Drive Customer Service Efficiency with Public Sector AI Solutions

Are you a Contact Centre Manager in the public sector, struggling to keep up with the digital transformation? 

You’re not alone.

The shift to online support and automation has left many government departments and public services struggling with…

• Pressure to increase customer self-service and digital channel adoption.
• High telephony demand despite efforts to migrate customers online.
• Ensuring inclusive digital support that’s accessible to all cultures and demographics.

On top of all that, public sector organisations have to contend with strict budget constraints.

Especially compared to the private sector.

This often leads to outdated systems and processes that struggle to meet modern customer service expectations. 

But what if there was a comprehensive customer service platform that would allow you to…

• Deliver exceptional self-service with a generative AI-powered chatbot.
• Deploy digital channels without sacrificing the human experience or accessibility.
• Gain enterprise-grade CX and AI solutions without breaking the bank.

Interested in learning more? 

Let’s explore the specific problems you’re facing right now in more detail.

1. Increasing customer self-service

Public sector organisations are under constant pressure to promote self-service as a means to streamline operations and reduce costs. 

However, despite the benefits, many customers are resistant to this shift. 

One of the main reasons for this resistance is ineffective chatbots and digital interfaces, often resulting in poor user experiences.

These poorly designed systems cause frustration, leading customers to abandon them in favour of more traditional support (e.g. phone lines).

Low self-service adoption rates are a significant obstacle for public sector leaders who want to maximise efficiency.

Encouraging more customers to utilise automated services is crucial not only for driving efficiency but also for optimising cost-effectiveness and resource allocation.

2. Reducing telephony demand

Despite extensive efforts to migrate customers online, there’s a persistent demand for telephony assistance within the public sector. 

Many individuals still gravitate toward direct, human interaction when it comes to government and public services.

This preference for telephony communication stems from various factors, including the desire for personalised assistance or simply the comfort of speaking to a real person.

For public sector organisations, managing this ongoing desire for phone support is a critical challenge. 

A high volume of phone interactions leads to too much strain on one contact channel.

This results in longer wait times, increased operational costs, and burnt-out civil servants. 

Ultimately, reducing telephony demand is essential for maintaining service quality, managing interaction volumes effectively, and ensuring resources aren’t overwhelmed during peak times.

3. Lack of investment in new technologies

The public sector is constrained by harsh budget constraints, which limit their ability to invest in emerging technology. 

This financial pressure, coupled with the need to justify expenditures to taxpayers, often results in outdated customer support systems.

These inadequate solutions hinder the efficiency and effectiveness of public services.

The end result is slower response times, increased errors, and poor customer service overall.

Additionally, public organisations must ensure that any new technology or digital services are inclusive and accessible to a diverse customer base.

This need further complicates the procurement and implementation processes.

So, what are you supposed to do? 

Tackling all these challenges requires new customer service technologies and strategies.

At the same time, budget-holders in the public sector are often cautious and sceptical.

They want answers and results…

Without having to commit significant resources, disrupt existing operations, or take on unnecessary risks.

Finding a CX solution that’s effective, innovative, scalable, and cost-effective is vital.

That’s where Talkative comes in.

Talkative Solutions: Conversational AI for Public Sector Organisations

1. Improve self-service with advanced artificial intelligence

Imagine you could create a self-service tool that’s as intuitive and effective at answering queries as ChatGPT, but tailored specifically to the needs of your customers...

With an advanced, generative AI-powered chatbot, this is now a reality.

By integrating our GenAI Chatbot with your own AI knowledge bases, you can automate a vast range of public service queries.

This reduces agent workloads, leaving them with more time and mental capacity for complex issues that require human intervention.

You can easily create knowledge bases in Talkative using URLs from your organisation’s website - plus any file-based documents or resources you have.

From there, our chatbot learns from your knowledge base datasets, effectively becoming an expert virtual assistant.

This enables the bot to provide humanised and highly accurate self-service, using the information in your knowledge base plus the power of AI.

In turn, many users can get the answers they need quickly and easily, without having to navigate complex systems or wait for a human agent.

And, in cases where a customer’s needs go beyond the chatbot’s capabilities, it can initiate a seamless hand-off to the appropriate team or agent.

This balance between automation and human intervention ensures that customers receive the best service for their unique needs and circumstances.

