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For surly license clerks, a pound of charm

Publix and Disney, customer friendliness experts, will offer training to help overworked auto license branch workers smooth out those frown lines.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published September 23, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - The short-tempered people who work at Florida driver's license offices will be going to charm school, thanks to two companies known for handling long lines of impatient customers.

The state is turning to Publix Super Markets and Walt Disney Co. for free advice on ways to make the drudgery of a driver's license office visit more customer-friendly.

"The thing that bothers me more than anything is the rudeness. We're hearing these reports constantly," state highway safety director Fred Dickinson told Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet Thursday.

The unusual step comes amid growing unhappiness with the quality of service in one of state government's most basic functions. Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, a legislator with control over the agency's budget, has described "Third World conditions" at driver's license offices.

"Talk to us about the delays," Bush told Dickinson, a savvy career bureaucrat who usually heads off tough questions with a quick one-liner. "I read about it in the paper."

Even with online license renewals and an appointment system, the offices are besieged by customers who end up sweltering in the sun.

One reason is the high number of scofflaws behind the wheel. The agency says one of every four Florida drivers is cited for a violation that requires a trip to a license bureau. That is about half of the offices' workload.

In August alone, Miami-Dade's offices had 89,000 customers, more than half of them with scheduled appointments.

The agency cites a number of other factors: population growth, previous budget cuts by the Legislature, post-9/11 federal requirements for processing paperwork from immigrants and noncitizens.

Starting pay for a driver's license examiner is about $22,000 a year. Many work four-day weeks of 10 hours each, but overtime is common because of a policy that anyone in line when the office closes must be served.

"When they're there for 12, 13 hours a day, they're wiped out," Dickinson said. "I think they're telling us en masse, "We need more resources and we want more money.' "

To reduce the lines and waiting times, the agency will ask the Legislature to extend the life of a license renewal from six years to eight years.

Attorney General Charlie Crist was puzzled to hear the state was turning to Publix and Disney to teach lessons in common courtesy.

"We don't have people who can tell people how to be nice?" Crist asked.

The state does, Dickinson answered, "but we've just got to change a little culture out there."

At Publix, the supermarket chain that claims "shopping is a pleasure," a supervisor is providing the state the same training videos it gives to its checkout clerks. At the Magic Kingdom, Disney will share its upbeat approach to customer service at what it calls the Disney Institute.

"It's training the trainers," said David Westberry, the agency's deputy executive director. "We couldn't think of a better model."

True to form, a Disney representative politely returned the compliment.

"We're flattered that they're interested in our training," said Jacob DiPietre, a former press secretary to Bush.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.

[Last modified September 23, 2005, 02:54:42]