then it's no wonder HMRC and the rest of them are so incompetent. Then again, we do live in paranoid Britain, so it wouldn't surprise me to find out that it is classified as such.

The only incompetent one I can see here is you.

Look we get it, you're a loner, you don't like anyone, lets just move on and stop spamming this topic with your boring rhetoric.

dori2o

FOREVER21 wrote: »

Did you sign up to the official secrets act on becoming a Civil Servant?
If yes then some of your disclosure could be considered in breach of that.

I agree on line contact and e-mail is the way forward, both mediums should be adopted by HMRC, as long as you can have a hard copy of the discussion.

Too often telephone conversations result in disputes as to what was said against what someone thought was said.

This will be good.

How exactly have I breached the Official secrets act when describing the use of a service available within the public domain?

FOREVER21

dori2o wrote: »

This will be good.

How exactly have I breached the Official secrets act when describing the use of a service available within the public domain?

I suggest you show your line manager your posts and let him/her tell you.