The Itat Quarterly

Prior to being elected in 2014, as a recovering CPA, I spent 30 years in the insurance industry in auditing and accounting, and was involved in setting up a new annuity company using best practices. Once I became Treasurer, I took that knowledge and created an environment of change where every employee looks for better methods of performing their jobs. Once COVID hit and we were on the verge of opening back up, I received the email from Julie Daugherty, Warren County Treasurer, laying out her plans to reopen, but using appointments only.

We were fortunate in that we already had the Qmatic system in-house, and soon subscribed and implemented the online appointment capability. We are also fortunate that our offices are located in the Courthouse, where everyone has to pass through a security check, and the Deputy Sheriffs are great with the public in checking their appointment status and directing them to our office or our website. We allow appointments to be scheduled 5 business days ahead, and have 3 resources open for that. We are also sensitive to the reality that some folks just prefer to come in the day of, so we open up 2 additional resources each day to allow for same-day appointments. We have a drop-box outside the Courthouse where we take in title work, plate returns, registration renewals, as well as tax payments. We direct everyone to our website to pay online or make an appointment, and do our best to hide the fact that we will take walk-in registration renewals if they are willing to wait for those who have appointments.

At the end of an appointment, all customers receive a survey link where we ask their satisfaction of the whole appointment experience and overall satisfaction with their visit. 95% of the comments we receive from our customers indicate that they absolutely love the appointment only method and do not wish for us to go back to walk-ins with the associated wait. Another benefit of asking for feedback is that the customer quite often wishes to give accolades to the clerk who processed the transaction for them. An excellent opportunity to give regular pats on the back and to continue to build a spirit of teamwork!

Mitch Hambleton, Dallas County Treasurer