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By Delonte Harrod, Pentagram Staff Writer
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - The long wait at the ID card office on the Fort Myer portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall could soon be over.
Starting Dec. 1, the joint base ID card office will switch from only taking walk-ins to only seeing customers by appointments.
Chief of DEERS/ ID Card Section Andrew Middleton suspects the transition to the appointment system will be hard, especially for those who have only been going to the JBM-HH ID office on a walk-in basis.
“It’s going to be a new system for Fort Myer [because] they’re only used to doing walk-ins,” he said. “There’s definitely going to be some growing pains. [But] I think over time they will grow to like it.”
For years, the joint base ID card office has mainly operated on a first come, first serve system. Under this customer service system, service requests often outnumbered what the ID card’s three employees could process. To stem the tide of customers, the office would close the office before its official 3:30 p.m. closing time. Those who came seeking to be processed were turned away, leaving them to try again the next day.
No more.
Under the new Dec. 1 appointment system, both the community and ID card office employees will benefit, according to Middleton.
“[The system] will allow us to better manage the flow of people coming in,” he explained. “We can better serve our customers; we won’t rush them out. We will have fewer mistakes, hopefully, happy employees, and I’m assuming, a happy community.”
But how will this new system work?
Customers will schedule an appointment via a website called Rapids, which will be available for use beginning Nov.1. The site is reachable at: https://rapids-appointments.dmdc.osd.mil.
Customers can view the site in detail, but cannot yet make appointments as the site is not fully operational yet.
When customers go on the website, they will have the option of viewing a calendar. From there, customers can view available appointments by day and signup accordingly.
Other DoD installations use Rapids websites to manage ID card appointments, he said.
Determining how long appointment times will be in the Rapids website will be controlled by Middleton, but determined by a variety of factors, he said.
Middleton envisions that each of his three employees will have one appointment per hour.
“[For example] we can have one at 8, 9, 10 o’clock, then we will have an appointment every hour.”
However, Middleton thinks the JBM-HH ID card system will operate on half-hour increments.
“But we are still working on that,” he said.
The customer would then click on the highlighted dates. Then customers will be given the option to select from various time slots on a specific day. At that point, Middleton said, the customer can input their name, contact information and email. Then push the submit button. From there, customers will receive a confirmation email and number.
A customer can use this confirmation number to manage their account.
“You can go back in and change it, if you like,” he said.
To ensure consistency, employees will have a list of those who have made an appointment through the new system. When those people enter the office for their appointments, their names will be checked off a list.
But Middleton said his office would still see walk-ins under emergency circumstances.
“Let’s say your card was lost. We would try to squeeze you in between appointments,” said Middleton. “Appointments typically last 15 minutes, [potentially] we would have 30 minute appointment slots and we would, at least, be able to accommodate some walk-ins throughout the day.”
In the case of people canceling their appointments, Middleton said, it is possible that those without appointments could be placed in those empty time slots.
“I will try to reschedule those slots,” he said. “We should be able to accommodate a few people who come with those problems.”
Although there would be some flexibility with the new system, Middleton doesn’t want to encourage people to just walk-in after Dec. 1, because the wait time under this new system will be undetermined.
Middleton added that if customers want a sure way to be seen, he wants to encourage them to “make an appointment.”
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2015 18:29 |
| Story ID: | 179695 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,336 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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