Michigan’s child support program rolled out MiChildSupport, a MiCSES interface, for the general public in 2014. MiChildSupport allows users to apply for child support services, update personal information, and view case-specific information such as payment history and court hearing dates. All updates made by child support staff will automatically update the MiChildSupport website in real time. With all of this updated information at a person’s fingertips, a customer no longer has to call and speak to someone at a child support partner’s office – most of a party’s case specific questions can be answered by logging into the customer’s case. The trick is getting the word out to the public about the availability of the website and training users how to best use the website to the customer’s advantage.

Van Buren County FOC took this matter to heart and began offering training to customers a year ago. The FOC office sends a training flyer to all new clients to let the clients know about MiChildSupport and what services the website can provide to parties involved in a child support case. The FOC offers a short one-on-one training session on how to best navigate MiChildSupport to all users. While optional, many of the child support program’s customers in Van Buren County have taken advantage of the free training. Amanda Hoefle, with the Van Buren FOC, encourages the training to clients every chance she gets. “We let the customer know that MiChildSupport is an amazing tool that has a number of features that makes monitoring their case very easy.”

The training process is simple. Customers wishing to learn how to use MiChildSupport can come to the FOC office without an appointment. Before the web demonstration, the client completes a form which mirrors MiChildSupport registration questions. This form stays with the customer even after training, so the customer has a written record of the account information in the event the client later becomes locked out of the program.

When the form is complete, the customer sits with an FOC staff person at a computer and register the client for MiChildSupport access on the spot. Staff then highlights some of the MiChildSupport features. Hoefle says that during the five to fifteen minute training, staff highlights how to obtain hearing information, use the two-way interface to communicate with the FOC, and shows customers how to view and print up to 18 months of payment information.

Since offering the MiChildSupport training to clients (about one year ago), Hoefle states that approximately 50 clients have taken advantage of the training. She believes that the call volume at the office has decreased. “Once people are aware of the tools that MiChildSupport has to offer, they rarely go back to making phone calls.” Hoefle says that her office is happy to work with customers who have issues with MiChildSupport during the customer’s case. While most of the customers who went through training were new to the MiChildSupport website, a few customers requested refresher training and help in troubleshooting the website.

By taking less than 15 minutes per client up front, FOC staff has seen a drastic decrease in call and walk-in volume. “When you empower people, they feel less helpless and at the mercy of ‘the system.’ When we meet with customers and explain all of the ways that the customer can use MiChildSupport, the customer can see what action to take on his or her own without depending solely on someone else to provide that information. The customer responses have been overwhelmingly positive,” points out Hoefle.