1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 8 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 9 MARCH 30, 2016 10 11 12 13 14 15 CUSTOMER SERVICES & ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY 16 COMMITTEE 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 REPORTED BY: Kathleen Skidgel 28 CSR NO. 9039 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board of Equalization: Sen. George Runner (Ret.) 4 Chair 5 Fiona Ma, CPA Member 6 Diane L. Harkey 7 Member 8 Jerome E. Horton Member 9 Yvette Stowers 10 Appearing for Betty T. Yee, State Controller 11 (per Government Code Section 7.9) 12 13 Joann Richmond Chief 14 Board Proceedings Division 15 16 For Board of Equalization Staff: Todd Gilman 17 Taxpayers' Rights Advocate 18 Thor E. Dunn 19 Staff Services Manager III 20 External Affairs Department 21 22 23 ---oOo--- 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 MARCH 30, 2016 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. MA: Okay. We are going to continue 6 with our meeting today if we could call all of the 7 interested parties back to the Boardroom. 8 Okay. Ms. Richmond, please announce the 9 next item. 10 MS. RICHMOND: Our next committee on 11 today's agenda is the Customer Service and 12 Administrative Efficiency Committee. Mr. Runner is 13 the Chair of that committee. 14 MR. RUNNER: Thank you. 15 MS. RICHMOND: Mr. Runner. 16 MR. RUNNER: We'll call this committee 17 meeting to order. And we have a annual report from 18 the Customer Service Center accomplishments for 19 2015. 20 MR. GILMAN: Good morning, everyone. 21 MR. HORTON: Good morning. 22 MS. HARKEY: Good morning. 23 MR. GILMAN: Committee Chair Runner and 24 Madam Chair Ma, Members of the Board. Todd Gilman, 25 Taxpayers' Rights Advocate with the State Board of 26 Equalization. 27 For discussion by the committee this 28 morning is the Board of Equalization's External 3 1 Affairs Department Accomplishment Report for 2 calendar year 2015. Next to me is Mr. Thor Dunn, 3 Manager of the Customer Call Center who will go over 4 the report in more detail. 5 Mr. Dunn? 6 MR. DUNN: Thank you. Good morning, 7 Committee Chair Runner and distinguished Members. 8 Today I have the honor of presenting the Customer 9 Service Center's 2015 Accomplishment Report. 10 The Customer Service Center is the call 11 center for the Board of Equalization where we answer 12 the calls received on the BOE's toll-free 800 13 number. While there is a considerable amount of 14 information on this report, I will keep this brief 15 and just point out highlights on each page and then 16 answer any questions that you might have. 17 On page 1, you will notice that the calls 18 from 2013 to 2015 have gone down. There are many 19 factors that contribute. 20 MS. MA: Do you have a PowerPoint? 21 MR. RUNNER: Yeah? 22 MR. DUNN: No, we -- well, we provided 23 that. 24 MS. RICHMOND: It was not provided. 25 MR. DUNN: We do have it on the PAN. We 26 did provide the -- 27 MS. HARKEY: We just have -- we have it in 28 our book. 4 1 Do you have it? 2 MS. MA: Okay. 3 MR. RUNNER: You should be able to see it 4 there. 5 MS. MA: I know. When he's saying like 6 "page 1"? 7 MR. RUNNER: Oh. 8 MR. DUNN: I do have additional copies if 9 anybody needs it. 10 MS. MA: No, I have it. I'm just saying -- 11 MR. DUNN: Okay. 12 MS. MA: -- if we're talking about it. 13 MR. RUNNER: Oh, it's not you -- are you 14 saying it's -- so we don't have it for presentation? 15 MS. MA: No. 16 MR. DUNN: No. 17 MS. HARKEY: Not for presentation. 18 MR. RUNNER: I got it. 19 MR. GILMAN: We'll make note of that for 20 next time if we have an item like this, to make sure 21 it's on the video. 22 MR. RUNNER: That would be good. 23 MS. MA: Okay. 24 MR. RUNNER: That would be good. 25 MS. HARKEY: Next year. 26 MR. DUNN: In 2013 and '15 there are many 27 factors that contribute to a change, which was the 28 decrease in calls. Some of these factors include 5 1 customer's familiarity with our services and changes 2 to the Board of Equalization made for the 3 improvement on the functionality of online services. 4 Next, I would like to point out the 50 5 percent reduction in abandoned calls. This 6 reduction improves our customer's ability to receive 7 assistance that they need to comply voluntarily when 8 they need that assistance. 9 On page 2, the average call wait time is at 10 an acceptable 1 minute and 17 seconds. Below this 11 information, the graphs show calls handled by the 12 Customer Service Center and the calls transferred to 13 other sections. Consistently, the Customer Service 14 Center is able to answer 75 percent of those calls 15 without the need to transfer them. 16 If we move on to page 3, this page shows a 17 breakdown on the type of calls being received. 18 Looking at this information, you will notice that 19 the online registration and returned assistance make 20 up 38 percent of the calls being received. 21 On page 4, we take a look at the emails 22 received. In 2015, over 16,000 emails were received 23 and 75 percent of those were answered by the 24 Customer Service Center, with the remaining 25 25 percent being forwarded to other sections for 26 processing. 