This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service

The Holly Springs DMV in North Carolina has some major fans.

ByABC News
August 26, 2016, 2:32 PM

— -- Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a horrendous DMV experience. Well, the customers at the Holly Springs DMV in North Carolina certainly can’t relate.

When they walk in to their local DMV, rather than being told to take a number and forced to wait for hours in a dimly lit depressing lobby only to find out you don’t have the proper paperwork needed, they’re instead greeted with freshly baked cupcakes, made-to-order fruit smoothies, a self check-in iPad, adorable cottage-style furniture, a kids' play area, smiling employees and rays of sunshine opening up from the heavens.

“We’ve actually had customers who’ve walked in and walked back out to read the sign again because they’re not sure they’re in the right place,” Arely Lopez, the branch manager at the Holly Springs DMV, told ABC News.

PHOTO: This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service
This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service

The DMV is privately owned, which allows it more freedom to be personalized, and the customers can’t get enough. They’re living in the lap of luxury as they await their new car title or personalized license plate.

“Everyone dreads going to the DMV but we worked really closely with the mayor and governor and county commissioners and we want to do it different,” Lopez said. “We have customers that will just come in to read a book and buy a cupcake.”

You read that correctly. Cupcakes, lots of them, in all sorts of delicious flavors, hand-delivered each morning from a local bakery named CupCakeBite located right up the road.

“In the evenings they’ll text me their list of flavors for the next day. I’ll either deliver to them or they’ll come pick them up,” Gina Pettaris, the bakery’s owner, explained.

The magical location is more like a quaint internet café rather than the dark pits of hell that is normally associated with a DMV. The only stipulation is that since they are privately owned, “we cannot do anything with driver’s licenses or issue state IDs,” Lopez said.

PHOTO: This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service
This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service

Anything else vehicle-related is on the table, though.

“The branch we fall under is Driver and Vehicle Services,” she explained. “Titling, registering, renewing, coming in from out of state to register your car for the first time, handicap placards that are issued, notary services, anything else, we do.”

The business principal for the chic and cozy DMV is the brainchild of owner Chad Price.

“I got the contract form the state and I put the whole thing together because I want to prove you can have good service,” he said. “It’s a mindset. I built it and designed it to completely break the mold."

“Typical DMVs have cinderblock walls so I put it in a nice little shopping center,” he added. “DMVs have nasty little carpets and I went with stained concrete floors. I looked at everything they were doing and went the opposite.”

Price added a playful kids' corner so parents can get their errands done while not having to worry about their children. He added top-of-the-line technology where customers can text the DMV to get a number and only show up once it’s time for their appointment. He went out of his way to petition to be able to add the state flag to DMV signage, just so it’s more appealing to the eye.

PHOTO: This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service
This Magical DMV Serves Cupcakes and Is Winning at Customer Service

“The key thing we wanted to prove to everyone is that even though we’re a contractor for the state, you can truly provide phenomenal customer service,” Price said. “It’s not hard. You have to be committed. The government has to realize they’re there to serve the people. If you remember that, you will always go above and beyond.”

It’s safe to say he’s accomplished that and more. Did we mention they have cupcakes and fresh fruit smoothies?