Citizen Services Assistant
An AI service desk for municipalities and public institutions that takes citizen requests with photos and location, routes them to departments with a time to resolve, keeps citizens updated, books office appointments and runs events, announcements and surveys.
Overview
Citizen Services Assistant is the service desk of a municipality or public institution on WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat. It works around the clock and answers citizens in their own language, including voice messages.
You choose the kind of institution once (municipality or public institution), and the categories, topics and wording follow it.
Service questions are answered from your approved service guide. Emergencies are never turned into requests: the assistant gives your emergency instructions instead. Whenever a person is needed, it hands over to your team.
Highlights
- Every request, tracked to the end. A citizen reports a broken street lamp, a pothole or overflowing bins. The assistant picks the category, asks for a photo and the location pin when the category needs them, and gives a reference number.
- Nothing waits too long. Each category goes to its department or person with its own time to resolve. Requests past their time are flagged and supervisors are told.
- Citizens hear back. The citizen hears when the work is scheduled, in progress, resolved or rejected, with your note, and is asked for a rating at the end. A low rating creates a callback for your team.
Install and set up
- Install Citizen Services Assistant from Settings › MonoStore › Apps, or open the install link app.monochat.ai/apps/8xKwyysbJPELmwTXs. Without a MonoChat account, the link lets you sign up first and installs the app for you.
- Open the Get started tab on your MonoChat home page and choose Set up your institution, then Set up the institution. The form asks What are you setting up? (Municipality or Public institution; this sets the usual request categories and announcement topics), the name, phone, address, website, How should office appointments be booked? (the office confirms each request, or the assistant books at once while there is room), currency, language of automatic messages, time zone and your office hours for each day. Tick Also load sample data so I can see it full if you want every screen filled with example records. Click Save and continue.
- Open the app in the left menu (City for a municipality, Office for a public institution). Check your Categories and Districts, add your Offices and Services, and paste your Service guide. Look through Requests and SLA, Appointments and events, Automatic messages, How it talks and Handover too.
- Click the green power button (Turn on) in the app header. The Turn the assistant on drawer lists what is still missing and what will start; switch Assistant answers citizens on and confirm. The badge next to the title changes from Off to On. Only someone who can manage automations in the workspace sees the power button and can turn the assistant on or off.
- Choose Try it on your own phone on the Get started tab and message your own number the way a citizen would: report a problem with a photo and your location, ask what a service needs or book an appointment.
- Nothing goes out in quiet hours or to anyone who said stop.
- This app is for public services. It is not for political parties, candidates or election campaigns, which WhatsApp does not allow.
Screen by screen
The app lives under City in the left menu (Office if you chose a public institution). The screenshots below show the sample data, a municipality called Riverside Municipality with five districts.
Get started and the setup form
The Set up your institution card on the Get started tab opens the setup form. Choose Municipality (street lighting, roads, waste, water, parks, with districts) or Public institution (complaints, information and document requests at a service desk) to continue; the name field then reads Name of the municipality or Name of the institution.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name, Phone, Address, Website | What the assistant tells citizens about you. The name is required. |
| How should office appointments be booked? | Appointment requests: the office confirms each one, or Instant: the assistant books at once while there is room. |
| Currency (e.g. EUR, TRY, AED) | Optional. Used where fees are shown. |
| Language of automatic messages | The language of the WhatsApp templates and automatic messages. |
| Time zone | The zone your hours are read in. |
| Office hours per day | A switch and Opens/Closes for each day. Outside these hours the assistant takes a message. They also become the hours of your first office. |
| Also load sample data so I can see it full | Fills every screen with example records. |
Today
Today collects what needs attention now. The chips at the top switch between New requests, Past its time, Low ratings, Appointments, Events this week and Messages, each with its count. A request row shows its reference (for example R-SDADE), the category, the status, the citizen, the district and what happened, and Past its time when it is late. The button at the end of a row assigns the request; appointments can be confirmed or declined from here too.
The app header has a + button for a new request, a calendar button for a new appointment, the Off/On badge and the power button.
Requests
Every citizen request, from the assistant or added by your team with New request. Filter by Open, New, Past its time, Scheduled, Resolved, Closed and Rejected, or search. Each row shows the reference, category, status (Received, Assigned, Scheduled, In progress, Resolved, Closed, Rejected) and the description, and on the right the district, address, assigned person, scheduled date, how far it is past its time or how long is left (Due in 3 h) and the number of photos. Click a row to open the request drawer.
