by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The phrase “take a number” hasn’t historically been a crowd pleaser. But it’s been provoking smiles at the Tax Collector’s downtown branch where a new electronic registration system is cutting the wait time to register a car or obtain a hunting or fishing license.
The $50,000 system is new to downtown, but it’s been in use at other branches. Tax Collector Mike Hogan has been phasing the systems in since his election in 2003. Hogan ran for the office on a platform promising increased efficiency through technology and training. Two years later, he’s pleased with his progress.
“One of the issues that kept coming up was the inconvenience of standing in line,” said Hogan. “I knew there were some things we could add in terms of technology to make a big difference in convenience without a big increase in cost.”
The new registration system is a case in point. Visitors to the downtown branch now check in at a front desk before stepping into the waiting area. The visitor is placed into an electronic queue based on the reason for their visit and wait times for each of the desk clerks.
It’s a big improvement over the old system, which essentially put everyone in the same line. The problem with that, said Hogan, is some clerks can only handle certain kinds of transactions. Under the old system, people would wait in line only to arrive at a clerk that couldn’t help them, said Hogan.
“It’s frustrating to wait in line for 20 minutes and then have a clerk tell them, ‘You have to go to the Clerk of the Court,’” said Hogan. “Now we have the greeting station performing triage work. Before you ever have to stand in a line, we know where to send you and where the wait time is going to be shortest.”
The registration system is just one facet of the technological overhaul. Hogan has also wired waiting room cameras in each of his branches to the Property Appraiser’s website, accessible through the City’s website, www.coj.net, so visitors can check wait times ahead of time.
Hogan said the web cameras are helping solve one of the Tax Collector’s biggest problems: the long lunchtime waits.
Tax Collector branches are inundated with a daily lunch rush, he said. The resulting long lines can be particularly frustrating to workers with limited time on their lunch breaks. Hogan said the web cameras should help guide his customers to the branch with the shortest lines.
Fulfilling another campaign pledge, Hogan is planning to send each of his about 250 employees to state certification training. Lack of funding used to force the Tax Collector to take a patchwork approach to the training, usually sending “a couple people a year” said Hogan. This year, the City Council made money available to train everybody, and Hogan wants to take advantage.
“Lack of continuity in training leads to a lack of continuity in customer service,” said Hogan. “Now we’ll have one trainer working with everyone and they won’t work with the public until they’ve been trained.”
Hogan said his office hasn’t so far felt the effects of Citywide belt tightening brought on by a tough upcoming budget year. The one-time capital improvements like the registration system don’t make a large dent in Hogan’s operating budget, and Hogan said he’s worked to keep recurring costs, like rent for his branches, as low as possible.