By Ryan Falkenberg, 19 November 2024 – Originally published by IT-Online.
For millions of South Africans, there are few things more frustrating than dealing with a government department or state-owned enterprise (SOE).
Whether it’s asking when you can expect your UIF payment, querying your electricity bill, or applying for a new passport, finding the person who can guide you to the right information or form, is challenging. So often it takes multiple attempts before you get success, if at all.
In many cases, the impact of being left in the dark is significant. Consider those who have been waiting months or even years for their UIF payout. Imagine being on maternity leave and UIF is your only source of income, or if you’ve just been retrenched from a job and need UIF to survive.
A common frustration is finding the right person who can actually help resolve a query or action a request. Even something as simple as getting basic information updated on the system can require speaking to multiple people in different departments. This has significant knock-on effects, including lost economic productivity and the erosion of trust in the state.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. Technology, properly implemented, can reduce or even eliminate these frustrations and may even turn these engagements into a positive and affirming experience.
Beyond portals and booking systems
That’s not to say that government departments haven’t implemented technology. Almost all government departments now have website portals where you can submit documents, and booking systems where you can schedule appointments, with comparative ease.
The challenge normally comes when the online form options are unclear, or we have a question regarding the documents that must be uploaded. It’s here where things get stuck; where our question has context and we need to speak to someone who understands the process and the rules and can give us the answers we need.
That’s where technologies like virtual agents come into play. Powered by intelligent automation (IA), these virtual agents can resolve specific queries and requests and complete identified processes much like a human agent. These are not irritating chatbots that give generic answers to specific questions- they are more like human agents, with the ability to follow rules and processes in context with every customer they talk to.
Implementing these powerful new virtual agents offers benefits both to citizens and government officials. For citizens, they offer real-time support that gets the job done. No more waiting for the phone to be answered, or to be put through to another person who may not help. This not only positively shapes perceptions and builds confidence in governance, it saves people precious time.
It also frees up staff capacity to focus on the queries and requests that really matter. They no longer need to handle the noisy volumes of standard queries and requests. Instead they can focus their attention on the calls that really matter, where emotions are involved, and there is complexity to consider. By turning the ‘volume hose’ off, virtual agents allow human agents to focus on what makes them important to citizens; their empathy and understanding.
Virtual agents can therefore be used as first contact support to citizens across all channels. So whether you call in via phone, access the website or app, email a request, or WhatsApp a query, you can have it instantly handled by a virtual agent. If they are unable to resolve your issue or you really want a human to hear your concerns, the virtual agent can immediately hand you across to a person, with all the context provided.
Improved contactability and first touch resolution
Adding virtual agents to the customer service team allows government departments to dramatically improve contactability and for citizens to resolve most queries without waiting. Whether it’s getting the right answer to, “what is my account balance?” or being guided through an application process, virtual agents have a massive role to play.
Virtual agents don’t take human agent jobs away. They enrich existing jobs by taking the repetitive, low-value, high-volume tasks away, allowing humans to be more human, and add more value.
Improved service delivery starts with improved service. With the advancements in AI technology, we are now able to deploy virtual agents that can perform at the level of human experts, in multiple languages, across multiple channels.
This capability to action a request in seconds, transforms the engagement experience. It also liberates human agents from the drudgery of repetitive work, and allows them to specialise in the engagements that really matter.
The result is a growing sense of confidence in our government departments and their ability to truly deliver on their service promises.