ICYMI: Contact Center Case Studies - Governments Learn Best from Other Governments

In this episode, panelists from various government sectors discuss the critical importance of contact centers and share their experiences, challenges, and strategies for improving service delivery. The discussion includes insights into the role of technology, automation, and human factors in transforming contact centers. Key topics covered include the importance of simplicity, measuring the right metrics, leveraging AI, and fostering inter-agency collaboration. The discussion also highlights the rapid adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing efforts to enhance customer experience in public.

Facilitator: Martha Dorris, Dorris Consulting International,
Moderator: Meghan Daly, Former Federal Director
Panelists: Gundeep Ahluwalia, EVP & Chief Innovation Officer, NuAxis
Mia Jordan, Industry Advisor and Digital Transformation SME, Salesforce
Marcellus Walker Jr., Acting Deputy Director of Operations, Office of Unified Communications, DC Government
Tenesia Wells, Deputy Director, Department of Emergency and Customer Communications, Alexandria VA Government 

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Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound

(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks
• 1:09 Diving into Government Service Challenges
• 2:43 Panelist Introductions
• 4:14 Role of Contact Centers in Service Delivery
• 10:40 Best Practices in 311 Systems
• 19:59 Overcoming Challenges During the Pandemic
• 29:27 Innovations and Future Directions
• 35:43 Q&A and Closing Remarks

Transcript

Mia: [00:00:00] How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? Thank you.
Mia: Good morning, everyone. I'm thrilled to help kick off this next segment because today we're diving into something governments don't do nearly enough, and that's learning from each other's leaps, lessons and leaps of faith. So when it comes to contact centers, whether you're answering, answering questions about potholes or passport renewals, one truth is universal.
Mia: The stakes are high, the expectations are higher, and the patience is usually low. But the good news is that government service doesn't have to be a guessing game. So today we have some real examples, real successes, real strategies to share, and today's panel brings together a powerhouse posse of public service.
Mia: Pros, leaders who you like that alliteration, thank you, uh, who have leaned into innovation, weather transformation, and come out [00:01:00] wiser on the other side. So, to guide us through today's conversation, today's conversation, we have the brilliant Megan Daley, our moderator, Maestro, and Mrs of ceremonies, Megan.
Meghan: You'll be in the middle. Yeah. Okay. Or I'll be, I'll be.
Meghan: Thank you Mia. I will just go ahead and have everyone introduce themselves, so gun deep. Go ahead. 
Gundeep: Thank you. Hello? Uh. I think I was put close to the moderator so that you can kick me in the shins. Yes, exactly, exactly. Something wrong. Uh, my name is Gandhi Palu. [00:02:00] I am the, uh, chief Innovation Officer at New Access Innovations.
Gundeep: Uh, uh, and it is a, a I'm very excited to be here. Thank you, uh, for the opportunity. Thank you, Martha. Thank you AK, for putting a very, uh, important, uh, um, uh, event together. 
TANIA: Uh, so looking forward. Good morning everyone. My name is Marcellus Walker Jr. Uh, currently, uh, the acting Deputy Director of Operations for DC 9 1 1 Office of Unified Communications and 3 1 1.
TANIA: Uh, so welcome. I. 
Tenesia: I always stand up because I'm tiny. Um, I feel like I'm playing a little bit dress up up here today, but I'm Tania Wells. I'm with the City of Alexandria, department of Emergency and Customer Communications, which is a really, really fancy way of saying 9 1 1 and 3 1 1, and I'm excited to be here and spend some time with you guys today.
Mia: Good morning. I'm Mia Jordan. I'm an industry advisor with sales for [00:03:00] Salesforce and, uh, a former, uh, federal CIO. Megan, over to you. Great. 
Meghan: Thank you all and thank you all for being here. Um, I'll tee up since you're sitting right, right to my left. You're the first one. You're the hot seat here. Um, so. Uh, how would you, you know, position your contact, the role of your contact center right now in the overall service delivery strategy?
Gundeep: So, um, I think contact centers, uh, and this has been said in, in the past, and I'm not gonna, uh, uh, belabor this, but it is the face of, uh, most of the organizations, most of service organizations, right. Um, and I've led, uh, IT organizations, um, uh, I volunteer as an EMT. Uh, so, so getting a call. And, and an efficient transfer of information.
