The Office of the Secretary of State’s mission is to provide the
constituents of Maryland with information and services relating to
the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory responsibilities
assigned to the Office of the Secretary of State, and to promote
Maryland’s expanding role in international affairs by representing
the Executive Department and the State of Maryland in diplomatic
and related duties.
The Office of the Secretary of State services over 13,335
Maryland non-profit organizations, more than 81,000 notary
publics, and certifies and authenticates over 44,000 documents a
year.
The Office of the Secretary of State’s Customer Service Promise
describes our approach. Customer Service activities include:
- Improve the tracking, responsiveness, and resolution time
of all electronic, telephone, written, and iin person
correspondence. For example, we will
acknowledge all email inquiries and return all phone calls
within 24 hours of receipt.
- Ensure state employees and managers continue to
improve customer service skills through formal training
classes and informal coaching on best practices in
customer service.
- Improve the processing times of agency services to help citizens and businesses accomplish their transactions
with the state. We are committed to stay current on all
Charity and Notary applications.
- Leverage and upgrade technology at the Office of the
Secretary of State so that citizens and businesses can
utilize self-service, as appropriate.
- Update online publications, forms, FAQs, and pertinent information on our website so that citizens and businesses can find relevant information quickly and accurately.
- Use social media to help get the word out about services, events, and news to provide citizens and businesses with information important to them.
- A three question Customer Experience Survey is available on our website for citizens and businesses to provide feedback. Results are used to make improvements to services.
In addition to these core customer service-related activities, we will also analyze our business hours in order to better align them to customer needs, ensure literature is up-to-date, and conduct staff meetings to discuss progress on achieving customer service goals. We will also continue to recognize top performers in our agency for professionalism and courtesy, responsiveness in resolving a customer’s needs, and for innovations that improve customer service.
We will monitor the execution of the aforementioned activities, measure performance, and analyze the results in order to continuously improve customer service.
We are committed to providing Maryland citizens, businesses, stakeholders, and other customers with the best customer service. For more information, please visit our website at http://sos.maryland.gov.
Click here for our three question Customer Experience Survey.