The idea was simple, to bring DMV services directly to where customers already go, at a place and time that works best for them. And what may have taken weeks by mail or long hours waiting in a field office can now be done in minutes at a self-service kiosk.
By establishing these self-service kiosks in grocery stores, what we’re doing is give people the opportunity to access these services outside of their otherwise busy day. So when customers choose to visit a self-service kiosk through their transaction, it saves them time, it allows them to receive those services in a time and a place that’s most convenient for them. And the other thing that it does is it frees up an opportunity for others to make an appointment to come into a field office, those who really do need to be there.
Efficiencies has improved at the branch offices and here’s why. Customers have that ability to do services outside of the DMV office. They are not restricted or confined to our office hours and so what that does is it allows for us to serve other Oregonians. This is where the kiosk plays a very important part. Someone again can go over to the kiosk, can have their service done or their transaction done again without that wait.
The kiosks are a really big step forward for us. I mean, the possibilities are huge. It allows customers to interact with us on their terms at a place and a time that’s convenient for them. And I think our younger generation really expects us to have a technology-first option and having these kiosks available certainly does that for that generation and it frees up our staff in the offices to help customers who have to be helped in person.
So we’re really excited about the self-service kiosk project and really we’re excited about anything that modernizes us and moves us into the future. Technology is so abundant now, there’s so many possibilities out there and by providing this service channel through the self-service kiosks, we really are modernizing that. So any chance we have to modernize, to make things easier for customers, more accessible to customers, we want to pursue that.
Some of the successes in which I’ve seen for this kiosk is our wait time. If you have one of the transactions that you’re able to do at a kiosk, then it’s a win-win. You save time, and that’s what we offer the customer. We say, “Hey, listen, your time is valuable.” And we, even as employees, we want to make sure that we offer them value because we honor their time. Time is a commodity that they will not get back. And so if we can then allow them to have another option, that’s just another day that they don’t have to wait in the lobby of the DMV.