Gundeep: And I, I like what the previous, uh, uh, panel was talking about and getting people to done is an extremely important, but can be complicated, complex. [00:04:00] Um, and, and it is, it can get tough at times. Right? Uh, so I'll, I'll, I'll first talk a little bit about the IT organization, right? So. We in IT organizations, right?
Gundeep: You, you try doing your work without a laptop. Right, let's, or be without a phone for a few hours. So you just can't be, it just, it is. It's not possible anymore. So any mission delivery, any service delivery, any citizen service is reliant on it. Right. And it breaks. And just like any other service you call the.
Gundeep: I'll ask. Um, and I think the, the biggest, uh, uh, um, uh, frustration that people have is why can't this be simpler? Why can't it be faster? And why can't I be up and running regardless of what my IT proficiency is? Right. And that's true whether. You can, you can talk about it, you can talk about non-IT. Um, that's [00:05:00] true in, in a 9 1 1 setting.
Gundeep: Uh, I mean, I, when I'm responding to a motor vehicle crash, uh, on, on a Sunday night, I wanna know what what I'm going into, right? Uh, so the efficient transfer of, of information is, is extremely important as well. Automation. Integration, I'll tell you. Um, this past Sunday, uh, the BMW called me through the 9 1 1 through an automated trying to tell me exactly what happened.
Gundeep: So the car was talking to me, is what we, is the place we are reaching now through automation. And that's the kind of thing that we need to, to keep in, keep in mind, and we all can learn from each other. Federal agencies, right? Uh, there, there were multiple call centers when I was at the Department of Labor, right?
Gundeep: We could, we could all learn from each other. We could learn from, um, why can't I patch video, uh, into, i, I get frustrated sometimes responding to an emergency call. Like, okay, what does this scene, can you show [00:06:00] me with my mother in India? I can FaceTime. Why can't I do that with a call center situation?
Gundeep: Especially in certain, uh, uh, uh. Uh, use cases. Right. Uh, so there's a lot of progress to be made, um, and, and a lot to be learned from each other in, in, in across governments. 
Meghan: Okay. Great. Thank you. So Marcellus, how about you? What, um, what's your overall strategy right now in positioning your, the role of the contact center?
TANIA: Well, I, I'll transition a bit, uh, away from the technology and, and focus in on the, the agents, the people. Um, I think right now is a very critical moment for us to empower our agents to be able to. Effectively use the resources, uh, so that they can make decisions. They can make decisions, and they can provide guidance to our customers, constituents, residents, uh, in our case.
TANIA: And so, um, continue to look for areas of professional development within your staff, within your agents. Um, continue to. [00:07:00] Just make sure that we're training using these ai, these different technologies to look at how we can train them better and, and allow them to make a sound decision to be able to connect with the residents.
Meghan: And tanitia, 
Tenesia: I'll also pivot again. Um, for me it's relationships. I've prided myself and my team on not just being very, uh, center focused. Um, there's other departments in the city we serve, so serving those relationships are just as important. Um, so as they're making decisions, I. The contact center is embedded in their decisions, so they think about us all the time.
Tenesia: So I will say for me, it's really focusing and diving into those relationships and making sure that they know that this is not only for the residents, this isn't in, uh, in some respects there to serve them and make their job easier as well. Great. 
Meghan: And Mia, how about how, how have you seen Salesforce help agency improve their service delivery?
Mia: So, obviously, uh, [00:08:00] during COVID there was, um, I have an example of, um, uh, California, uh, EDD, which essentially was the, um, the, um, agency where you go and submit for. Job claims because you've lost your jobs, right? So 30 million people needed to be served. They did not have a fully automated system, and were able, they were able to get that stood up in, in roughly, uh, six weeks.
Mia: Um. To be able to have an external facing, uh, presence and not just from a contact center perspective, but they've since taken it a step forward. Forward in terms of thinking about how to connect the contact center to other portals. In their organization. So I see from a Salesforce perse perspective, you know, we are always preaching platform in terms of getting the most ROI the most bang for your buck out of the platform.
Mia: And so that strategy about really looking at your contact center as the central nervous system of your organization [00:09:00] in terms of, you know, how do I do. Community outreach using through my contact center. How do I do field service, right? How do I spin up, um, a field agent to be able to respond to an issue?
