June 11, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:

I have had the pleasure of working with Douglas Duncan of TurboSchedule ^TM on our 2007 Reassessment program for the Town of Southampton, New York. The Town of Southampton functions as the primary governing and taxing body of the “Hamptons” which includes over 50,000 of the most exclusive and expensive properties in the world. The residents of the “Hamptons” have high expectations of their properties, service workers, including government officials.

I have been in the Real Estate/Assessment business for 28 years as an Appraiser, Software Developer, Property Developer, Feasibility Analyst, Lecturer, Teacher, Consultant and Owner of a large Reassessment Firm. While conducting over 300 reassessment projects I always did all tasks “in-house”. I believed that this was the only way and the public seemed pleased.

In 2007 Southampton reassessed then mailed out change notices for 50,000 parcels. Southampton did not have the staff do it “in-house”. I then turned to Doug and TurboSchedule ^TM .Naturally, I was nervous about hiring an outside firm to handle the phone appointments and even more nervous about online appointments. Doug’s company rapidly dispelled all of my nervousness. In retrospect there are a number of key points that typified our experience with Doug and TurboSchedule ^TM They are:

1)             Rapid and accurate pre-project software setup

2)             Staff following accurate phone script

3)             Simple easy to use on line scheduling

4)             Rapid response to property owner’s questions

5)             Rapid response to Assessor’s office questions

6)             Serious interest in pleasing the client with kind nonjudgmental communication

7)             Informative and clear daily status reports

8)             Lock out scheduling so no overlapped appointments occur

9)             Quickly made needed modifications as the process continued

The process was an incredible success. We had compliments from the Assessor Office Staff, Assessor, Town Administrator, Mayor, Town Council, Newspapers and more importantly the Property Owners. I truly believe that the reassessment process was far more successful because people came to our hearings with less adversarial thoughts as a direct result of Doug and TurboSchedule ^TM  .They easily made appointments and believed that they were treated fairly and kindly. In short, they instilled confidence in the professionalism of the project.  According to the Town Administrator, this was the “smoothest reassessment” he had ever experienced.

Simply put, Doug is a rare professional who is both extraordinarily competent in his field and has strong communication skills that meet and exceed the client’s expectations. I would, without any reservation, recommend Doug and his company, TurboSchedule ^TM  for any government or private industry assignment that will fully utilize his talents. You may contact me directly at 631-252-5867 with any clarifications or further questions.

Very Truly Yours,                                  

John Valente

Senior Appraisal Systems Analyst

CAMA, GIS and Assessment Integration

Town of Southampton, New York