On Wednesday, January 18, 2017, I received the following letter from a property owner who attended a hearing at the Cook County Board of Review. I'm very happy Mr. Le was pleased with the service we provided.
by Kevin Le
My experience working with the Cook County Board of Review, Room 601, 118 N Clark.
Today I would like to share with you some of my thoughts about my first time experience when I go to Cook County Board of Review to appeal my tax. As an Illinois resident for many years, I have come to Cook County building in Chicago many times and this is the first time I feel and appreciate there is some things Chicago does really good. It was the Cook County Board of Review (CCBR).
I am extremely impressed with how the effective, efficiency and streamline CCBR works. The night before I go to CCBR office, I expected there will be a long line, with everyone take a number and wait in the waiting area for hours therefore, I make sure my phone and my laptop fully charged. However in contrary to my expectation, the whole time I spent at the CCBR was less than eight minutes! The ways everyone were working there was so impressive. There was no waiting in line at all.
I was greeted at the front door and the person immediately asks me if I have any evidence to support my tax appeal. Once I show her I have a stack of at least 100 pages of documents, she directs me to one of the four stations to have my documents scanned. Immediately, when I step to one of these stations, someone greets me and handed my document to the person works at one of the scanning stations to scan my document. Within 2 minutes, more than 100 pages of my documents were completely scanned in the computer. They returned my original document and instructed me to go to the room in the back.
When I walked in the back room there was Commissioner Dan Patlak waiting to meet me. He looked at my paper work, looked at my complaint number and instructed me to meet the Assessor Analyst which was already there waiting for me. The analyst then asked me to present my case while she looked up for my 100 pages of document which was just scanned in a few minutes ago. Wow, what‘s an amazing system. This office has adopted technology so it has become a completely a paperless system which is much more effective and efficient than the traditional paper and pen system, not to mention the amount of paper wasted to print millions of document like mine! Not to mention the amount of storage space to store these document! I was so amazed at this speedy workflow; the whole process is so effective and efficient for a government entity. Once I am done with presenting my case, she said I am done for the day. I did not believe what I heard as I just came here and in less than 5 minutes and I am done? I ask her again, “Do you mean I am done and I can leave now?” “Yes” she confirms. That was it.
On my way out, as I was walking pass Commissioner Dan Patlak, he said “Goodbye Mr. Le” I stop and ask him how he knows my name? His response was “Your name is Kevin Le”. Wow, what an amazing customer service! Commissioner Dan Patlak has remembered my name when he greeted me earlier! I was stunted for the rest of the day. I have never experienced like this in both private and public sectors before. The services at Cook County Board of Review have surpassed my expectation and have changed my perception about how Chicago public works. There was no time wasted during the whole process. So much time was saved. Chicago resident doesn’t need to spend the whole day waiting to appeal their tax. I don’t know if my tax appeal will success and I will see a reduction in my tax but so far, I was able to text my boss to inform him that I will be available for the 10AM meeting because my meeting at the Cook County Board of Review was cut short to 5 minutes.