- Khentii, on 8-9 June, for thirty-three tax officers from seven eastern aimags: Dornod, Dorgnogobi, Dundgobi, Gobisumber, Khentii, and Sukhbaatar
- Ulaanbaatar, on 14-15 June, for thirty-nine tax officers
- Uvs, on 30 June and 1 July, for thirty tax officers of five western aimags: Bayan-Ulgii, Uvs, Khovd, Zvkhan, and Gobi Altai.
With project support, GDT began its project to improve communications skills and customer service of its tax officers in 2009. The customer service improvement project followed EPRC assistance to GDT to provide taxpayers with easy-to-understand brochures and information and was designed to improve taxpayer relations, strengthen GDT officers’ customer service habits, and improve collections. After a management workshop for GDT leadership to formulate a “Customer Experience Mission Statement” and three successful two-day training sessions for tax officers in Ulaanbaatar, Darhan, and Erdenet conducted in 2009 by Human Fortis, a Mongolian consulting company, GDT requested EPRC to continue assistance with monitoring and evaluation of the program in the Ulaanbaatar tax offices and to conduct further workshops for tax officers in the eastern and western regions.
The customer service workshops began with an orientation on integrating individual missions with GDT’s organizational mission and values and a discussion of the tax officers role as the face of the organization to Mongolian citizens. Subsequent sessions focused on the channels of communication and the importance of body language, how to provide excellent customer service for difficult customers, and understanding customer service. Tax officers have provided very positive feedback on the value of the workshops; the majority reported that they would not only actively implement the techniques and lessons learned, but would also teach them to their colleagues and family members.
During the next three months, Human Fortis will continue to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the project in seven tax offices in Ulaanbaatar and the Call Center to retain the momentum, maintain quality, and provide support for GDT staff in their implementation of customer service standards. EPRC will also support the installation and roll out of a queue monitoring system to serve taxpayers in tax offices, with assistance from Human Fortis; such system was identified during the needs assessment stage of the project as a means to serve taxpayers on an orderly basis and improve customer satisfaction.