Mia: Um, how do I do benefits, right? All through the same kind of central nervous system where I do truly get that not just 360 degree view of a customer, but a 360 degree view. Of the agency and how it's performing. Right. And, you know, what are the, what are the hotspots that are actually happening in the agency that leaders need to be able to address in real time?
Meghan: Great. Thanks Mia. So to, um, Marcellus and Tania, um, what, what are some of the top best practices you can share from the 3 1 1 system with our, you know, our federal agencies here.
Tenesia: Keeping it simple. Um, agents like simplicity, we are not, um, technology adverse, but we [00:10:00] do want it simple. Um, I do find times when we're looking at technology, um, it's a lot of bells and whistles. And the mind can only take in so much. And you are listening to customers and you're processing the environment and you're following the changes in your organization.
Tenesia: And the technology has a lot going on. Sometimes simple is good, simple is good. Let's get down to the grains of really what the purpose of this is, and asking the question, what are we really trying to solve with the technology? So a lot of emphasis on that and distinct clear simplicity. Hmm. 
TANIA: No, that I, that was really good.
TANIA: I, I would add, you know, in the, the city government, as you all can imagine, anywhere you go, uh, I always use this example for does anybody like getting parking tickets? No. Okay. But I know, so, so, right, right. I be calling you. Right, right, right. So I use this example a lot in DC and so. Um, I in, in DC 3 1 1, we take [00:11:00] calls for the Department of Motor Vehicles.
TANIA: And so of course, of course people call us, they're mad, Hey, why did I get this ticket? What's going on? And so what I ex try to explain to our agents, uh, in the training is that you have a lot of hands in the pot. So, for example, the district's Department of Transportation is who writes the regulations, uh, for parking.
TANIA: The Department of Public Works is the agency that enforces those parking regulations. You just so happen to have to come to the DMV to pay the ticket. And so with that understanding that we give to our agents, we wanna make sure that we're building relationships. We know. What our city does, um, 3 1 1 is the front facing point of contact for your, your district government.
TANIA: So they should know the processes of these different agencies. So it's very important, uh, that you're meeting with these agencies. You understand their process, you understand their workflow, their responsibility, um, the part, the role that they play in that city government. Um, so [00:12:00] that you can then ed help and educate the resident, um, um, in order for them to, you know, move forward and.
TANIA: Try to avoid that parking ticket as best as they can, 
Meghan: and going deep. How about you? What are, what are your top best practices to share? 
Gundeep: Yeah, so I, I'll, I'll, uh, uh, I'll take, I'll talk to about it from two different perspectives. One is, uh, I think it's a, uh, I have been pushing and, and we at new access are, are trying to, to develop automation that, that pushes us in this direction is let's stop measuring the wrong things.
Gundeep: Right, and, and I think this is one of my pet peeves in, in any call center is, um, how many seconds did it take for you to answer the phone? Right? I mean, can we stop measuring that? I mean, it's, it's just the wrong measure in my mind, right? How many calls came in? Are they declining over a period of time?
Gundeep: What was the experience that a person received when they call? Did, did, did they, did you get them to done? Uh, [00:13:00] and how much time did it take you? Um, that's the other thing. Uh, we are very good at creating incentives to close tickets. Right. Just close the ticket. Right. And it's all, uh, and I used to call it a and, and I, I'm looking at Tanya here because at, at Labor, I would call it like the operation succeeded, but the patient died.
Gundeep: Okay. It was like, okay, you closed the ticket, but did the person actually get the service that they wanted? Right. And, and I think that measuring the culture of measuring the wrong things. As in the outputs instead of the outcomes. And, and not doing the, the basic experience based thinking around call centers is a huge issue in my mind.
Gundeep: Right. And it, it is probably this entire community, we are here, we are all responsible for measuring sometimes the wrong things and creating the wrong incentives in the ecosystem. Right. So I think that is one piece that I, I really, uh. I wanna focus on, [00:14:00] uh, the other one is, uh, around, uh, uh, this, this whole notion of simplicity, right?
Gundeep: Uh, I remember I was, I was actually doing a system modernization one time in my life. He and I was trying to make a picture like, this is going to revolutionize your life and you'll be so much better off. And there was this guy in the back, he raised his hand and he said like, I already work in 10 systems to do my job.