It’s for this reason that, according to recent research by Contact Babel…

75% of public sector organisations have already implemented AI automation or plan to do so in the next 12 months.

2. Go digital and slash telephony demand - without losing the human touch

If you want customers to stop favouring phone support, you need to provide alternative contact channels.

These additional channels must offer some benefit over phone calls.

For example, they might be faster and more convenient (e.g. live chat, messaging apps), or they might offer an even more personal CX than telephony (e.g. video calls). 

With Talkative, public sector organisations can deploy an omnichannel suite of digital communication channels, including: 

• Live chat 
• Chatbots
• Messaging (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS)
• Video chat
• Web calls

These channels offer users the flexibility to choose how they interact with your services - whether they prefer typing a quick message or engaging in a face-to-face video call.

Take Talkative customer, Camden Council, as an example of this approach in action.

By deploying live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and video calls, they successfully halved telephony demand within a year.

What’s more, they also increased their digital channel shift from non-existent to 41% and growing.

This shift resulted in a far more efficient customer support system.

It also boosted customer satisfaction by offering more convenient ways to connect with the council.

Ultimately, the key to successfully reducing phone calls is deploying a variety of digital touchpoints that cater to different customer preferences and needs.

3. Guarantee accessibility & inclusivity for all 

Ensuring accessible digital customer service for all users is crucial. 

This is especially true for public services, as they’re used by individuals with diverse backgrounds and demographics.

After all, accessibility is not just compliance.

It’s also a reflection of your commitment to inclusivity and equality. 

But when it comes to providing an inclusive and accessible digital CX, you need a platform that can adapt to various user needs - including those with disabilities.

That’s why all of Talkative’s customer contact channels have been carefully designed to meet standards set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). 

In addition to WCAG compliance, we offer features that further enhance accessibility, such as real-time translation technology. 

This capability enables automatic translation into over a hundred languages during live chat and chatbot interactions. 

It means you can eliminate language barriers and allow customers to communicate in their mother tongue - creating a more seamless, empathetic, and inclusive CX. 

4. Gain enterprise-grade solutions & artificial intelligence on a budget

As we’ve covered, public sector organisations often operate under tight financial constraints.

It’s why the Talkative solution was designed to be both scalable and cost-effective…

So you don’t have to compromise on quality to stay within budget.

With Talkative, you’ll gain enterprise-grade features - such as omnichannel integration, AI tools, and advanced analytics/reporting capabilities - minus the hefty price tag.

This means you can modernise your digital CX and customer service strategy without breaking the bank.

Moreover, our platform helps reduce overall costs by automating more interactions/tasks and boosting operational efficiency.

This means that, although you’re initially investing in technology, you’ll see a tangible ROI through optimal performance and productivity.

FAQ: Your Questions Answered

Q: How do you train or teach Talkative’s GenAI Chatbot? 

A: Talkative comes with an easy-to-use AI Knowledge Base that integrates with your chatbot. 

To teach your AI chatbot the information it needs, you can either: 

• Import relevant URLs from your company website or, 
• Upload a selection of file-based content (e.g. documents, articles, spreadsheets, PDFs, etc.).

You can even build multiple knowledge base models and assign them to different interaction queues.

Learn more about Talkative’s GenAI Chatbot.

Q: How do you safeguard AI chatbots from hallucinations? 

A: To mitigate potential Large Language Model (LLM) hallucinations, we’ve implemented strict controls that limit AI responses. 

This means your chatbot can only relay information that’s directly related to your organisation’s services and policies. 

This approach effectively counters attempts at prompt injections, manipulations, or “jailbreaks” - and innocent but incorrect answers. 

In turn, you can guarantee AI accuracy - even when faced with challenging or inappropriate questions. 

What’s more, Talkative’s user-friendly, no-code chatbot builder comes with a hybrid approach to automation. 

This means you can use both generative AI and custom intents / suggestion chips to guide the customers along the best path to resolution. 

You can even add triggers and fallback prompts to make sure your AI chatbot escalates to a human agent when it matters most. 

Q: How does your chatbot escalate complex issues to human agents? 

A: The short answer is: it’s up to you! 

The long answer: you can set your AI chatbot to escalate conversations in multiple ways. 

