Good looks like this — HMRC Conversational user interface (CUI) service assessment

If the gov.uk website could helpfully chat with you, what would that experience be like?

HMRC Conversational user interface (CUI) service assessment

Demand for support from HMRC ebbs and flows with the movement of the financial year. The CUI assistant was designed to complement telephone and webchat support, helping customers self-serve by offering quick and queue-free answers to simple questions and providing much wanted 24-7 help with support during the pandemic.

The challenge

Read Ruth Drake’s great blog post on designing helpful chatbots

Project outcomes

The use of virtual assistants in the online services for the Covid support programmes – including the furlough and the Self-Employment Income Support Schemes – helped many users find what they were looking for when they would otherwise have resorted to phoning an HMRC helpline. This delivered the department an estimated £5m in “cost-avoidance” savings.

Such success helped to accelerate the use of the technology, and the department has plans to expand the use of conversational UI to the HMRC app.

Can I help you solve a similar problem? dug@goodlookslikethis.com

Tags: Nuance, intent, gov.uk, remote work, chatbot, enterprise software, user research, service management