City of Sydney

At a Glance

A virtual customer assistant with natural language understand and processing (NLU/NLP) capability, providing a self-service channel for customers to access around-the-clock support.

Stakeholder workshops and engagement
Identification of appropriate use cases
Conversation and architecture design

Integration with data APIs
Enhanced user interactions.
Improved customer service.

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The challenge

Servicing high effort, high frequency enquiries.

Through a detailed discovery workshop with City of Sydney stakeholders, we were able to generate a long list of enquiry types (use cases) that had the potential to be handled by a virtual chat assistant.

Based on a large amount of council experience, VERSA was able to advise on a selection criteria for identifying suitable use cases from this list. We advised the council to select frequent enquiries that were deemed to be low value and high effort, with the goal of freeing up contact centre resources to handle important customer enquiries.

The solution

An artificial solution with a human touch.

Conversational User Interface (CUI) diagram
Branded conversational design (tone of voice)
Utterance generation based on identified use cases

We approached the design of the solution by first mapping out a detailed interaction diagram. This artefact outlined the ideal experience (happy path) for a customer based on their enquiry, with a conversational flow that included any additional questions, information, or prompts required to satisfy the initial request.

It was important to the council that customers knew that they were chatting with an artificial customer service assistant. This was central to the conversational design of the final solution, and through our expertise, we were able to ensure that the tone of the assistant was engaging and informative yet distinctly artificial.

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A simple interface

An accessible chat interface that caters to a wide demographic
Conversational prompts (chips) to reduce interaction cost for users
Embedded content panels to direct users to useful resources

A sophisticated solution

Development of a custom, conversational AI-led chat solution
Deep integration with the City of Sydney's data tracking APIs
Embedding LivePerson messaging interface within Sitecore CMS

The virtual assistant solution was purposely designed to present itself as a simple and approachable tool, effectively masking the sophisticated CAI technology powering the conversational exchange.

The Results

A win-win for customers and customer service.

Servicing enquiries previously bound for the contact centre
Self-service across venue hiring, council rates, and parking permits
Improving contact centre staff satisfaction

According to Hubspot, 62% of customers would prefer to “hand out parking tickets” than to wait on hold to a customer service department. Through the design and implementation of a sophisticated virtual chat assistant, we were able to provide instant support for customers who would have been previously bound for the contact centre. Through this solution, the council reported improved access to important council information relating to venue hiring, council rates, and parking permits.

With 65% of call centre employees reportedly experiencing burnout — and as an industry with a high attrition rate (30-50% annual staff turnover) — automated self service channels offer a valuable layer of protection from repetitive customer enquiries. Through our conversational AI solution, we were able to identify and service common customer service use cases, diverting traffic away from contact centre staff.