For instance, Talkative’s chatbot builder enables you to design your chatbot’s conversational flows to strictly adhere to set responses or pathways.

That way, your bot will automatically transfer or escalate to a human if the interaction goes “off-path”.

On the other hand, you can also set your AI to transfer to a human agent depending on the context of the interaction itself. 

For example, if the customer query is too complex or emotional, the AI chatbot can be trained to recognise this context and escalate the conversation to a human.

However you choose to set up your chatbot, this hybrid approach ensures customers always receive the most effective level of support. 

In turn, you can ensure your organisation or government department maintains high satisfaction levels and public confidence - even in challenging situations.

Q: How does AI customer service complement human agents?

A: We believe that AI customer service is about enhancing, not replacing, human agents. 

With that in mind, we suggest using your chatbot to handle routine inquiries, freeing civil servants to tackle complex issues that require the human touch.

Talkative’s live chat software also comes with a suite of AI Copilot tools for agents.

This empowers your civil servants to serve customers faster and smarter, without sacrificing personalised customer service.

Learn more about Talkative’s AI Agent Copilot Suite.

Q: How does Talkative integrate with existing customer service systems? 

A: Talkative offers seamless integration into a range of CRMs, Contact Centre Software, and back-end office systems.

These include, but are not limited to:

• All Salesforce Clouds
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Microsoft Teams
• Mitel Contact Centre Business / Enterprise, and more. 

Plus, with our Zapier integration you can integrate with over 4,000 apps to best suit your unique workflows. 

However you need to integrate your current software, Talkative solutions can be implemented within a few easy steps.

If you’d like to learn more about bespoke integrations or discuss your specific needs, contact the team—we’d be happy to help!

Q: How does the chatbot handle high interaction volumes and peaks? 

A: With nearly 8 years of experience serving the public sector, plus global brands in travel, retail, financial services, and more… 

The Talkative system has proven experience in handling huge interaction volumes with ease. 

So, if you need to handle thousands of chat interactions during peak periods, Talkative can scale to meet your needs. 

What’s more, you can stay confident with tools like queue management, in-queue broadcast messages, adjustable business hours, email capture forms, and more. 

Q: How quickly can we deploy a Talkative public sector chatbot?

A: It depends on the size and scope of your operation - and your chosen Talkative tier. 

For smaller public services, you can set Talkative up within an afternoon. 

For larger or enterprise-level organisations with huge contact centres, implementations usually last a few weeks. 

But whatever the size of your organisation…

If you’d like a more accurate timeline for your needs, contact the team today by clicking our chat widget! 

Q: What about customer data security and compliance?

A: Talkative was built to give you and your customers peace of mind when it comes to data protection.

From unique authorization and permission levels to Single Sign-On and Multi-Factor Authentication, Talkative provides your team with the features you need to stay secure. 

We also have strong experience working with global brands to follow security policies and industry regulations.

As such, our system is designed to protect sensitive customer data while allowing you to securely analyse customer data for your business needs. 

Learn more about Talkative’s Data & Security features.

Q: How can we measure the ROI of implementing AI? 

A: Talkative offers comprehensive analytics and reporting tools to help you measure business performance effectively. 

If you want to measure ROI in terms of…

• Money saved or increased efficiency: you can create custom reports to track key metrics like AI containment rates and resolution rates. 
• Enhancing customer satisfaction: you can measure CSAT scores, sentiment analysis, and chat transcripts on a granular or high-level overview—thanks to Talkative’s AI Interaction Insights. 

Whatever metric is most important for your goals…

Talkative lets you measure and demonstrate efficiency gains, cost reductions, and CX improvements with true flexibility. 

Learn more about Talkative’s Analytics & Reporting features.

Considering AI Customer Service for Your Contact Centre? 

Here’s how you can learn more about whether Talkative’s solutions are right for your organisation…

1. Schedule a call with our team at a time that works for you. It’s quick, easy, and there’s zero obligation.
2. You’ll speak with Steve or Felix, our generative AI specialists. Both have extensive experience serving the public sector, and they’ll show you how our solution can help solve your specific challenges and integrate with your existing systems.
3. Ask as many questions as you like! We’re here to give you clear, honest answers. It's a chance for us to learn about your needs and for you to see if we're a good fit. 

Ready to take the next step? 

Click below to book your personalised Talkative demo today…