Unfortunately, the people who ultimately control the budget (usually, legislators) like to know that Agency XYZ will have this number of employees; hiring extras because demand is up is anathema to a good chunk of them. “We’re trying to reduce the size of government, not grow it; you will do your work with 5% fewer employees and a 7% lower budget next year.” Budgets, benefits, etc., all depend on having a set number of employees working a set number of hours.
This doesn’t usually happen in the private sector in customer service positions either. Comcast or the gas company aren’t promoting call center employees based on excellent customer service; they’re promoting based on most calls handled in an hour at the least expense to the company. “Your bill is $X, there is no possibility we’re wrong, and you’d better pay up or else. Have a nice day. Next!” is “better” and more promotion-worthy at many companies than spending twenty minutes figuring out that the customer’s bill really isn’t right. This isn’t like sales, which is a revenue-generator; customer service is an expense, and the proper business approach is to minimize that expense as much as possible.
Excellent customer service is possible when the entity is willing to accept higher expenses as a cost of doing business, and most typically this happens only when there are multiple competitors and one or more seeks to differentiate itself on service rather than on price. “We charge more for a driver’s license, but we’ll get you out in 30 minutes or less” is a possible approach; “we charge exactly the same as everybody else but our expenses are much higher so our profit is lower” isn’t likely to be a winning business model.
This can work in a system when the service being provided is something people actually want and desire; complying with laws, however, falls more into the “I have to do this but I’m not going to be happy about it” category. The employee who has to tell an applicant, “you’re not getting your driver’s license back until you pay all of your outstanding fines” isn’t likely to get good feedback no matter how polite and helpful they are. Licensing and registration are essentially law-enforcement or regulatory enforcement operations; if employees get raises based on how nice they are, you’ve introduced an incentive you probably didn’t intend. “Oh, I’ll just overlook the fact this title transaction doesn’t meet the legal requirements, so the customer won’t be mad at me”; “this affidavit looks fishy, but if I question it the customer won’t give me a good review so I’ll ignore it.”
In any case Comcast’s culture is that of a government-sanctioned monopoly even if they do face competition nowadays. Private companies with monopolies tend to look a lot like government entities.
In Missouri many DMV offices are actually owned and operated by non-profit organizations who get revenue from them, so they DO have an incentive to provide better service and capture more business than the state-owned offices.
They don’t. Having been to both I can assure you the level of service is exactly the same. My theory is that it comes down to two reasons.
Everyone waits until the last minute to do their business, meaning the offices are overwhelmed at the beginning and end of the month by people who would rather be anywhere else.
Because one only needs the services of the DMV at worst once a year, one often forgets one of the needed forms, or doesn’t have the most current proof of insurance card or whatever, which slows the line and means the frustrated customer has to go home, get the form and come back.
In Rhode Island it seems a sense of pride that we have a slow, uncaring, undermanned and antiquated DMV. Our computer system dates back to the 80’s and it has taken 12 years to upgrade to Windows 7 and it still has not been integrated yet. People actually take days out of work and plan to be there for the day, packing a lunch and ipads for entertainment.
As a UKian I find all of this extraordinary. You would think that a country as technologically advanced as the USA would have come up with a more streamlined system by now. In fact the whole system looks like something designed by Franz Kafka with the intention of employing as many people as possible to administrate it, and with a total disregard of the needs of the ‘customer’.
When I was living in Nebraska, the DMV were awesome. When I had to go in for license renewals it was quick and easy, and they eventually let you renew online as long as you had no moving violations. I recently moved my US residence to Florida which involved a ridiculous amount of paperwork but apart from one staff member who insisted my wife needed to bring in our marriage certificate (we’ve been married 25 years) the service was stellar, and the clerk we dealt with told off the one who wanted the marriage certificate for being ridiculous. They also sorted out our voting registration.
You have to get there early if you don’t want to wait, but that’s more down to the volume of users than any obvious inefficiencies.
Comcast isn’t by any sense a monopoly, now or in the recent past. The vast majority of places where people complain about Comcast, customers have at least one other cable TV company, and the whole country has two competing satellite TV networks. So, virtually everywhere Comcast operates, customers have had three (sometimes more) options for at least a decade or two, and in general, people still hate Comcast.
Whether Comcast (or its predecessors) were a monopoly in the 1970s or something is totally irrelevant by now.
I have to admit that the DMV here in Travis county has got their shit together. Most of the common functions can be taken care of online and when you do have to go in person it’s still very quick and efficient.
I have noticed in recent years that DMV, hall of records, the courthouse, post office etc have all become much friendlier and helpful. I think computers have made thier job easier.
I’ve had to deal with the DMV in five states over my life- Texas, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, and Utah.
Texas was neither good nor bad. I don’t recall having to wait a particularly long time, nor any particularly surly clerks.
Oregon was very nice, very fast.
Washington was crowded and slow, but the clerks were very friendly and helpful.
Maryland was a mixed bag- the first place we went to, in Baltimore, was slow and painful. I waited in a line outside for 45 minutes. Then we wised up and went to a DMV out in the country, and were in and done within five minutes. Dealing with that branch was always pleasant.
Utah, so far, has been very fast and helpful, aside from a mixup on their website as to what information we had to have with us.
So, basically, I’d say that it’s the *local *government which makes a DMV either good or bad.
I don’t know where you live, but I’ve never lived anywhere that had more than one cable company. If you want cable (and can’t have or don’t want satellite TV, which is for example quite often not available in apartments/condos), you have exactly one choice.
I do not believe this is true. You have a cite? Every map I’ve seen, for this or that region, suggests that areas of competitive overlap are the exception, not the norm.
Also, if most people hate Comcast and have an alternative, why are they still customers? Why is Comcast still both gigantic and hostile to customers?
Not exactly. I don’t know if it’s different elsewhere, but here each municipality grants a cable TV license to ONE company. If you don’t like it, you can do without, or get a satellite dish. Just recently we got a third alternative in my neighborhood: FIOS. I jumped at the chance like a duck on a June bug.
I’m not sure if Comcast qualifies as a monopoly or quasi monopoly in my area. There are zero other cable providers. There is satelite available. They are the only cable internet provider. AT&T is available for DSL and turtle speeds. And there is satellite internet available at smoke signal speeds. Hardline phone is irrelevant.
So while I don’t subscribe to cable TV, have no landline, I do rely on Comcast for internet and I hate them every day. If acquaintances told me they work for Comcast, Big Tobacco, or a porn company, I’d have the least respect for the person who works at Comcast. Fuck Comcast.
I know this thread is about the DMV so I don’t want to get into it too much. Every single touch point I’ve had with Comcast has been negative. Every single one. From initial setup and never being on time, even with ridiculous 4 hour windows, to delivering poor service, to lying about issues, to stupid billing practices, to stupid retention practices, I have never had a positive experience or even a neutral one with Comcast.
Compare that to the DMV - I can do renewals for vehicle licenses and driver’s licenses mostly online. I’ve talked to plenty of people there that really just want to do their job, and genuinely try to help.
The DMV is the living, breathing example of “if you must choose between sinning against God or the bureaucracy, sin against God. He will forgive you, but the bureaucracy never will” (badly misquoted, sorry).
I won’t go into the long, boring saga of trying to get a title copy of a car I sold to a person who didn’t register the car in their name, but here’s the takeaway: don’t use a swearword after standing in line for six hours and talking to 18 different DMV folk whose “job it isn’t” to access their database, click twice, and print out one freakin’ page.