Marriage Bureau Service Expansion & System Management

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

After recent economic downturn, many counties have started innovative programs with the goal of increasing revenue wherever possible. At the same time, these programs are also increasing the number of services available to county residents. With forecasts of declining revenue and budget cuts, the Marriage Bureau of New Castle County started an expansion program to increase revenue while surpassing their current level of service. Utilizing constituent input and opinion data, the Marriage Bureau was able to identify ways in which they could create better marriage ceremonies while simultaneously making profit. The Marriage Bureau Service Expansion and Service Management Program has increased revenue, efficiency, and constituent satisfaction through an expansion of product and service offerings, better record-keeping, and decreasing costs. Through the new program, constituents are now able to receive Spanish-speaking ceremonies, ceremony witnesses, photographs, DVD’s, gift certificates, name-change kits, and heirloom certificates. Additionally, this program established an innovative online marriage portal, where individuals could utilize an online licensing application and even view live web broadcasts of ceremonies. Entitled “Web Marriage”, the new system was developed entirely in-house to reduce costs. This program has facilitated the integration of online requests, simplified records search and maintenance, improved data transfer, created in-house statistics information, and much more. Couples are now able to receive instant information regarding their licensing and product order information. Additionally, the program has also allowed mobile license issuance for couples incapable of appearing in person for the application process. In today’s climate of budget cuts and economic downturn, it is especially important for counties to maintain and improve their services while also finding innovative methods of increasing profits. The Marriage Bureau of New Castle County has accomplished both of these priorities through its expansion and management system. Overall, these innovations have led to a 56% increase in revenue and a 28% decrease in non-wage expenses since 2007.