Not to give the impression that I have a slight obsession with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), but it is an excellent source for customer service-related blog posts.

I recently moved to New Jersey, which means several things. A shorter commute, less tax taken out of my paycheck, and — unfortunately — a new driver license.

In order to comply with all the residency laws the Garden State has to offer, I decided to trek to the closest DMV division to show my six points’ worth of identification along with all of the other documents proving that I am, in fact, a Jersey Boy now.

After hearing all the horror stories, I was fully prepared to camp out and wait as long as it took to walk out with a brand new license. I brought my iPod, a snack, and a copy of December’s CRM magazine. Surprisingly, all of the employees were very helpful, despite it being 8:15 a.m. I was able to fill out all the proper paperwork, and go take my new picture for the license.

As I was waiting at the counter for my picture to process and my new ID to print out, I overheard two DMV employees talking to each other about a particularly difficult customer who had been ahead of me in line. Half-way through the process, he unreasonably demanded that he be able to change some very important information — which simply wasn’t possible.

Needless to say, there was a lot of yelling, pounding of fists on countertops, and audible sighs.

The two employees were complaining, which didn’t surprise me one bit. What did shock me was that it was not entirely about the customer, but rather about the processes they are forced to abide by. They wanted to help out the man despite his innate rudeness, but they were hamstrung by policy and procedure. It really opened up my eyes to the “other side” if you will, of the customer service equation. A lot is said — and written — about the end-consumer’s satisfaction, but sometimes the agents themselves fall through the cracks.

As you wait in long lines this month — whether it be for the DMV, holiday shopping, or on the phone trying to get a bill dispute resolved — try to remember that it isn’t always the fault of the customer service rep if your issue can’t be fixed right away. Just like you and I have policies at our jobs we may not necessairly care for, the same goes for them.

For companies, it may be worthwhile to take this time to rethink policies and processes that you may be able to change to give agents more power to fix problems on the front lines, as opposed to routing an increasingly angry customer to different levels of management. Studies show that empowered agents can make happier agents, thereby reducing attrition, which is still a problem in the customer service space.

For executives at organizations who have decided to give agents more wherewithal to solve problems on the front lines, has customer and employee satisfaction risen? Has productivity gone up? Or has it been business-as-usual?