Gundeep: Are you telling me you're going to give me an 11th one? And it was like a light bulb for me. And this is what we are, what is happening to our ecosystem is getting so complicated. Right. Uh, so a little bit of automation to bring everything together. And I, and I'll channel my first responder thing as well.
Gundeep: I mean, when I'm, I, I have to look at like 15 screens. One for dispatch, one for telling you what the patient is doing. One, another one for this. So making it simple, while that sounds so simple, right? But it, it can be really hard and I believe [00:15:00] we should be, uh, focusing our technological pro to integrate these things and make it simple for the human to consume and be able to deliver those services.
Gundeep: Uh, and that's what we are focused at, new access as well. And we can give you a demo later on if you are 
Mia: great. And Mia, go ahead. Well, I think GDI teed me up really nicely. Thank you. Um, so, uh, there's a statistic that says that in order to service a customer generally, um, through a, um, in order to give service to a customer, normally there's somewhere between, um, up to 35 systems, right, that often are needed to, when you think about the entire customer journey, um, to get to done is about 35 systems.
Mia: That being on the high side, um, I. Understand the simplicity, um, aspect because as Marcellus highlighted, um, when you have, uh, multiple organizations that develop policy and force policy and [00:16:00] then those that are actually implementing that policy and real time, um, for the agent to have to know and understand that, um, I do think that finding.
Mia: Uh, tools that first and foremost, seamlessly can bring all those screens into one, really thinking about how do I serve people well, right first, and that's by having the, the agent, actually having the, the human agent actually having the information. I propose that the, um, the AI agent is another aspect that is a great compliment to providing to, to keeping it simple.
Mia: Mainly because, um, a platform like Salesforce, I. Um, you know, knowledge articles as that agent is actually, um, taking that call, knowledge articles can be, um, brought into the view of the agent to help them understand, um, how to solve the problem. [00:17:00] Secondly, um. Uh, plat a platform approach like Salesforce offers, uh, next best action so that as I am working through that particular case, it's prompting me to do the best thing based on the training that you've provided to that agent.
Mia: But I think thirdly is, um, this notion of, um, how do we serve people well outside of just the human agent? Because I think I heard it in the other panel. No one is calling you because they want to. Um, and so how do you serve your customers in a way that they don't have to know that there's three different organizations that do that, you know, uh, define policy, et cetera, et cetera, and they don't have to know your policy in order to get their needs met.
Mia: It has to be in natural language in such a way that, just a simple inquiry in terms of, you know, why did I get this ticket? And [00:18:00] maybe an image that shows that where they parked, they miss that sign. As I have, I do have experience and tickets, um, that they, uh, that, that, that information is readily served up to them in the most, in the most simple way.
Mia: And so often when I've, I used to run an organization that had a, a contact center and often, you know, agents are learning. Bureaucratic language, they're saying bureaucratic language back to the customer and it just, it's a mess. Right? Completely. And so, you know, how do we simplify? Just the way in which we think about serving people who don't know our jobs, don't know our organization, I think is paramount and technology can then enable that, I believe.
Meghan: Great. Great. So Tania, what are some of the biggest challenges you've overcome, and can you share any lessons learned from that, um, in, in your 3 1 1? 
Tenesia: Absolutely. Um, [00:19:00] one of the biggest challenges, uh, we've overcome, and I'll take it back to when we launched. So for the City of Alexandria, we launched our Alex 3 1 1 February of 2020.
Tenesia: That was right into the pandemic. So all of these grain plans we had for how we would roll this out to the public and how we would engage the public completely changed. So all of these thoughts, and I joined the team six months before we launched. So I took it over the edge to launch and we completely had to pivot.
Tenesia: So it taught me, and it taught the center, it taught the city in general how to pivot, how to be different, how do we serve, um, our community in a way that is necessary in the moment and not just what we thought and we came up with. In our offices and in our meetings. But how do we really go in and we engage our community and we feed them the information that they need.
Tenesia: We feed them the services that they need. And for me, that was game changing for how I thought about our [00:20:00] community and how what we thought of today is being the best practice, may not be the best practice in six months. And how do we as a government continue to be nimble? And adapt to what our community is needing.
