The Var department equips its HR department with an efficient chatbot

When we are contacted to introduce Botnation, we are often asked if there is a noticeable vertical among our customers. Our answer is always the same: Botnation works for all types of companies, projects and communities. In fact, as a comparison, it would be like starting a document in Microsoft Word: you start with a blank page, but the tool offers you all the layout features. It’s the same with Botnation! We offer an interface and a support, you have to be creative 😉

Some chatbots creation platforms focus their services for a sector: the restoration, the insurances, the e-commerce… On our side, we propose the same thing for all! This allows us, for example, to work with large groups (Société Générale), independents (Castex Group) but also Ministries (DREETS) or local authorities like the Var.

We are fortunate to have this wonderful department as a client that has been using Botnation internally since 2019 to provide fast and efficient responses to government agents. Three years later, the chatbot has proven its efficiency and has found a place of choice among the tools of the administration. We gave the mic to Vincent Russo, in charge of the Var departmental council. He told us about the effectiveness of their chatbot and how well it was received by government employees.

➜ Register for Free and launch your Chatbot Easily!

Summary

Introduce yourself and your organization:

Vincent RUSSO, 38 years old, territorial civil servant, in charge of the human resources department of the Var departmental council. The Conseil départemental du Var is a local authority with approximately 5,000 employees.

What were your issues before launching your chatbot?

Some agents who used the Var department’s intranet did not know exactly where to find the information they wanted and sometimes had to ask the HR agents to obtain it. Therefore, a solution had to be found to make it easier to find and obtain the information.

How did you come to the conclusion that a chatbot would meet these needs?

The decision to implement a chatbot was already made when I was involved in the project. I was immediately convinced that a chatbot would provide a sustainable solution to the community’s needs. Indeed, it greatly facilitates the search for various information on the department’s intranet (day and night) and allows HR agents (but not only) to be less solicited by email or telephone. All this contributes to making everyone’s work easier.

Why did you choose the Botnation solution?

I didn’t know Botnation. The department’s Digital Solutions Branch (DSB) made this choice.

How did you build the chatbot? What was the creative process?

The HR worked in collaboration with the DSN, taking into account a very precise schedule. The creation process took several months. The chatbot was officially launched in October 2020. In connection with the DSN, I was in charge of feeding this computer program by listing the most frequently asked HR questions. First, we had to group the questions/answers by theme.

Here are some examples of actions taken by the DSN and the HRD:

DSN actions :

knowledge transfer (use of the chatbot)
creation of tunnels and contexts

HR Actions:

reflection on the content to be implemented
reflection on key words
implementation of the content in the chatbot

It is important to specify that the chatbot is continuously updated because some information must take into account the evolution of the regulations.

Have you been able to measure the first results?

Yes, and the results are quite satisfactory. I must admit that obtaining statistical data is not the easiest thing to do. A DSN agent is responsible for providing the HRD with the figures it wishes to obtain (number of users over a certain period, etc.).

Still, here are some statistics (data as of November 21, 2022):

3236 different users counted on the chatbot;
an annual total of 28572 questions asked to the chatbot, for a total of more than 63240 answers;
only 400 unanswered messages for the whole year, with a peak in January 2022 during the implementation of the RIFSEEP (new compensation scheme).

We do not use sequence-specific tracking, so we do not have more detailed statistics to provide you with.

Would you have some advice for a company that also wants to launch a chatbot?

In my opinion, it is essential to conduct a careful study of the needs of customers/users beforehand. The company or the structure that wishes to set up a chatbot must be able to anticipate the needs/wants of its customers/users in order to offer them the most adapted solutions.

We thank Vincent Russo for his questions and his team for their loyalty to Botnation !