BY THE end of this year, customers of the Registrar General's Department (RGD) will be able to access the status of their applications online, instead of visiting or calling the offices that are located across the island.
Chief Executive Officer of the RGD, Dr. Patricia Holness, who made this disclosure at a JIS 'Think Tank' session recently, said this was a natural progression, having implemented the Application Tracking System (ATS) some four months ago, which was designed to electronically track the status of applications submitted by RGD customers.
The ATS, which was developed by the Department of Records and Information Management at the RGD, and headed by Michael Terrelonge, is part of the department's continuing thrust to increase the level of customer satisfaction, which hovers around 95 per cent.
APPLICATION TRACKING SYSTEM
"We want to take the system to the customer. We want to be able to say to our customer, that if you have a receipt number and have access to the Internet, you can log on with your receipt number to the RGD database, specifically to the Application Tracking System, and you will be able to learn the status of your application," the CEO explained.
Elaborating on the current status of the ATS, she noted that the most obvious impact was the ability to give a specific response to queries by customers relating to why an application was not successful, as well as the processing status of an application.
This was possible, Dr. Holness explained, because the ATS had a chronology of all the interactions with the application, which ranged from the various departments it passed through and when these interactions occurred, to the various contacts made with the customer regarding the application.
'PROCESS FLOW'
The tracking process was such, that after loading applications on the database there was a 'process flow' of entries made by persons within the RGD, so that with each location that the application arrived at manually, there was an electronic attachment which each operator at the station had to add to the file, she said.
"Anyone can pick up a file and call up the receipt number and look at the commentary, and you will see all the items that have occurred relating to that customer," Dr. Holness explained.
Noting that the system was now being used internally by staff, she said that customers felt more comfortable when you are able to respond in more detail to queries.
Staff members, especially the customer service representatives, "are totally happy" with the ATS, the CEO said. Prior to the implementation of the ATS, Dr. Holness said that customers would become irate, having to repeat information already told to other persons.
All regional offices have access to the ATS. For example, Dr. Holness said that from a regional office, she was able to query the system and see how many persons applied for express service at the Western Office in Montego Bay, which is now located at the Natural Mystic Plaza on Humber Avenue.
"We had all the information identified and we were able to identify individually, the status of each application," she revealed. The ATS was not without challenges, the CEO pointed out. A challenge occurred sometimes where the entries are not entered clearly on the database. "The information may not be as clear as it should be. Sometimes when you are typing the information, you are comfortable with the background. However, when it is read by another person, who is seeing the application for the first time, it might not be as clear," Dr. Holness explained.
"We in the RGD have to be keenly aware that it is being read by everyone in the organisation, so that the communication has to be really very clear," she said.
To address this challenge, Dr. Holness pointed out that a significant level of training had been done. "We have trained customer service representatives and all the persons who have an opportunity to interact with the customer, so when persons receive a call from a customer, they will load in the receipt number and start typing because they are now communicating to the world, whatever activity occurred at their location," she noted.
Training would be ongoing, the CEO said, adding that training of customer service representatives was currently taking place at a regional office. Manuals are also available to every member of staff, to ensure that they were comfortable with the system.
To date, in terms of expenditure for the technology to implement the system, the RGD has spent under $750,000.
Mr. Terrelonge told JIS News that the RGD had other developments on the way that would add to the cost. "We have spent perhaps another million dollars on the hardware infrastructure to run these programmes since that time," said the Head of the Department of Records and Information Management at the RGD. Added expenditure will be in the form of outfitting the desks of customer service representatives with computers. So far, customers at the Western Regional Office have been reaping the benefits. "In Montego Bay, we have computers on the desks of customer service representatives, so there is no need to leave a customer to check information. Customer service representatives will have the information right there and they can send messages to persons who provide support to them and are at other locations," Dr. Holness said.
"We are hoping to roll this out at the head office as well, and we are in the process of purchasing equipment and arranging the facility, so that customers will feel a lot more comfortable," she continued.
The ATS is another step in the process of improved customer service, considering the fact that the RGD serves a customer base that is in excess of 250,000 customers annually, and this number has been growing every year. The ATS has also helped the RGD to focus on the individual needs and the particular circumstances peculiar to individual customers, thus enabling the agency to deliver quality service.