Tenesia: So that was one of the biggest challenges in mental spaces I had to enter into for, um, for us to try to remain successful for the city. Marcell Us. Oh, 
TANIA: yes. I, I'll, I'll have to go with my colleague on this one too. Uh, you know, as, as everyone imagine the pandemic was a tough time. And so, um, prior to the pandemic, there was no telework option for DC 3 1 1.
TANIA: Absolutely. We weren't having it. Nope, we're not doing it. I could just imagine my call taker, you know, in their pajamas, making coffee saying, Hey, how can I help you today? You got that ticket, let me check it for you. So I was just like, no, no, we're not gonna do it. Uh, but unfortunately the pandemic happened and we had to figure it out.
TANIA: I. Um, uh, in a lot of ways, uh, not [00:21:00] just, you know, acquiring laptops, making sure that our phone system was gonna be able to handle the remote duty. Um, we, we ear found out very quickly that yes, our phone system will work on the laptop in their home space, but it wouldn't record the call. So then it takes away the quality assurance, right?
TANIA: And so then we find out, oh, okay, we, we answer calls for the Department of Motor Vehicles. But we can't access their system remotely. So there were, there were a lot of different things that, um, to, to the point we had to figure out and pivot. And so, um, working with the Department of Motor Vehicles, actually, uh, what we did is in the government is we worked with a lot of different, uh, agencies within the government to kind of figure out what they were doing.
TANIA: Um, we actually work with the Department of Motor Vehicles to where they can figure out how they could have their staff telework and put their staff on the schedule, um, because they just didn't think that it, it could possibly be done, but we figured out a way, uh, to make that happen with a lot of the, uh, great [00:22:00] minds in the room.
TANIA: And so, um, you know, I definitely don't want to take credit for any of that. It, it takes a team, uh, to be able to make. These massive pivots. And so that was, that was a really big challenge. Uh, and, and quickly, I'll say another big challenge, and I, I kind of hinted to it earlier, is, is just making sure that you have those partnerships with your partnering agency, um, here in the district.
TANIA: Um, we, we kind of receive our orders from the mayor through the city administrator's office, um, but also. Our system is the front facing system for the residents. But your d pws, your district's department of Transportation, they have their system that works best for their workforce, right? And so having, trying to figure out that balance of getting those systems to communicate with each other, to get them the resident to that done, that done point in actually getting a response that's helpful for the resident, um, was, was really big and it.
TANIA: It forced us to be able to start having those interactions, building those relationships, uh, with the individual departments rather than working through [00:23:00] another office to force someone's, you know, hand. So, so building relationships was, was a big challenge that we, we've overcome at this point. 
Meghan: Yeah. In many ways, COVID forced that innovation, right.
Meghan: And then force you all to work together. So that's great. That's great. Um, Mia, go ahead, let's. 
Mia: I think we should highlight though prior, uh, long before COVID or a little bit before COVID, we, that's how we met. Um, the GSA Centers of Excellence had a contact center initiative. Um, and USDA was the first, um. Uh, department to take that on.
Mia: And Megan was our, uh, GSA representative and lead for contact centers, um, when Megan's team came in and inventoried how many, what contact centers we had in the department. Do you remember the number I. I think it was over 20. Yeah, it was over 20. And so if you think about as a very large department, right, um, uh, that many entry points, um, into an agency and [00:24:00] how inconsistent the experience was.
Mia: Uh. And how, you know, when we asked our customers how, how did those experiences feel? Um, it was not, um, a good report. Um, and so consolidating those down to a single contact center, um, into what is now, um, ask USDA, um, I think is something to be celebrated when you think about, it used to be 29 staff, uh, staff offices and agencies across USDA, which consolidated down to.
Mia: Eight mission areas and then now this one single contact center. You know, and again, kind of going back to that model of really thinking of how, well, if this is the front door right by which people want to engage, then what is the necessary work that we need to do, um, to be able to integrate. Um, that contact center into, you know, farm service agency or into rural development or into the SNAP program.
Mia: Um, and so, um, and then [00:25:00] seeing those things in real time for leaders to really understand like where is the preponderance of the, um, of, of the questions, where do they arrive, arise from and what, what do we need to do better to better communicate to those communities in terms of the services that we're offering?
