Albuquerque, NM Integrating Alexa to Expand 311 Services
The City integrated Amazon Alexa into its 311 service to expedite non-emergency requests and answer frequently asked questions.
Newsworthy
City of Albuquerque hires Alexa to help with service requests from residents | ZDNet
The city of Albuquerque's use of Alexa, which is integrated into its 311 system, earned it a prestigious award, but more importantly, improved its efforts to serve the city's residents.
City of Albuquerque hires Alexa to help with service requests from residents | ZDNet
City of Albuquerque Wins National Innovation Award for 311 Alexa Skill Integration Making Government More Accessible — City of Albuquerque
Residents can use Amazon Alexa to access 311’s range of services.
City of Albuquerque Wins National Innovation Award for 311 Alexa Skill Integration Making Government More Accessible — City of Albuquerque
Highlights
The City of Albuquerque's 311 service introduced Amazon Alexa functionality on April 18, 2018.
The ABQ311 skill on Amazon is used to answer questions about city services or request city services but does not handle emergency service requests.
Albuquerque won a 2018 Government Experience Innovation Award from the Center for Digital Government for ABQ311.
Albuquerque is the first U.S. city to use an Alexa skill for service requests.
This innovation emerged from a partnership between the City and Oracle, which provides 311 software to clients.
Summary
The City of Albuquerque began offering 311 services to residents through an Amazon Alexa skill on April 18, 2018. The $ ABQ311 skill$ is designed to handle basic service requests and questions, thus allowing 311 staff to resolve more pressing issues from residents.
By adding ABQ311 to an Alexa-enabled device, a resident can say "Alexa, open Albuquerque 311" and request information about city facilities including parks, museums, and public pools.
The skill also allows residents to request large-item pickups and report graffiti, litter, abandoned vehicles or missed trash pickup. ABQ311 does not handle emergency service requests. This feature joins a roster of 311 engagement tools including the department's phone, website, mobile application, and Twitter.
Digital engagement specialist Matthew Maez told the newspaper that the city and Amazon only gather aggregate data from requests in response to questions about data privacy.
ABQ311 and other engagement initiatives were part of the city's IT plan initiated in 2013. The FY2014 IT Plan placed a premium on mobile engagement strategies including applications that would place services within reach of all residents.
Albuquerque received a 2018 Government Experience Innovation Award from the Center for Digital Government for ABQ311. The city was given second place behind Los Angeles in the 2017 Digitial Cities Survey by the same organization. The 2017 recognition was credited to the city's MyABQ application, the ABQPolice application, and the city's Real-Time Crime Center.