Case: Regionale Belasting Groep
A spectacular drop in the number of calls to the customer service.
Taxes; not everyone’s favorite subject. But in this case we were happy! We were allowed to completely redesign the website for the Regionale Belasting Group (the RBG), which collects taxes for municipalities and boards.
The RBG is active in the area of the Delfland Water Board and of Schieland and the Krimpenerwaard. Because the RBG works for the government, it is obliged to comply with the guidelines for web accessibility within the new website (WCAG 2.1. AA). These guidelines now apply to all (semi) government agencies.
Web accessibility is of course completely knowned to us. We could therefore not wait to get started for the RBG!
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The project
The RBG asked us to redesign their website. They did have a strict requirement: meeting the WCAG AA standards for accessibility. And the design screamed for an update!
The design could be a bit more fresh and modern, simple and well-arranged to use, so the various types of users can find the desired information easily. The website is used by a diverse audience and a (large) number of users having difficulties reading or aren’t that digitally skilled. Therefore, it was very appropriate to apply a user test with people from the target group.
“It’s always a challenge to ensure that a user can find his way in a content-heavy website. By highlighting a number of top tasks, we have ensured that the most common actions are directly approachable.”
The RBG website has a lot of content. This makes it a challenge for visitors to find the right information easily. And what do you do if you cannot find what you are looking for? You ring a bell! This increases the workload at the customer service of the RBG. The new site had to prevent this in the first place.
The Goals
The most important requirements of the new RBG website were:
- Launch of the website within 3 – 4 months;
- User testing with the target group during the design phase;
- Reduce the number of calls to the customer service;
- Meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standards for web accessibility;
- Deep link to ‘Mijn RBG’ (a extern platform);
- Be able to separate content between private and business;
- Offer content in English.
The approach
We’re always up for a challenge! Because this project had a tide deadline, we started quickly. We stepped into the design process together with the RBG, designed a number of core pages and created a compact prototype.
The RBG wanted to test the assumptions with the target group. That is why we decided to present the prototype to a select group of people from the RBG customer panel. Testing with real users at an early stage enabled us to make adjustments during the early design process. For example, we made a design and implemented optimisations in a short time after testing. Then our developers could get started.
“We are pleasantly surprised with the accessible and clear website and with the collaboration. Level Level thinks along with you and really facilitates. We mainly focused on user-friendliness and managing customer expectations.”
The solution
The new RBG website takes more account of different types of visitors. By focusing on top tasks, a visitor has quickly carried out a number of actions. RBG can set up these direct actions variable. Even better, the promotions can be directly pasted to My RBG.
Visitors who need more information can read more on specific landing pages on topics such as payment, remission, objection or a change in his / her personal data. These are brought to the attention with a customized set of illustrations. Now, the website looks friendly and is much clearer.
The risk of frequently asked questions is that the number of questions can quickly grow out of hands. For RBG we have divided the questions into categories. With these categories the user can quickly and effectively bring out the right question. Searching for an answer to your question becomes a piece of cake!
For the separation of content between private and business, we have choosen a multisite approach. In this way we also ensured that content could be translatable to English.
The result
The new site encourages customers to self-service and the RBG sees a spectacular decrease of more than 38% in the number of phone calls after sending tax assessments.
In January 2020, customer service received 24,000 calls. In January 2019, after the launch of the website, there were 16,000!
The new website meets the web accessibility guidelines and carries a recognizable online identity.
We love it when a plan comes together!
Continuous development
We have already conducted a user test during the design process, but it is important for the RBG to test the site even further. Because the website must be accessible to everyone, we have also recommended people with disabilities has be included in the customer panel. With a diverse test group you can discover very specific technical or visual challenges.
Do you also want an accessible website?
Schedule a mini-consultation. Invest 15-20 minutes in a consultation. By phone or at our office. We help you clarify your goals, set priorities and determine next steps.
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