The city of North Charleston is South Carolina’s third largest city with a population of 115,000 that grows up to 275,000 people during the day. Responsible for a multitude of city services from trash pickup to street lights repair, North Charleston wanted to be at the forefront of new technology. They turned to Citibot as their solution to streamline government communications and increase citizen engagement and service delivery efficiency.

Seeking an easy to use citizen reporting solution, the city of North Charleston selected Citibot to provide an integrated text messaging system to discover and address common issues that citizens encounter and report regularly to city hall. Issues like pot holes in roads or missed trash service, but also to discover events happening in the area or ask questions about projects that city has underway. With Citibot, residents can send questions to the city via text message and receive immediate answers. There is no app to download or update. Citibot is always ready to respond.

During the first six months since implementation, the city of North Charleston has doubled the number of residents engaging with the city, fixed more reported issues in the community, and done so with increased efficiency. That’s because Citibot integrates with a local government’s back-end work order system. When a resident reports an issue, Citibot not only responds but also starts the process to send a crew to fix the issue. It is seamless and automated.

Data provided by North Charleston cited Citibot’s impact during the first six months alone:

• 112 percent more efficient in fixing issues like broken street lights

• Fixed 195 percent more street lights and traffic lights

• Repaired or replaced 114 percent more trash cans

• Filled 76 percent more potholes

• Fixed 114 percent more street signs

Now, two years in, North Charleston reports residents use the Citibot text messaging service to communicate with the city more than any other communication service offered.

North Charleston’s Public Relations and Economic Development Coordinator, Ryan Johnson, explains, “We receive more issues reported to the city through Citibot than through our traditional forms. It’s easy for residents to use, they know the number by heart, and they can report things quickly.”

More importantly, citizens have learned that it is a service they can trust. “Once they report an issue, the resident knows the city is going to respond and the issue will get fixed.”

“Because of Citibot,” Johnson continues, “North Charleston can now better serve its community more rapidly and more efficiently, which benefits the entire community. I believe if other cities and towns explore Citibot, they will find it is a valuable service and it pays for itself.”

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Hear directly from Ryan Johnson on how Citibot transformed citizen engagement in North Charleston.

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