Artificial intelligence combined with a special knowledge database is intended to simplify and improve customer communication at the municipal utility company,
Faster and better automated responses to frequent customer questions, thus gaining more time for customer conversations: This is the goal of a joint project of the Trianel Digital Lab, Stadtwerke Herne, the IT service provider "LoyJoy GmbH" and other partners. In particular, the possibilities of the chatbot "ChatGPT", an AI-based program that the US software developer "Open AI" made available to the public in the fall of 2022, are to be a focus of the project.
"As the number of customer inquiries via the websites of municipal utilities is constantly increasing, intelligent chatbot functions enable standard inquiries to be answered immediately, thus creating more time for customer advisors to deal with customers' individual and more consultation-intensive concerns," explains Philipp Stephan, head of the Trianel Digital Lab. The biggest challenge is the "not always error-free answers" that ChatGPT generates.
In order to overcome this problem, a knowledge database was developed in cooperation with other municipal utilities, in which relevant topics such as technical inquiries or frequently asked questions about billing are mapped. Access to this database makes relevant content from work instructions, training documents or FAQs accessible to the chatbot, enabling it to generate logical and correct answers to customer queries.
"One advantage of ChatGPT is that this technology can also be used to respond quickly to current inquiries due to changes in legislation or daily events," Stephan said. He also sees great potential in the chatbot's ability to communicate with customers in different languages.
Perspectively, the project partners want to make the compiled knowledge database usable for other partners of the Trianel Digital Lab in order to enable a constant optimization of the municipal utility customer service.
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