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App Could Reduce Your Wait Time At The Tax Collector’s Office

Max Marbut
/
Jax Daily Record
Duval County Tax Collector Jim Overton says a virtual queuing system will result in people spending less time in the waiting room.

With more than 770,000 customers in the past year, the Duval County Tax Collector’s Office is where most people interact with local government.

WJCT News partner the Jacksonville Daily Recordreports that while each person’s transaction is different, what they all have in common is waiting their turn at the customer service window after they check in at the front desk and “take a number.”

In an effort to reduce the wait time, Duval County Tax Collector Jim Overton is proposing the acquisition of a smartphone app-based queuing system that would allow customers to take a number before they arrive at their chosen branch office.

Ordinance 2019-418, if approved by City Council, would appropriate $391,100 from the tax collector’s budget balance to prepay for four years of a “new modernized queuing system.”

The legislation specifies that the appropriation is for procurement of a queuing system that will “improve customer service and add needed functionality for nine branch locations, including virtual queuing, analytics and reporting, kiosk software, management software, reconfiguration tools, an Android and Apple app that allows customers to join the line virtually or make an appointment, two-way SMS text notifications to customers and a remote kiosk.”

An expanded version of this story that includes a look at current average wait times for things like a drivers license or property tax payment is at JaxDailyRecord.com.