Appointments
Office appointments booked in the chat or by your team with New appointment. The tabs are Requests (waiting for the office to confirm), Upcoming, Past and Closed. A row shows the date and time, the service, the office, the citizen with phone and appointment code, and their note. Use the tick to confirm and the cross to decline: the citizen is told either way. The pencil opens the appointment, where you can move it, cancel it, add a note and mark it done or a no-show.
Events
Events and courses the assistant offers and takes registrations for. Filter by Upcoming, Past and Cancelled; New event adds one. A row shows the date and time, the title, the kind (Event or Course), the place and address, and on the right how many are registered against the places, how many are waiting and whether registration is open.
In the event you set the title, kind, date and time (and an end date for a course over several days), place, address and map link, places (0 for no limit), fee, what to bring, a photo link and a reminder. The registrations list shows everyone registered and on the waitlist; you can add someone who called or came in, and when a place frees up the first person on the waitlist gets it. Cancel event tells everyone registered or waiting.
Announcements
Announcements by topic and district to people who subscribed. Filter by Drafts, Sending, Sent and Stopped; New announcement starts a draft. A row shows the title, topic, districts and the message.
In the announcement you write a title for the team and the WhatsApp text, and choose the topics and districts (empty means every topic or district). The form counts how many subscribers will get it. Send now fixes the list and sends a few dozen at a time, outside quiet hours; outside the 24-hour window the text goes with the announcement WhatsApp template. Stop halts the rest. Who got it shows the delivery for each subscriber.
Subscribers
Citizens who asked for announcements. Filter by Active and Stopped. A row shows the name and phone, their topics and districts, since when, and how they subscribed (In the chat, Added by the team or Imported). Add someone with New subscriber only when they asked for announcements. A subscriber can stop at any time and then gets nothing.
Surveys
Consultation surveys for subscribers. Filter by Drafts, Sending, Sent and Closed / Stopped; New survey starts one. Until Consultation surveys is switched on under Automatic messages, the list shows Surveys are not sent yet at the top and nothing goes out.
A survey has a title, an intro and up to five questions, each a Rating (buttons Great / Okay / Not happy), a Choice (2 or 3 options) or Text (the citizen answers in a few words). Choose the topics and districts of the subscribers who get it. Start sends the invitations a few dozen at a time, and the results are shown per question.
Citizens
Everyone who wrote on WhatsApp, Instagram or your website chat, plus people you add with New citizen. Filter by All, Subscribers and Opted out. A row shows the name, phone, district, language and where they came from, and how many open requests they have.
The citizen card holds the name, phone, email, district, language code, where they came from, notes, and lists their requests, upcoming appointments, event registrations and subscription. From there you can open a new request or appointment for them.
Messages taken
When the assistant cannot help a citizen, someone wants a call back or a request is past its time, it is written down here. Filter by Open, Callbacks, Time alerts and Done; New note adds one yourself. Each row has a badge (Past its time, Call back or Message), the citizen, who it is for and whether it is urgent. Mark it done with the tick or open the related request.
Categories
What citizens can report. Each row shows the name and department, the time to resolve and whether a photo or location is required. Filter by Active and Inactive; New category adds one.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name and Department | The category and the department that handles it. |
| Description and Keywords | What belongs here and words citizens may use. The assistant uses them to choose the category. |
| Time to resolve (hours) | Its own time. Empty uses the default under Requests and SLA. |
| Gets new requests | The person who gets each new request in this category. |
| Photo and Location | Required (the assistant asks and the request waits for it), Optional (it offers) or Not asked. |
| Active | The assistant offers only active categories. |
Districts
Your districts with their neighbourhoods and streets, so requests find their district. Each district has a name and a comma-separated list of Neighbourhoods and streets: an address that names one of them belongs to this district. Only active districts are guessed and offered.
Offices
The offices where citizens can book an appointment. A row shows the name, address and phone, and on the right the opening days, how often an appointment can start and how many places there are per time. In the office you set the name, address, phone, map link, Opening hours for appointments per day, Minutes per time and Places per time (how many citizens can come at the same time).
Services
The services citizens come to the offices for. A row shows the name, which offices offer it, the fee, and whether it can be booked and how many documents to bring. In the service you set the description, Keywords, Offices (none chosen means every office), Fee as citizens should read it, Documents to bring (one per line), a Form link, Minutes per visit and Bookable. A service that is not bookable is explained and offered by the assistant, without an appointment.
Topics
What citizens can subscribe to for announcements. Each topic has a name, a description of what subscribers get, and a short key. Filter by Active and Inactive; New topic adds one.
