“Chatbot? What is that? I want to talk to a real person.” This skepticism corresponds to the vision of the most conservative users when faced with the needs of complaints related to daily life and the dilemma of: waiting in line at the customer service office or via WhatsApp from the comfort of Send messages to your home.
As hard as it is to believe, there are still many people who prefer personal treatment, even if it requires a few hours of waiting, time that could well be used for other more profitable, productive, or just plain enjoyable purposes.
How to change this cultural tendency to crowd in front of shop windows? How to install new chips to provide the possibility to solve various situations without leaving home or workplace? The best way is to educate schools through practical experience, which is exactly what the Corrientes municipality decided to do when it launched the “Munibot” system a year ago.
The official WhatsApp chat account implemented by the city government (one of the first in the country to take this step) began spreading through regular channels until it became popular among younger users. Gradually, the old landline lines began to become less congested, digital inquiries increased, and at the time of the first intrusion by citizens, the average level of resolution was high.
From pruning trees to clogged gutters, through mini-garbage dumps, broken streetlights and switched-off traffic lights, everything can be directed through ‘Munibot’, which is nothing more than a simple WhatsApp number (please note: 3794-341768 ) it will become part of any booker’s contact list.
The following is a true story that happened a few months ago in the community of La Ora. Ms. Juana would like to warn that workers at the construction site have started piling rubble at corner X, which adjoins a small square and that the residents of the area are responsible for maintaining the condition of the square so that the children of the neighborhood have somewhere to play. Play.
Juana has a problem: her legs are injured by ulcerative cellulitis and she cannot move more than a few meters around the house. But through the window I could see how what started out as a small pile of broken bricks kept growing, driven by the contagion effect used by unscrupulous people to clear away the filth without the slightest sign of solidarity.
She was already well known among the city delegation as a fighter for just causes, such as the defense of the decoration of streets and especially small squares, and her complaints were always handled with promptness. But in this case I had no choice. He had to use express delivery, for which he called his grandson Rubén, a design student and a favorite of that grandmother, who prepared the best noodles in the world .
A few minutes later, the grandson arrived. He looked at the mountains of garbage and saw his grandmother’s anxiety. “Go, my little son, go to the delegation and show them what you are doing. Let them put up the sign against littering and please take it out,” Juana entrusted him.
Ruben didn’t hesitate. Instead of doing what his grandmother wanted, he would do something better and more efficient. “Grandma, give me your phone.” he asked. She handed it to him with interest. The young man subscribed to the city government’s chat number and showed it to him: “Look, you can tell everything that happens here. You just need to follow the steps the system tells you.”
“What is it, a doll or a person?” Juana asked. “It’s neither of those two things or all at once, it’s a bot, an artificial intelligence system that allows you to register your claim, leave your data, your address and where the problem is,” explained Sun Tzu.
It was difficult at first, but after a few minutes Juana was making progress. He checked the numbers provided by the “Munibot” as options until he successfully completed the previous walk to the community headquarters from the chair. “What now?” he asked. “Now you just have to wait, and if they don’t come, you can hold on, but they will come because it’s better and faster to talk over chat than in person,” Ruben said.
The next day, Juana got up at dawn. It was still dark, but something had changed in the square. As soon as day broke, he saw that the square was completely empty. The corner was clear of debris again, and the woman sighed “Thank God.” Juana, 74, has gone digital and will not descend further into analogue, at least when it comes to complaints.
She was one of more than 63,900 Capital users who went to “Munibot” to express concerns during the service’s first year of operation. Coordinating Secretary “Cuqui” Calvano relishes this achievement and is convinced that “it will continue to grow because people realize that they are achieving positive results.”
The municipal bot received nearly 64,000 requests in its first 12 months of operation, of which 54,000 were resolved in the first consultation and only 5 to 10 percent required further explanation by the consultant. In other cases, as happened in the experience of Doña Juana, this reaction is due to the great advantages of intelligent systems that can transmit orders in real time to the relevant areas, thus reducing management time .