About BernCo
The Bernalillo County Assessor’s Office, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is responsible for valuing all real and personal property in the county for tax purposes. With a commitment to serving taxpayers efficiently, BernCo has embraced innovative solutions to meet the challenges of limited staffing and increasing demands.
BernCo’s Goals
BernCo faced persistent staffing challenges common to government entities. Ken Scott, the Deputy Assessor of Operations, sought a solution that would allow them to serve taxpayers more efficiently while enabling staff to focus on more intricate and demanding tasks. The primary goal was to find an additional touchpoint for customers that could handle routine inquiries, freeing up extra bandwidth for their human staff to deal with more challenging responsibilities.
“I’m really excited about exploring more use cases. We’re looking at creating an internal chatbot for training new staff on our policies, procedures, and methods. We’re also considering a specialized chatbot just for our farmers to help with the complex agricultural valuation process.”
Ken Scott
Deputy Assessor of Operations at BernCo
BernCo’s Approach
BernCo began by implementing a CustomGPT.ai chatbot on their website, focusing initially on the most frequently visited sections. Aaron, their AI Technician, played a crucial role in customizing the chatbot to match BernCo’s specific needs. The team continuously refined the AI’s knowledge base, incorporating county-specific information, tax laws, and procedural details.
As the project progressed, BernCo explored additional use cases, including:
- A paralegal chatbot for assessors across New Mexico
- An internal training tool for new staff members
- A specialized agricultural valuation assistant
BernCo’s Results
The implementation of CustomGPT.ai has yielded significant improvements in BernCo’s operations:
- Enhanced Call Center Efficiency: : Despite longer average call times, the overall efficiency of the call center has improved. This counterintuitive result is explained by the chatbot handling simpler queries, allowing human staff to dedicate more time to complex issues and improving the overall quality of interactions.
- Improved Customer Service: The number of missed calls has decreased, while the total number of calls answered has increased. This indicates that more taxpayers are receiving the assistance they need promptly.
- Staff Empowerment: By offloading routine queries to the AI, staff members can focus on more challenging and rewarding tasks, potentially reducing burnout and improving job satisfaction by permitting more agency to their team.
- Leadership Approval: The county assessor has expressed enthusiasm for the AI tool, frequently praising its accuracy and usefulness.
- Expanded Use Cases: The success of the initial implementation has inspired plans for more specialized AI applications, including internal training tools and agriculture-specific valuation assistants.
The adoption of CustomGPT.ai has positioned BernCo at the forefront of technological innovation in local government, demonstrating how AI can be leveraged to improve public service delivery, operational efficiency, and overall taxpayer satisfaction.
