Innovative services drive Dubai Customs to the top of ‘Happiness Index’

Dubai Customs scored best in customer happiness in 2016, as 94.9% of customers who took on the ‘Happiness Meter’ survey said they were happy with its services.

The Happiness Meter initiative was launched by Smart Dubai Office, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai the happiest city in the world. It allows customers to daily and instantly rate their experience while using government websites, apps or services received in person.

Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs, attributed the new milestone to the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed, which has long driven the government to find innovative ways to make their customers happy.

"Scoring first place in this year’s Happiness Meter pool is yet another honour for Dubai Customs. We are now propelled to work even harder to stay on the top. Dubai Customs bagged as many as 35 trophies in 2015, internationally, regionally and locally, making up an average of one award every ten days. It was recently awarded with five Dubai Government Excellence Program accolades, which is certainly a testimony to its longstanding commitment to excellence," added Ahmed Musabih.

"Creating happiness for all stakeholders and building new partnership prospects with them is one of Dubai Customs’ core objectives, as stated in DC’s Strategic Plan 2016-2021," added Ahmed Mahboob Musabih.

Dubai Customs Director pointed out that launching innovative smart services that prove to be time and cost efficient to customers has always been key to Dubai Customs’ success story. These services include: Smart Workspace The Smart Workspace was developed to make customers happy by cutting down the time they need to fill in a Customs declaration from 15 – 20 minutes to only 1 – 5 minutes. The fact that 6.83 million Customs declarations were submitted in 2015 and nearly 3 million declarations were submitted in 2016 so far shows the importance of this tool.

The Smart Workspace offers four features: My Favourite Declarations, My Templates, My Frequent Declarations, and Predictive Services.

Public WiFi Access Dubai Customs offers free wireless Internet access (WiFi) to customers at all 46 customs centres and locations. Aiming for their happiness, DC customers can now connect to the high-speed Internet either for business or personal uses.

The move aligns with the vision to turn Dubai into the smartest city in the world by 2017.

Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Dubai Customs has launched the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), which contributes drastically to the establishing of strategic partnerships that ensure better security and facilitation of global supply chains via Mutual Recognition Agreements, as per the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (SAFE Framework).

Dubai Customs was among the first organisations in the Middle East to adopt the AEO Program.

The Smart Claim and Refund System The Smart Claim and Refund System provides a centralized platform to streamline and simplify refund and claim procedures of guarantees deposited under duty-suspended cases. It identifies revenue leakage in the refunds given by Dubai Customs, as well as develops and delivers People, Process and Technology (PPT) solutions to support the same. The system also is meant to help Dubai Customs calculate refunds in a more accurate and simplified manner, thereby reducing revenue leakage and significantly minimizing the refund time. Dubai Customs is the first Customs administration in the GCC to provide online refund facility.

Virtual Corridor The Virtual Corridor is a unique automated customs procedure designed to facilitate goods transport between two Dubai Customs centres by road, connecting the point of entry to the point of destination in Dubai. It enables hassle-free customs clearance and makes the entire process more streamlined, time-saving and cost-efficient without any financial burden. The varied benefits and ease it offers to traders and customers help them generate more savings, which makes them happy.

Smart Inspection Glasses The Smart Inspection Glasses are a leading-edge technology that makes containers inspection at Customs checkpoints quicker and easier, by displaying to inspectors the container’s Customs declaration, risk assessment and x-ray images in a one-stop little screen, so they can accordingly take proper measures. Inspectors can submit inspection reports using either the virtual keyboard or voice input feature.

Mobile Application Dubai Customs developed a mobile app that runs on smartphones and tablets, offering its full range of services to customers 24/7 nonstop wherever they are. The app helps customers access DC services at their convenience and with much ease.

Musabih reaffirmed their steadfast commitment to spreading happiness around. "Strategies and initiatives that target public happiness have paid off as the United Arab Emirates was ranked the happiest Arab country on the 2016 World Happiness Report published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations, outclassing Spain, Japan and France," added Musabih.

Source : WAM