Meghan: And a large part of that was the knowledge that was the foundation for everything there. So that was a huge undertaking. And um, I forget, I think there was thousands of articles and now those are constantly being, you know, updated and, um, and it's some, and it, I think it feeds chat, email, and phone now, so, which is great.
Meghan: Yeah. Yeah. Dif did you wanna 
Gundeep: add? Uh, yeah, so, uh, so I, I, I, uh, first of all, I have seen incredible resilience, uh, in our call center, uh, uh, in, in this entire community here was a part of that during COVID, right? Uh, it was nice to ride the elevator with six people today. I remember I couldn't do it, uh, with like footprints and, you know.
Gundeep: Holy breath. Um, but, and I'll give you examples, right? I [00:26:00] mean, uh, uh, the it call centers, we overnight turned on a a, a, not only different call flows, right? But it became like a, a shipping nightmare. Uh, so instead of a walk-in desk that was like a, a Apple genius bar, like now you had like boxes and, and, and people calling you and yelling at you, where's my computer?
Gundeep: I have to start working tomorrow. Right? Or my, I can't connect and VPN and things like that. So suddenly we had to retrain and, and, and, and that's where I think this entire community should be very proud of that. Not only were we able to pull that into. Uh, innovation together, but we were resilient enough to pivot right, and, and become a shipping expert all of a sudden, right?
Gundeep: Uh, in addition to answering the phones, uh, and things of that nature. Um, I do wanna make a point though, uh, there are still, uh, uh, uh, large number of opportunities. Uh, there are enough number of times I still have to call up a place and it says like, Hey, your wait time is 15 minutes. [00:27:00] And then I have to listen to music.
Gundeep: Right. Implement a simple callback option. Right. Okay. I'll call you. You don't have to call me. We'll preserve your place in the, these are innovations that are so easy to implement these days, and yet every other day I'll find a call center that'll not, that'll make me listen to horrible music. Right. So things like that, I, I always encourage and we, we provide, uh, uh, uh, call center services to the government, uh, in, in, in different areas, um, different departments, and we are sometimes trying to push that kind of small, uh, uh, innovation that can have a huge impact on the experience.
Gundeep: So think of it just. Think of it from an experience of a person who's actually on the other side of that phone and make those small innovations. Whether it's having one single door, not having to remember five different, uh uh, but then also integrating and doing the work, like Mia said, right? I mean, it's not like I get to the call [00:28:00] center and then I press three and then I get to another call center That makes me another go through another set of options.
Gundeep: That's not the true integration that our, our experience that people are looking for. Right? So just look at that small innovations that you can bring about that can be hugely impactful for the, uh, improve experience on the other side. Mm-hmm. 
Meghan: You just must have known my next question because from Marcellus and Tia, I'm getting the why.
Meghan: I know, right? Um, so what are some new technology or new approaches that you're considering, um, and exploring, um, to improve your service delivery at the 3 1 1 systems? 
TANIA: Yes. Um, so right now we're working, um, with some new, we we wanted to update our telephony system and so. We're working on some, some new things to be able to pro provide our agent with some guidance, um, on certain questions.
TANIA: I think, uh, it was mentioned in one of your earlier panels, uh, grab, making sure that we capture information of, uh, the caller. You know, they can tell us in the IVR why they're calling. We can make sure they [00:29:00] get to the right agent. We see what time they're calling. So that the next time they call, we don't have to ask for their name again.
TANIA: We don't have to ask for their email. Again, we know, Hey, Mr. Walker, how are you doing today? You know, do you want me to help you with this bulk collection that you put in yesterday? So it'll be able to kind of pull in some of that information, uh, to be able to help make sure that, um, the customer experience, um, is, is fruitful and helpful, uh, for the resident.
Meghan: And Marcellus, uh, what channels do you offer, um, your customers? 
TANIA: Uh, so we're, uh, call, uh, text, uh, we have a app, uh, mobile app and online portal. Um, X or Twitter, whatever, whichever one it is these days. Um, and, um, and email. 
Meghan: Great. Sia,
Tenesia: I will say for the city of Alexandria, we've been a little slower. Um, in this particular area, we are definitely a, what is it? Uh, measure 10 times, cut once, um, organization. So, uh, we're [00:30:00] developing policies around AI and what does that look like for the city. Um, so as we're moving through that, we're finally starting to engage companies, um, and talk about what this experience.
