TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – The Grand Traverse County PLUS Office, 1759 Barlow St., now offers the innovative MI-TIME Line service that allows customers to use their phones or computers to make appointments or hold their place in line, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson announced today.

“Customers who can’t hop online to ExpressSOS.com now can take advantage of the MI-TIME Line service at our Traverse City office,” Johnson said. “After you get in line, you can run other errands or wait from home or work until you’re ready to be called up.”

MI-TIME Line sends text updates to notify customers of their estimated wait time and allows them to request more time if needed. Those who don’t have a mobile phone can check in at the MI-TIME Line kiosk and get a printed ticket. 

With the addition of the Grand Traverse County PLUS, 24 of the busiest Secretary of State offices in the state now offer the MI-TIME Line service. Almost 2.9 million customers have used it since it launched in January 2014. Customers continue to give the system high marks with comments such as these:

• “The new online appointments worked great. I work every day until 6 and I was able to get what I needed done on my lunch break in 15-20 minutes.”
  
  
• “I love the fact that you can schedule an appointment online. It's an amazing service and makes renewals a pleasure. The fact you can get updates and even say that you're going to be a few minutes late is a huge bonus.”
  
  
• “Love the new online system. Such a time saver. Thank you.”

Customers can find participating offices on the Branch Office Locator by searching for “Get in Line Online” offices.

To offer this cutting-edge customer-service technology, the Secretary of State’s Office partnered with QLess, whose line-management service has been successfully used by other driver and motor vehicle agencies, amusement parks, shopping malls, and health care and educational facilities to reduce wait times.

The new technology is the latest in Johnson’s efforts to improve customer service. In 2011, she launched ExpressSOS.com to offer some of the department’s most-popular services online. As part of ExpressSOS, customers can use the Print-and-Go feature that allows them to print off a proof of purchase for tabs to carry until their tabs arrive in the mail.