Technology-enabled hotline raises citizens' sense of happiness

Beijing has taken the city's 12345 citizen service hotline as a vital platform to upgrade and modernize its governance system empowered by new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

"Since the implementation of the reform titled 'swift response to public complaints' in 2019, the capital has resolved a batch of urgent and difficult issues concerning the public," said Shen Binhua, director of the Beijing Administration of Government Services and Data Management.

Shen said that over the past six years, the resolution rate of complaints had increased from 53 percent to 97 percent, enhancing the sense of gain, happiness, and security among the public.

He also stated that in response to prominent issues raised by citizens and high-frequency common issues requiring coordinated reform and innovation measures, Beijing initiated a special governance project called "one topic per month" in 2021.

Over the past four years, the city has launched over 400 policies, addressing more than 60 issues and completing over 1,800 tasks under the "one topic per month" project.

The "one topic per month "project has effectively mobilized the active participation of various parties such as citizens and enterprises in problem-solving, forming a governance pattern of joint construction, governance, and sharing, Shen added.

In the coming year, Beijing will address 13 issues under the project, including social security for workers in new employment, quality supervision of new residential areas, optimization of medical services, traffic safety management for electric bicycles, and development of the collective rural economy.

Data show that from January to September, Beijing's 12345 hotline has handled 17.15 million calls from the public.

"The 12345 hotline receives an average of over 70,000 calls per day. To ensure that operators handle calls quickly and accurately, we have launched an intelligent seat assistant system integrating intelligent knowledge follow-up, transcription, and form filling functions," said Du Xianfa, deputy director of the information and publicity department of the Beijing Government Service Center.

Du noted that there are 1,710 operators handling calls through the center's application of smart techniques such as analyzing intention and standardizing address information.

The upgrade of intelligent services is also reflected in follow-up visits, he said.

This year, the hotline center piloted an intelligent callback robot, which conducts follow-up visits with citizens based on preset tasks regarding response rates, resolution rates, and satisfaction rates.

To date, the 12345 citizen hotline has accumulated records of 147 million public demands, data of over 3 million corporate entities, and information on over 7,000 community sites.

Meanwhile, to tackle complaints immediately, Beijing has integrated a total of 64 hotline resources across the city, connecting 16 districts, 343 streets and towns, departments, public service enterprises, e-commerce platforms, and others to the 12345 hotline platform.

Liu Huan, an employee who has worked at the Beijing Government Service Center for over 10 years, said that to accurately redirect public demands to the relevant functional departments, the center has continued to optimize its system.

For example, based on standardized templates and data digitization, the center has established and improved a three-level directory and over 2,500 work order classifications.

Liu stated that she receives an average of 80-100 calls per day, encountering various issues from citizens. Some of these issues may seem minor from the perspective of those not directly involved, but when answering the calls and sensing the emotions conveyed by the citizens, even small matters become significant.

"For our work, understanding the emotions of the citizens calling is crucial. As operators, when answering calls, we have a lot to do — we need to listen carefully, take notes, respond to demands, calm emotions, and keep up with their thought process," said Liu. In her view, this is not only about improving communication efficiency, but also conveying the warmth and attention of the city.

wangjinhui@chinadaily.com.cn