Department of Revenue News Release

The Missouri Department of Revenue is today reporting on the continued efforts of its leadership team and staff to improve customer service to Missouri citizens. Specifically, the Department’s Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing (MVDL) Division has recently made significant progress regarding call wait times for customers and abandoned calls.

“For almost a year now, the entire Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing Division has really been concentrating its efforts on improving in the areas that most impact the customer service we provide,” said Jackie Bemboom, director of MVDL. “We’ve adjusted work schedules to ensure our phone lines are fully staffed, modified productivity requirements, added new online resources and simplified our customer forms. This has resulted in a substantially larger number of calls being answered and shorter call wait times for customers.”

During April and May of FY17, MVDL staff reported average call wait times of 12 minutes and 10 minutes, 35 seconds, respectively. For FY18, April’s average wait time was 4 minutes, 18 seconds and May’s was 4 minutes, 39 seconds. Bemboom described how those shorter wait times have resulted in fewer customers abandoning their calls. During April and May of this year, MVDL staff reduced the number of abandoned calls by approximately 55 percent when compared to the same time period in FY 17.   

“The Department has field coordinators who oversee the more than 170 independently operated license offices located throughout Missouri,” said Elizabeth Whaley, License Offices Bureau administrator. “We recently brought in all of our field coordinators for refresher training courses and to review some common errors and challenges. They were then able to take the training and best practices we reviewed back to the license offices. Ultimately, this will help to further reduce the turnaround time for motor vehicle and driver licensing transactions and provide better overall customer service.”

When it comes to the MVDL employees, Bemboom added that she believes increased transparency regarding their individual and collective performance measures and more frequent team meetings and one-on-one meetings with their supervisors have contributed to the Division’s success. She has also noticed increased morale and less turnover.

“As a state agency, the Department of Revenue is always working to provide the people of Missouri with the highest level of customer service we can while being responsible stewards of taxpayer money,” said Department Director Joel Walters. “The success our Motor Vehicle and Driver Licensing Division has seen is a great example of what can be accomplished simply by being more strategic with the resources we already have. I’m proud of all the progress that’s been made in MVDL and throughout the Department, and I can’t wait to see everything that’s achieved in the new fiscal year.”     

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