DVLA creates platform for customer engagement

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has set up a mechanism to provide clients with the best services through consistent engagement with customers across the country for their input on how best to serve their interests.

Mr. Benjamin Peh, Acting Head of Research, Business Development and Innovation said in line with this, officers of the Business Department travels to all the offices of DVLA nationwide to engage clients.

Mr. Peh disclosed this in Tema during a stakeholder engagement and staff appreciation day organized by the Ghana News Agency-Tema Office.

He indicated that the reason why regional officers were not in charge of the interaction with their clients was to give a neutral face to the customers as a form of encouraging them to voice out their concerns about the services they received at their designated officers.

“Instead of allowing the staff in the various centers to do so, we moved in from head office for the customers to feel free to talk to us, it gives a neutral face to them to let us know about their take on our services”, he said.

He said as part of the customer engagement, a well-designed questionnaire is administered to the clients to answer within three minutes adding that a report on their response then goes to management for actions to be taken on issues raised.

Touching on other measures to ensure the efficiency of the Authority, he indicated that they had improved transparency in their operations by tightening DVLA’s internal processes to give a good and rigid system aimed at preventing others from penetrating, “so if you are a guru boy you won’t get anything”.

Mr. Peh added that their services had been enhanced stating for instance that the vehicle registration process which hitherto took about seven days had been reduced to about three days with further measures been looked at to reduce it to one hour.

He noted that unless the DVLA had a motivated and dedicated staff, all the measures put in place would not be realized therefore, management had created a learning and development department dedicated to staff development and motivations which he disclosed took a chunk of its budget to cater for the staff.

Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency welcoming participants to the stakeholders’ engagement said in any democratic country, the media played a vital role in creating, galvanizing, and reflecting public opinion.

Mr. Ameyibor added that government and other social organizations could use the media more effectively as a medium for social change as it was a more powerful tool that must be used strategically towards national development.

“You ignore the media at the peril of the state, organization, or agenda, we must therefore work together to create an enabling environment and trust, media is simply indispensable for the organization of the state”.

He said to this end, the GNA-Tema stakeholders’ engagement was a progressive platform to allow both state and non-state actors to interact with journalists, address national issues, and throw more light on their organization’s mandate while deepening the relationship.