Reducing Wait Times at the Department of Excise and Licenses

The Department of Excise and Licenses had an average wait time of 35 minutes to be seen at the front counter, yet due to peaks in demand, wait times could sometimes surge to a painful eight hours.

The Excise and Licenses team started looking more closely at their metrics, brainstormed ideas of how things could change, and implemented creative solutions such as utilizing electronic spreadsheets instead of physical binders to providing customers with pre-made packets.

They started redeeming time throughout the entire department and also had the following results:

  • The city was able to save around $85,000 in hard and soft dollars
  • 85% reduction in wait times: 35 minutes to less than 5 minutes
  • Saving more than $250,000 dollars’ worth of the customers’ time

Read the entire article and/or watch the video at https://denpeakacademy.com/2016/03/16/reducing-wait-times-at-the-department-of-excise-and-licenses/