Improving Resident Self-Service with Chatbot Data

Government staff all over the country are constantly being asked to do more with less. Resources like time and funding are often very limited, so anytime significant efficiencies can be created by digital solutions, the impact can stretch far and wide and create benefits for community members and staff alike.

Chatbot technology allows residents to interact with their government and get answers, information, or direction from a tool that combines search functionality with artificial intelligence (AI). The Chatbot can provide an experience that convincingly simulates a customer service interaction with an actual staff member while instead freeing up said staff member to handle other essential tasks.

Savings Now and In the Future

Imagine saving valuable resources while also making information more available to your public. Trust and transparency are central components of civic engagement. Having an AI-powered knowledge base that you can be assured covers the full breadth of your online resources gives your residents the best chance to have their needs met in a timely and effective manner.

Survey data shows that not only are people utilizing chatbots more often, but those organizations that aren’t currently are planning to adopt the technology at some point in the future to create efficiencies and help solve resident problems.

Long-Term Effects of Positive Experiences

When you can complete a transaction for a resident quickly, effectively, and in a personalized way, you ensure the experience to be a positive and impactful one. Impactful civic experiences for residents add up over time and pay off in ways you may have never guessed. Consider a town reviewing search data from their Chatbot tool to find that a commonly searched-for resource on the community website was “farmers market,” but the community has no such event. Based on this information, the community could:

• Gauge public interest through digital polling, notifications, forums, and more
• Review and update processes, permitting, applications, documentation, etc.
• Plan upcoming calendar of events for new farmer’s market
• Announce the upcoming events
• Hold a highly successful community event that grows into a major economic boost for the whole community

It doesn’t have to stop there. What if a woman is inspired by the booths she visits at that farmer’s market and decides to start a stand of her own? She goes on to create a successful full-time business that grows and expands over the years, employing over a dozen community members.

In this scenario, the process developed all the way from seemingly mundane Chatbot data to a quaint community farmers market, all the way to a woman starting a small business employing other members of the community, all within five years and all because of a few data points from residents engaging online with their local government website, searching for the keywords “farmers market.”

The example is hypothetical, but it is realistic for the effects of such data analysis and subsequent planning and action to be that far-reaching.

Additional Benefits

Keyword Input

Analyze keyword input to better train chatbot to answer questions quickly and accurately, including direct links in chat to take citizens to the desired location, helping them quickly find water bills, pet registrations, contact information, or city location addresses.

Resident Satisfaction

Users want answers quickly and easily. Giving them the best opportunity to make that happen with multiple information channels, including the assistance of a Chatbot that’s available around the clock, will ensure a better experience.

Identifying Information Gaps

Your current online resource library has its limits, just like anything else. Be open to what the data is telling you is missing from your resources and then work hard to shore up those gaps. AI technology constantly crawls your website and linked databases to learn about your content, providing rapid and accurate answers to users.

Financial Benefits

Operational costs are reduced when customer service hours go down. Chatbot speeds up response times and keeps staff from spending precious resources answering questions the automated tool would have caught up to 80 percent of the time, freeing them up to solve more difficult or complex challenges.

The Evolution of Self-Service

Chatbot provides answers 24 hours a day, year-round, but also offers the opportunity to continue to evolve and make improvements as you learn more about your community and what is most important to them. People want a quick and easy solution above all else. That may not always be possible but be sure you’re taking advantage of the efficiencies technology can bring you in the form of digital tools. Chatbot is an effortless and accurate automated system of answers that empowers residents to find information and resources quicker and easier, keeping them more active and engaged, leading to real action and change, and the most positive civic experiences possible.