The email arrived in early January 2021 from our teammates at Orleans Parish Communication District, an amazing group of people who manage the 911 and 311 call center and customer services for the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish. The email said that the city’s Mayor, LaToya Cantrell, decided to name their Citibot system “Jazz.”  (And the Citibot Team did our own version of a Jazz dance!)

You see, local governments only get so many bites at the apple of branding themselves as the resident-facing, resident caring organizations that they are. So much of what they do are meat and potatoes work that goes unseen and unheard, yet so much of what they do impacts our lives in so many important ways, like

1. Keeping us safe and healthy

2. Making our streetscapes beautiful and clean,

3. Providing affordable places to live, and

4. Creating the public realm in perpetuity for us so that we can gather together as one community.

Yet, we the people don’t always see that because our experiences with dealing with government don’t always go that well. It’s hard to find information or talk to the right person to help you. It’s intimidating at times. Grueling Federal and State government experiences color our experiences with local government because “government is government.” In the case of local government, it was not until recently that more of them are asking the question,

“What is the customer experience in dealing with us and how can we make that journey easier and more accessible to all residents?”

Many in local government have made the incorrect assumption that their residents should know what department does what; planning does this, public works does this, parks and recreation does that, and code enforcement does all these other things. The reality is that the average resident simply does not know, nor should they.

It’s confusing, intimidating, and time-consuming.

The City of New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Orleans Parish Communication District, and NOLA-311 get it! The leadership of OPCD under Executive Director Tyrell Morris, Chief of Staff Domonique Curry, and Director of 311 Operations Erica Hayes understand the importance of the customer journey, what excellence in customer service truly is, and what it means to, in their words, #SHOWUP each and every day.

And that’s what makes Jazz so exciting! Jazz is the Citibot Chat Platform that enables residents of the Big Easy to access customer service 24/7 through our interactive Text Chat and Web Chat on various local government websites. With Jazz, residents can ask questions and receive answers, submit service requests such as potholes or missed trash pickup, and they can send in personalized messages that are escalated to NOLA-311 staff.

Jazz is powered by Citibot’s AI technology, which means that it is always there for New Orleanians and is as easy as texting “Hello” to 311YES (311937) or by clicking on the chat icon in the lower right corner of the NOLA-311 website to start a conversation. Citibot’s Tech Team integrated JAZZ into the 311 CRM system, Quickbase, so customer service requests populate into the system and are automatically routed to the appropriate department.

Jazz is accessible to all residents because 97% of US adults now text, and while many still do not have internet in their homes to access the web, they have a mobile phone and can text.  

And JAZZ IS NEW ORLEANS! Mayor Cantrell could not have picked a better name to further brand the city and the parish as a more customer-focused government.

The Citibot Team is so honored to work with this incredible group of local gov leaders. We serve them so that they can serve all residents. As of today, New Orleans is the first U.S. city to have a fully automated and integrated SMS and Web Chat system for its 311 center.

Thank you, OPCD!

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