1823 wins Ombudsman's Award for Public Organisations and several customer service awards (with photos)
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The Ombudsman's awards affirm that 1823 has handled complaints conscientiously, and clearly explained the causes of the issues concerned and provided detailed case records in response to the Ombudsman's inquiries. In cases where the investigations target other departments, 1823 still actively renders assistance by providing data and insights to help the Ombudsman fully understand the details of the case.
Separately, 1823 also received the Silver Award for Best Customer Centre in Technology Application and the Bronze Award for Best Customer Centre in Digital Transformation at the 24th Hong Kong Customer Contact Association Awards Ceremony held on November 3. These two awards are a testament to the achievements of 1823 in applying innovation and technology over the years to provide quality services to members of the public.
Since its inception, 1823 has been committed to providing one-stop services to the public. In addition to answering public enquiries for participating departments, 1823 handles public complaints about any area of government services and actively follows up on the progress of departments' responses. For complaints that may involve multiple departments, 1823 will liaise with the relevant departments to ensure that the complaint is handled properly and promptly. During the fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic last year, which brought unprecedented challenges to 1823, there has been a huge surge in public enquiries on the Government's anti-epidemic measures and services, with many 1823 colleagues being infected or required to be quarantined at home at the same time. This being so, through flexible arrangements and active application of innovative technologies, 1823 had taken a host of contingency measures so that it could not only maintain its original services, but also manage to answer additional anti-epidemic hotlines.
Looking ahead, 1823 will keep improving service quality and efficiency through the application of innovative technologies. In his Policy Address delivered last month, the Chief Executive stated that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will press ahead with the digitalisation of government services, including the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot services in the 1823 enquiry service to further improve service quality and efficiency. The other artificial intelligence projects being pursued by 1823 include:
- use of generative artificial intelligence technology to assist in drafting responses to public written enquiries, followed by further checking by staff before making replies;
- applying AI speech-to-text solutions to convert voicemail messages from the public into text so that 1823 staff can handle public enquiries and complaints more efficiently and effectively; and
- upgrading of the telephony system to allow citizens to use voice input options when calling 1823, and the use of speech recognition technology to identify the caller's enquiry subjects to provide relevant information by phone and distribute textual information via SMS.
The scope of 1823 service covers most citizens' daily livelihood issues. Apart from calling 1823, members of the public can contact 1823 through a variety of channels, for example:
Ends/Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Issued at HKT 17:22
Issued at HKT 17:22
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