27 Finally, on pages 5 and 6, you are shown 28 the information on the Customer Service Center's 6 1 Account Maintenance Cleanup Pilot Program. This 2 pilot was started to address the outdated account 3 holder information which creates returned mail and 4 emails. 5 In 2015, staff working on the pilot program 6 made more than 76,000 updates to both account and 7 client information. These changes are essential 8 with ensuring our customers are receiving the 9 information they need to comply voluntarily. 10 This concludes my brief review of the 11 accomplishment report. However, I would like to add 12 that in the next couple of months the call center is 13 starting a voluntary customer service survey. Using 14 the information from this survey, we are going to 15 continue to improve upon our customer service 16 experience. 17 I would like to thank you for your time. 18 And before I leave, are there any questions I can 19 answer for you? 20 MR. RUNNER: Quickly on that survey. That 21 was established in such a way that helped you make 22 sure you had good clear data, right? 23 MR. DUNN: Correct. What we're looking for 24 is not only to identify if the customer received the 25 information that they needed -- 26 MR. RUNNER: Mm-hmm. 27 MR. DUNN: -- but in a way that was 28 acceptable to them. And also we get the customer to 7 1 leave a brief message to provide additional detail, 2 just in case that information is needed as well. 3 MS. MA: Can I ask -- I'm sorry. So when 4 you're going to do a survey, how are you going to 5 survey folks? After they get -- after they hang up, 6 or after they get their calls answered? 7 MR. DUNN: Well, exactly. So what's going 8 to happen is they'll get the option to participate 9 in the survey when they first call. If they choose 10 to participate, at the end of their call it'll be 11 provided to them. 12 MS. MA: And will you have a website in 13 case people would like to log on to a website and 14 provide comments after? 15 MR. DUNN: Well, we do have the Board of 16 Equalization's email, and we do have a survey on the 17 Board of Equalization's website as well. 18 MS. MA: Okay. 19 MR. RUNNER: Ms. Stowers. 20 MS. STOWERS: Yes. What are some of the 21 typical questions you're getting on your customer 22 calls? 23 MR. DUNN: A lot of the questions pertain 24 to online services, assistance with registration. 25 And then during peak periods of January, July, April 26 and October, it's mostly assistance with filing 27 returns. 28 With the call center, we're a little 8 1 different than some taxing agencies; we'll actually 2 walk a customer through the complete return. 3 MS. STOWERS: Okay. 4 MR. RUNNER: Member Horton? 5 MR. HORTON: Thank you, Chairman. 6 This is a good thing actually. I wanted to 7 commend you on the training as well as the work that 8 you're doing. But I also wanted to ask, is it 9 possible that our Program Techs and Tax Technicians 10 can receive the same level of training? I visited 11 several of our offices, and the Program Techs have 12 indicated that the individuals who move from the 13 Call Center into the Compliance Department are 14 better trained because you guys are doing such an 15 exceptional job in training them, rightfully so. 16 I mean, conceptually the Call Center is -- 17 not only does it serve the people of the State of 18 California in answering their questions and dealing 19 with -- helping to deal with constituent issues, it 20 also serves as a training ground for many of our 21 employees that we're recruiting and bringing into 22 the Board of Equalization, and you're doing an 23 exceptional job. So I'd like to see that training 24 to be available to our TT-I's and Program 25 Technicians up to III, I think would be the level, 26 but we can figure that out. 27 MR. RUNNER: We'll follow -- that's a good 28 thought. We'll follow up with that from the 9 1 committee in regards to how and indeed the different 2 parts and departments that we would need to 3 coordinate with that. But I think it's a good idea. 4 You know, obviously, you know, you become 5 an expert pretty quick when you're just going from 6 one question after another and answering the 7 question. And -- but at the same time we train them 8 in such a way that they're prepared for that. If we 9 can do that better for those in our district 10 offices, that's a great idea. 11 MR. HORTON: Thank you. 12 MR. DUNN: Thank you. And we'll definitely 13 work with the Customer Service Committee as to what 14 we can do to expand that training. 15 MR. RUNNER: Okay. Thank you very much. 16 That concludes our report and our committee. 17 MR. GILMAN: Thank you, Members. 18 MR. RUNNER: We're adjourned. 19 ---oOo--- 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 10 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, Kathleen Skidgel, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization certify 9 that on March 30, 2016 I recorded verbatim, in 10 shorthand, to the best of my ability, the 11 proceedings in the above-entitled hearing; that I 12 transcribed the shorthand writing into typewriting; 13 and that the preceding pages 1 through 10 constitute 14 a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: May 12, 2016 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, CSR #9039 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 11