Washington

Community Relations Unit

Washington's Division of Child Support has a Community Relations Unit (CRU). CRU reports to the agency Director and responds to customer complaints that could not be resolved at the field office level. The CRU also responds to complaint letters written to the Governor, Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Secretary, the Division of Child Support (DCS) Director and elected officials. The CRU is also responsible for outreach, education and coordinating statewide media campaigns. The CRU manager is also responsible for media inquiries about the child support program. The nine field offices handle all routine calls and many of the offices have Customer Service Units.

Description/Goal

The CRU was established in 1987. Its goal is to provide speedy resolution to all of our customer's issues/problems.CRU receives approximately 500 calls per month. The three most common complaint calls are (1) collection action, (2) general questions, and (3) questions about cash distribution. The key partners for problem resolution include custodial parents, noncustodial parents, staff, other agencies and employers.

No matter what time the e-mail arrives today, the sender will receive not only the preliminary response but also the specific response to their question before 5 p.m.

Results

Since November 1998, as an added convenience to our customers, CRU has had an e-mail address published on the DSHS Internet page. From December 1998 to June 1999, the CRU received and responded to 190 e-mails. Since implementation, half of all correspondence comes to our office via e-mail. CRU has received several thank you e-mails for our prompt response.

No late letters is a measurement of success for our unit. Most of our letters are completed within 7 days of receipt. An exact measurement of impact on collections is not known. However, anecdotally we know that failure to resolve our customers' issues can have a devastating impact on collections.

Location

The CRU is housed within the DCS headquarters office located in downtown Olympia, WA.

Replication Advice

Take all incoming calls directly so that the caller gets immediate help. Check the CRU mailbox twice daily. Acknowledge receipt of e-mail and include in the reply that the customer can expect a response within 24 hours (same as the DCS telephone policy). Should you want a similar unit to handle also centralized Customer Service Unit (e.g., to handle routine questions such as “Has a payment come in?”), then the unit would need to be larger than the five Program Specialists assigned to the Washington State CRU.