June 12, 2003

Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land is going right to the source in her efforts to improve customer service.

Land met with employees and the public at the St. Charles, Saginaw South and Saginaw Northwest branch offices. She offered her own ideas – and listened to those of others – regarding ways in which the Department of State can enhance service to Michigan residents. Beefing up the department’s menu of online services to enhance customer convenience is one of Land’s priorities.

"We are always looking for better ways to serve our customers," Land said. "While shrinking state revenue can make that difficult, I believe that we can meet these challenges by being creative and using technology. Engaging with employees and the public has yielded some great ideas for improving customer service. We’ll be a smarter, faster and more innovative Department of State because of this input."

Land has committed to visit all 173 Secretary of State branch offices this year. She already has been to more than 100 branches since taking office in January.

Land is a strong advocate of using Internet technology to improve customer convenience and staff efficiency. Her new campaign "Skip the Trip! Save Time, Renew Online!" creates awareness of services available via the Internet. As part of that effort, Land recently asked that outdated branch office signs still bearing her predecessor’s name be modified to incorporate the department Web site, www.Michigan.gov/sos. Only signs in disrepair will be replaced entirely.

She also is exploring ways to improve service for those visiting branch offices. Possibilities include extending office hours and offering Saturday morning hours in select locations; expanding the use of credit-card transactions to include branch office services; overcoming language barriers by posting multilingual signs in offices that help people understand what information they must bring to conduct business; and improving office accessibility by working to repair pavement in parking lots, improve lighting, and providing timely snow removal.

The Secretary commended area employees for their performance and pointed out the tremendous volume of work handled in each branch office.

Last year, the St. Charles office processed more than 72,000 transactions, the Saginaw South office processed close to 88,000 transactions, and the Saginaw Northwest office processed nearly 162,000 transactions.

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