Tenesia: Should look like and feel like. So we are fresh into that particular area. Um, so we haven't really done anything new or fancy, but there is for me, an element of making sure whatever we do it is right for our community. Um, and not just that we're looking at DC or we're looking at, uh, any other contact center in the area, but that there is a community voice behind whatever choices we decide to make.
Meghan: And, but you all, you all share lessons learned through, through each other. Like, so say you're, you're coming up with your AI policy, but you all share with other three one ones in the area too, right? 
TANIA: Yeah. Yeah, I'll definitely add on that. Thank you. Um, so, so yes to, to answer your question, I, um, just recently, um, myself, Alexandra, Baltimore City, um, a couple of other jurisdictions, Fairfax.
TANIA: [00:31:00] We just started having a building, a conversation, prince George's County, Montgomery County, Maryland. We just wanted to, you know, get us all in the room, start having some conversations about what the 3 1 1 space is doing in our region. A lot of times we go to different conferences and, and although I love Texas and California and New York and Chicago, they're usually the big places there.
TANIA: But, but I think we have a powerful region, uh, just in, in this area along where. We're powerful. And so I think, um, yes, we are starting that, uh, mode of communicating, sharing ideas, uh, sharing stories, technologies and things of that nature. And, and I also wanted to, you know, um, highlight since we're, you know, we have a public safety, uh, space, just to throw some 9 1 1 in there.
TANIA: Um, I think one of the good things that we're interested in doing is getting to a place to where we're. Queuing more than 3% of our calls, right? Sometimes as of, you know, over the years we have team leads and supervisors who, who are actually listening in and they're grading the calls, and so [00:32:00] we're trying to figure out a way to where we can get to a hundred percent so that we can really be able to identify.
TANIA: What customer's needs, what our agents are doing, um, are they making sure that they're providing consistent information? Uh, you know, it's a tough goal. I think it's, it's a lofty goal, but I would like to make sure that every time a resident or constituent calls and ask the same question, they get the same answer every time.
TANIA: And so that's really big, and we're especially doing that on the 9 1 1 space as well, to where it'll be able to QA everything and it'll show us everything that we need. The call, the, the screen recording, everything will kind of pull up at once, 
Martha: right? They're like, oh God, here she is. We, we, we feel the disturbance of the forest.
Martha: Sorry. Um, I just have a couple questions and we've got like five minutes. Uh, one of the questions is around has 3 1 1. Um, the people who are providing 3 1 1 implemented any AI or planning on AI deployments. 
TANIA: Yes. So yes, [00:33:00] yes. Uh, that's goes to, uh, what, what I was speaking of earlier about, um, uh, there'll be an agent within their phone, the agent workspace, that'll show, kinda give them some guidance on, uh, based on what that call to caller said in the IVR.
TANIA: Um, they'll say, you know, Hey, I want to, I have a question about bulk collection. It'll kind of show that information to the agent. Right when they get the call, so they don't again, have to ask, you know, how can I help you? So we're using, taking a step by step. Mm-hmm. Um, just to look at as, as a resource for our agents to use.
Martha: Ditto. Efficient. That's what we love. Efficiency. Um, I think today, you know, this, to me, this brought up a, a lot of great examples, but it also brought up a lot of opportunities that we need to take as. Communities of contact centers. I mean, you know, uh, gun deep, you've talked about, uh, some of the metrics that are used, which is a, is a huge issue in terms of getting the most out of contact [00:34:00] centers.
Martha: Contracting for contact centers has been a, a, a, a beef of mind for a long time because if you're contracting with those measures in mind, that doesn't, those two fit together. Right? Yeah. And we can learn so much from agency to agency and from different levels of government. And 3, 1 1 has always been, uh, you know, a good learning.
Martha: Training ground, really. I mean, you know, you can, you guys can move it and pivot fast, so the federal sector can definitely learn from you. So thank you guys for, um, your time today and sharing your knowledge and expert, uh, expertise with us. And, uh, I'm sure you'll have a lot of opportunity here to meet and network and a lot of questions.
Martha: Thank 
Meghan: you. Thank you 
Martha: Uhhuh.