Chatbot provides Clarity in the Jungle of Forms

The Department of Justice and Security (JSD) of the Canton of Basel-Stadt comprises many different offices and departments. They are responsible for diverse areas of responsibility, such as the administration of population services, the cantonal police, migration, rescue, and many more. Due to the high density of information on the JSD website, it was difficult for many people to find the right documents in their search and to submit them correctly filled out.

We decided to use a chatbot as an efficient digitization tool to handle frequent, repetitive questions in an automated way. This frees up more time for tasks that affect our business the most.

In a PIDAS workshop, suitable use cases were developed together with the JSD, in which chatbots can provide great support for all parties involved. This resulted in two exciting use cases: On the one hand, a chatbot was first introduced to provide support in the area of register extracts of the civil registry office (Chatbot of the Zivilstandsamt) This chatbot clarifies the responsibilities for the customers' concerns and then takes them to the correct form. In addition, the chatbot offers assistance in filling out the documents.

The second use case is a chatbot for the C examinations of the migration office (Chatbot of the Migrationsamt). This supports users with questions about the entire process by answering the most frequently asked questions, accepting inquiries about the processing status in a structured manner, and forwarding them to the right place. As a result, users quickly receive an answer to their concerns and the volume of inquiries is noticeably reduced. Both areas of application for the chatbot optimally complement the existing self-service offering.

Wassilis Karanatsios is already pleased with the first successes:

The fact that we can deliver results for our customers in the form of functioning bots within a few weeks excites me!

The chatbot also supports the canton police. In a third use case, the digital friend and helper advises customers on inquiries, takes contact data or forwards the clients to the appropriate forms. The assistance of the digital helper and the expansion of the chatbot spectrum to several areas of the JSD have significantly relieved the customer advisors.

Due to the positive response to the new chatbot channel, there are already plans for further development for other areas of application. Currently, the JSD is working on further use cases for other departments and offices. In addition, the possibilities of email automation are being reviewed in order to further increase the efficiency of the processes.