Community is invited to help train the customer service tool, integrated into the Town website.
Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to provide quality customer service, the Town of Danville has launched Auggie Answers, an AI-powered chatbot service available on the Town’s website. Auggie Answers is named after the Town mascot, and the community is invited to help test the chatbot during the initial launch period.
Chatbots provide more personalized answers than traditional website searches, and advances in AI have brought improvements that make results more user-friendly. The Auggie Answers chatbot is powered by Frase and offered through the Town’s website provider, CivicPlus. The Town manages more than 600 pages through its website, so a traditional search can sometimes return a bulk of results.
For example, searching for the term “budget” may return the budget webpage plus every other page that mentions the term. An AI-powered chatbot can understand plainly written questions and return targeted answers. So asking “What is the Town budget?” returns only the current budget information.
To ensure a high level of accuracy and customer service, a team of Town staff review questions asked and “train” the chatbot to direct to correct answers. For example, if asked “Does Danville have a pool?” that answer may be “no” based on website information, but staff can train the software to assume people are asking about aquatics programs and drop-in swimming, and answer accordingly.
“People are looking for answers 24/7, so over time, we hope that the Auggie Answers chatbot can help our community get answers when they are needed,” said Jenn Starnes, the Town’s Communications and Economic Development Manager. “Being able to provide customer service in a way that works for residents is critical – and while that will always include the option of picking up the phone and talking to a human, we also want to be able to provide answers outside of traditional office hours.”
As the community uses Auggie Answers to find information, they can rate the quality of the answer provided, which flags the answer for training by staff. To use the Auggie Answers chatbot, visit www.danville.ca.gov and look for the Auggie Answers icon on the right-hand side of the page.