Soon, calls to the Denton County Tax Office will be answered by an intelligent virtual assistant telephone system, but talking to a person will still be an option. Denton County commissioners unanimously approved the $142,631 software purchase during Tuesday’s meeting.
This decision comes after commissioners postponed the purchase in April due to favoring face-to-face interactions rather than a virtual system and questioning how the system will operate.
The call center software will be used to assist the county’s six tax offices — in Denton, Carrollton, Frisco, Flower Mound, Lewisville and Cross Roads — in managing an overload of work, which includes handling property taxes, renewing vehicle registrations and transferring vehicle titles.
According to the county’s report, the contract’s total purchase amount would be $142,631, with $92,631 of that coming from the tax office and $50,000 from tax assessor/collector vehicle inventory tax funds.
Michelle French, the county’s tax assessor/collector, claimed that this will be the first of this type system in the state. The software company, Five9 Inc., describes itself as the leading cloud contact center software provider.
The software will be able to get answers to questions the department would normally ask a caller, send the caller information via text message and directly transfer calls to the correct recipient. The system would also redirect callers to staff members for a live conversation.
According to the county, the intelligent virtual system will also have English and Spanish language support.
Denton County commissioners received more details and information about the system as French and her staff discussed the system before Tuesday’s decision.
County Judge Andy Eads said he approved the purchase based on the clarification that the new system will still allow face-to-face interactions.
“We’re not decreasing the accessibility of the public to be able to engage with a live person,” Eads said. “That’s one of the things we all agreed on.”
Commissioner Dianne Edmondson said she looks forward to how the system will work and additionally congratulated French for hiring 13 employees for the tax office.
Commissioner Bobbie J. Mitchell told French to have a report on the system within three to six months.