Leveraging Technology to Address Business Challenges

I have to admit that Diversified Technology suffered some growing pains in 2024. We had several support people, who had all become very good at their jobs, leave within a few months of each other. And honestly, finding good people is becoming harder for us. I know you are facing the same workforce issues we are. As the workforce evolves through the generations, we face new and different challenges in hiring and training team members.

So last year, I decided we need to leverage technology to reduce the amount of time it takes a new support person to reach Level One Certification. (We have 3 levels of certification). We began implementing a new Learning Management System to train new operators on our software and services. And we are beginning to see some good results. Good news for you, this same Learning Management System is available for you and your employees, both new and old. If they go through the online video training and pass all the quizzes, they too can earn a Level One Certification. This certificate will give you peace of mind that your employees are properly trained on the system, for little or no cost to you.

To further cut training time, we have begun testing new Artificial Intelligence agents in our internal support system. This tool is being “trained and tested” right now and will become an online chat box for your direct access later this year. It will give you access to the same AI agent that our employees will be using to troubleshoot problems and answer simple questions quickly and on demand.

To further streamline our customer service, we are integrating our IP Phone system with our Client Care System and Billing Systems to find matches in our databases to the caller ID presented. With this link, the appropriate customer screen will come up as our support people are answering the phone. Better tracking, better reporting, less effort. And yes, we will make this phone link option available to you as well to automate and improve your customer service as well.

The Citizen Action Center has been rolled out to several clients and the online payment system has been updated to give customers more information and more options for paying their bills, including autopay features. This year we will continue to build out the Citizen Action Center with more functionality. We are updating the current Integrated Voice Response System (IVR, the automated phone system for payments) with a new system that also facilitates outgoing phone calls – an Auto dialer for rapid response calls, shut off calls and important notifications to customers and citizens. We are also expanding the use of our Smart Forms to streamline real estate transfers as well as permits and licenses.

In order to help educate and motivate your customers adaption of the CAC, we are offering a one-page bill stuffer, posters for the office and other public places, as well as direct mail options. Call us to discuss the options and costs.

And, we are returning to pre-COVID regional workshops and customer visits this year and increasing the number of industry conferences we attend in an effort to get some personal face time with you and your colleagues. We look forward to an exciting year of new developments and challenges and look forward to seeing you in person this year.