Special to TAG-IT News Agency

 

MOSCOW – Moscow IT Department conducted a study on the contact centers in 20 cities including Hong Kong, New York, Moscow, San Francisco, Toronto, Barcelona, and London among many others. The analysts studied the best practices in digital technologies introduced and applied when communicating with residents according to the IT Department of Moscow Government.

 

The study has analyzed seven different smart technologies used by city governments to put customer experience to a brand new level. The technologies to be implemented include the following: robot operator, big data analysis, emotion recognition, voice biometrics, video call with sign interpretation, AI-based optimization, omnichannel approach (synergy between mobile applications, social networks, video calls). Interestingly, the omnichannel approach as one of the most common used technology contributes to a higher number of requests from the citizens per year, implying a stronger bond with citizens.

 

Moscow results are triggered by its development of own AI-based virtual assistant who has been serving the residents from the beginning of 2014. Now the robot proceeds with 838 000 calls per month and reduces the operators’ workload by 40 percent. Prior the call the robot has the citizens’ data ready: age and gender, usage of city apps, requested documents status, fines and debts. 

 

Strategy and Innovations Advisor to CIO of Moscow Andrey Belozerov notes: “This study sheds the light on importance of smart technologies when communicating with residents. The cities should let their residents to solve any issue related to their urban life as quickly as possible. Here in Moscow we are dedicated to further embrace AI technologies in our contact center. Our AI based virtual assistant works around-the clock-every day in a week and this is something that a human cannot achieve. We aim to disengage human operators from easy routine tasks and let them work with more complex issues”.

 

The robot advises Muscovites on various points including issues with payment for utility bills, changes in tariffs for utility services, provides the address of the nearest multifunctional center My documents and its working hours, informs on the status of social card or economic patent among many more. 

 

The virtual operator improves its pronunciation in real time thanks to self-training AI-based algorithm. Besides while calling the virtual assistant identifies and tracks residents’ emotional coloring. It allows enhancing the quality of communication between citizens and government. 

 

Starting from now the virtual assistant is to evaluate the citizens’ level of satisfaction by the provided services. The residents will be contacted only by a robot and the operators will be redistributed to incoming calls. The future plan in Moscow is to implement video calls with sign language as an alternative channel of communication with people with hearing and/or speech limited capabilities.

 

Moscow city contact center is one of the most highly-demanded hotlines in Moscow. In 2017 the city hotline served 24 million requests with an annual increase in a number of calls by 40 percent. This year the contact center receives 3 million calls per month. Each minute an operator receives 70 requests. Pending for a call is less than 45 seconds until the operator answers 95 percent of the requests. According to surveys, 90 percent of people are satisfied with the level of service, and 96 percent of respondents confirmed that their problem was solved the first time.