One-on-one chats with consumers

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

Hamilton County’s Department of Job and Family Services child Support section handled 88,000 cases and collected nearly $155 million in 2008 for families that might not otherwise have had the money necessary to pay for such items as food, medical care, child care, school clothes, and school supplies. Hamilton County residents with questions about their Child Support cases can now have private online chats with an enforcement technician to get answers they need. Hamilton County’s Department of Job and Family Services offers private, one-on-one chats for four hours each weekday to help those with specific questions about their Child Support cases. Citizens log onto the agency’s website, www.hcjfs.org, go to the Child Support page, and find the link for the chat program. The County’s Department of Job and Family Services has traditionally offered monthly public chats on Child Support, but confidential, case-specific information could not be discussed in a public forum. The agency now uses the same chat program, Bold Chat, to conduct private chats that limit the information’s visibility to just the father or mother and the technician. Hamilton County is the first in the state and among few in the nation to offer this type of customer service to its residents.