April 4, 2008

Dear Friends,

Our Department’s mission is simple; it’s to license efficiently and regulate fairly. Many of you who do business with us know that the Customer Contact Center is one of the most critical points of contact for customers, and we constantly strive to make sure that this interaction is as helpful and convenient as possible.

This past Monday marked the last day of Real Estate renewals – the largest profession we regulate with more than a quarter of a million licensees. Our agents were able to maintain a high level of service in spite of a two-fold increase in workload. Employees from other divisions volunteered to work in the call center at peak times to help field calls. They also came from offices in Orlando, and supervisors and subject matter experts pitched in, as well. These dedicated employees came in early and stayed late to make sure the job got done. Seeing employees come together to help one another for a common purpose – to meet the needs of our customers – reminded me of how much we’ve accomplished over the past couple of years.

Eighteen months ago, it was common to see wait and hold times in the call center exceeding 30 minutes. On some days, 60 percent of our callers just hung up in frustration - only to face the same wait times when they called later. The situation was just as difficult for our call agents, who we not only over-worked, but also were disheartened since they received the brunt of the public’s anger at a situation the agents had no control over.

Starting about a year ago, we implemented a myriad of changes in our call center – some changes were simple, like how we deploy agents in subject matter groupings and changing our policy to make PIN resets. Other changes were much more complex, like implementing a technology system which allows agents to see details of an application in order to fully answer questions on the first call. All of these changes worked together to dramatically reduce our wait and hold times as well as give our agents the ability to serve customers better. We have reduced our average hold times to around two minutes – well below the 5-minute gold standard for call centers worldwide. Even on our busiest days (like the last day of Real Estate license renewal) we were still able to keep our average wait time to under 10 minutes.

This extraordinary improvement in customer service was due to the efforts and teamwork among Department employees, who have been empowered by the Governor’s leadership to develop solutions to the problems faced by our licensees. Call center employees themselves have thought about and developed solutions to the problems they experience.

I’m proud of the continuous improvements we’ve made in customer service. This improvement is the result of our top-notch employees. We have gained tremendous momentum, and I am committed to maintaining this momentum and building on our successes.

Sincerely,

Chuck Drago
Interim Secretary

Department of Business and
Professional Regulation
1940 North Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Customer Contact Center:
850.487.1395
www.MyFloridaLicense.com