With 10 million citizens and 120 thousand employees to serve them, Los Angeles has the largest county administration in the United States. In 2002, the county’s Quality and Productivity Commission funded a pilot clear language project in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The results were remarkable.
The department hired clear language consultant Bill DuBay to work with staff ‘champions’ on the project. Bill developed training programs for the county’s Quality and Productivity Managers as well as the staff. Together, they rewrote tip sheets, Web pages, form letters, and manuals.
“One thing we did in our little pilot project was to revise some phone scripts for the department’s Small Claims Advisor program,”
says DuBay. Consumers who call this program can choose from more than 50 recorded messages on topics such as filing a small claim or making an appeal. After listening to the message, callers who need more help can ask to be connected to a volunteer advisor.
Before the pilot, an average of 5,000 callers asked to talk to an advisor each month. Since the clearer messages went on line, that number has dropped to 3,500 – a 30% reduction. This frees up the advisors to spend more time with callers who have complex questions. Another big bonus is that caller wait time has been drastically reduced.
What were the ‘lessons learned’ from this project about changing the communications culture in such a big organization? Bill DuBay stresses support from the top. “All the up-front investment requires strong commitment by the top officials of the organization. It cannot be done, however, by executive [order]. It requires a good deal of training and method.”
Tim Bissell, Deputy Director of the Department of Consumer Affairs, points out that doing a baseline study like the one done for the small claims call centre is a key to success. These kinds of measurable results are a great motivator for managers, he says, and it’s not hard to find something to measure. Most departments send out form letters, for instance, and it’s easy to measure the number of calls and inquiries a department receives before and after redesigning the form letter.
“The positive results of this project were not surprising”, says Tim Bissell. “This project confirms that plain language is one of the best investments the county can make.”
For more information on this program, visit http://qpc.co.la.ca.us/pl.asp