Govably is built and run by people who have worked in local government and sold into it
Victoria County, Texas has about 91,000 residents, and its County Clerk’s office is where the county’s public notices are filed, organized and posted. Heidi Easley has been County Clerk long enough to have bought government software more than once, and the pattern she describes is a familiar one. You send in a request. You wait for a reply. Then you wait longer for the fix.
Govably is run by people who have worked in and with local government. The person Victoria County speaks to day to day used to write the minutes herself. That shows up in the service long before it shows up in the software.
“I am grateful that I decided to give Govably a chance. The customer service has been among the best I have experienced since I have taken office.”
County Clerk, Victoria County, Texas
The challenge was finding a vendor that could keep up with how often a clerk’s office changes
What Heidi had come to expect from software vendors was a wait. You submit something, and sometimes a long time passes before anyone responds. Longer still before you get an answer, or any help fixing the problem.
The reason that costs a county something is not impatience. It is the nature of the work. A clerk’s office does not process a fixed amount of anything.
“Things in our office are always changing. We may have fifty filings in a day, or we may have five. It is really a living, breathing entity.”
County Clerk, Victoria County, Texas
When software cannot change at the pace the office changes, somebody absorbs the difference by hand. None of that work shows up in a support ticket, and none of it goes away while the ticket sits.
“With other vendors, I feel like a number. With Govably, I feel like a person.”
County Clerk, Victoria County, Texas
She works with a company that answers in under 24 hours, and with a person rather than a robot
Requests from Victoria County do not go into a queue. They go to the people who build the product, who answer them directly and act on them, usually the same day.
“Every request I have had, every question, and every change we have wanted has been handled immediately.”
County Clerk, Victoria County, Texas
Her day to day contact came out of local government
Ruth Rivard, Govably’s client success manager, worked in local government before she joined, where writing the meeting minutes was her own job rather than something she read about. She is Victoria County’s day to day contact now. Heidi met her at the handoff from the sales team, which is the point in most vendor relationships where service quietly drops off.
The software required very little training
Responsiveness matters most when a product needs a lot of it. Victoria County’s staff started using Govably without a training program around it.
“My staff picked it up and ran with it. The process is extremely simple. You have made it straightforward and user-friendly.”
County Clerk, Victoria County, Texas
Govably keeps up with a clerk’s office that is constantly changing
The result Heidi points to first is not a feature. It is that nothing waits. Requests are answered while they still matter, and the office keeps moving instead of working around something for a quarter.
“Your ability to respond and take action right away keeps us on top of everything. It keeps things moving.”
County Clerk, Victoria County, Texas
Sharing Govably with the entire county
Victoria County is introducing Govably to residents formally, and expects the county’s new website to put their documents in front of more citizens.