Feature
Chatbots aren’t just for businesses anymore, they’re also being utilized by city governments that are relying more and more technology for daily operations. Some employ the same bots as corporations, while others work with municipal-specific tools. Regardless, what smart cities do with these bots isn’t that different from private enterprise. If you think of the taxpayer as a customer — someone for who pays for certain services — chatbot usage looks relatively the same.
Here we look at three examples that exemplify the similarities.
Keeping Customers and Citizens Happy
In most towns, if you’re driving along the road and see a downed streetlight, you need to call it in — an action most people don’t follow through with. The result is a communication gap that often becomes a point of contention, causing taxpayers to complain about how streets are maintained. In July 2017, North Charleston, S.C., instituted a better system. The town started using Citibot, a chatbot connecting through text, Twitter and Facebook Messenger.
Just as private sector businesses use chatbots to process customer complaints, the people of North Charleston use Citibot to request repairs. Within six months of the deployment, town spokesperson Ryan Johnson said North Charleston repaired or replaced 114 percent more trash cans, fixed 195 percent more street and traffic lights, filled 76 percent more potholes, and repaired 114 percent more street signs. Citibot is also available in towns across Texas, New Jersey and Virginia.
Related Article: How Much Does It Cost To Build an Enterprise Chatbot?
Making Teams More Efficient
Question and answer chatbots make businesses more efficient by saving staff the time it takes to search for information. Why slog through a knowledge management system when you can get the answer by bot?
Learning Opportunities
Webinar
Jun
6
The Future of Social Media: Emerging Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
The impact of emerging technologies like AI on social media
Webinar
Jun
7
The Building Blocks of Personalization
This webinar will explore how personalization can create powerful ecommerce shopping experience.
Webinar
Jun
8
Attracting—and Keeping—Your High-Net-Worth Investors
Join PwC to dissect their recent survey findings on a specific customer subset — high-net-worth investors.
Webinar
Jun
13
The Future of Contact Centers with AI at the Helm
Learn how to balance human intuition and interaction with the potential uses of AI to create delightful and lasting CX
Webinar
Jun
13
Learn How to Deliver Dynamic Video Experiences at Scale
Learn how to convert existing assets into video experiences in near real-time.
Webinar
Jun
20
3 Steps to Unlock Your Customer Data and Drive Revenue
Discover how Twilio Segment’s #1 Customer Data Platform helps implement data-driven strategies.
The same principle applies to smart cities. Instead of citizens having to ask city employees for information, they can simply access it on their own, via chatbot. In Los Angeles this means prospective vendors save procurement staff time by directing bid questions to the department chatbot. In Kansas City, Miss., a Facebook Messenger-based bot processes open record requests — questions from the press and others for public information. Use cases like these not only make workers more efficient by cutting back on calls and emails, but when accompanied by a project management back-end, chatbots help governments organize data. In North Charleston, Johnson says this has made the public works department 112 percent more efficient.
Related Article: Top 14 Chatbot Building Platforms of 2017
Helping Cities and Companies Facilitate “Purchase”
Early chatbots — especially those connecting via website — served as virtual assistants to guide e-commerce customers through purchase. Buying items online was something users were comfortable doing already, but the bot was there to answer final product questions.
In a government context, this same technology can help people pay their taxes. In December 2017, the town of Rajkot, India launched Floatbot as part of the country’s Smart City Mission initiative. Floatbot facilitates tax payment information and processes citizen requests for birth and death certificates, as well as neighborhood complaints. Within its first 46 days, Floatbot processed 1001 queries. More than 1.3 million people live in Rajkot.
And — while it’s a federal government department, not municipal — the Australian Taxation Office provides assistance by bot as well. Business Insider Australia reports that 80 percent of taxpayer inquiries are resolved at “first contact” via chatbot as opposed to the industry standard of 60-65 percent.