Your institution
What the assistant tells citizens about the institution itself; it never says anything about the institution that is not here or on the other tabs. The fields are Kind of institution, Name of the institution, Phone, About the institution (one or two sentences), Address, Map link, Website, Instagram, Currency, Time zone, Language of automatic messages and the office hours per day. Further down are Closed on (holidays) (one date per line), In an emergency (what the assistant says instead of opening a request when something is an emergency) and Rules and policies.
Service guide
What the assistant may say about services, documents and procedures. It answers from this text and the offices and services lists, and says it does not know rather than guess. Paste your approved guide into Service guide (plain text, headings on their own line) and add Questions and answers as pairs: a line starting with Q: and the next line starting with A:.
Requests and SLA
How requests are handled after the assistant opens them (the screen title is Requests).
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Default time to resolve (hours) | Used for categories without their own time. 72 hours = 3 days. |
| Supervisors | They get a note when a request is past its time, once per request. Empty: nobody is told. |
| Ask for a rating after (hours) | How long after a request is resolved the citizen is asked for a rating. 0 = straight away. |
| Close without a rating after (days) | A resolved request the citizen did not rate closes by itself. |
| Call back on Okay | A Not happy rating always creates a callback note for the team. With this on, an Okay rating does too. |
Appointments and events
What the assistant may do besides taking requests.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Appointments | The assistant books appointments at an office for services that can be booked, from the office hours and free times. |
| How should they be booked? | The assistant takes a request; the office confirms it, or The assistant books at once while there is room. |
| Notice needed (hours) | The earliest an appointment can start, from now. |
| Bookable ahead (days) | How far ahead citizens can book. |
| Events and courses | The assistant lists upcoming events and courses, registers citizens and puts them on the waitlist when an event is full. |
| Subscriptions | Citizens can subscribe to announcement topics for their district and stop at any time. |
Automatic messages
Messages sent by the institution without the assistant. Nothing goes out while the assistant is off, to people who opted out, to sample data, or during quiet hours (time-to-resolve alerts stay inside the team and ignore quiet hours). Each has its own switch:
| Message | What it does |
|---|---|
| Request updates | Tells the citizen their request code when it is opened, and when it is scheduled, in progress, resolved or rejected. |
| Time-to-resolve alerts | A note to the supervisors when a request is past its time. Nothing goes to the citizen. |
| Rating after resolving | Great / Okay / Not happy a while after a request is resolved. A low rating creates a callback note. |
| Appointment confirmations | When the office confirms or declines an appointment request, with the address and what to bring. |
| Appointment reminders | The evening before, with I will be there / Change / Cancel. A tap is answered straight away and the office is told. |
| After the appointment | A few hours later: how was it? A Not happy answer creates a callback note. |
| Event messages | Registration confirmations, places freed from the waitlist, cancelled events and a reminder before each event. |
| Consultation surveys | Lets you send surveys to subscribers. Sent as a marketing template: off by default, never to people who opted out. |
Below the switches are Evening reminders at, After-appointment message (hours later), Quiet from and Quiet until. Further down, the WhatsApp templates list shows each template’s state; Submit missing templates writes and submits them on your number in the language of automatic messages.
How it talks
What the assistant does is fixed; how it sounds is yours, and it takes effect on the very next message. Set What it calls itself (empty: it answers for the institution without a name), Tone, How it addresses citizens (formally or casually), Emojis, Answer length, Fallback language (used only when it cannot tell the citizen’s language) and Anything else it should know. It never talks about politics and cannot be told to invent facts.
Handover
The assistant hands a conversation over to the office when a citizen asks for a person, when they are unhappy, or when it has no answer on file. Choose Who picks it up (a team or one person), the hours with Opens at and Closes at, Which days (every day or weekdays only) and the Time zone. Outside these hours it takes a message instead.
Sample data
Fills the desk with Riverside Municipality: request categories and five districts, requests in every status, offices with services and appointments, events with registrations (one full with a waitlist), topics with subscribers, announcements, surveys and messages taken. Sample citizens are never messaged, and you can try the assistant on your own number against the sample offices, services and events. Load again reloads it; Remove sample data removes every sample row and leaves your real records alone.
The request drawer
Click a request to open it. The top shows the citizen and phone, category, department, status and assignee, district, address with Open the map, the description, the photos, the time to resolve (in red when past its time) and who received it.
- Status, Scheduled for (when the status is Scheduled), Note (for the team), Resolution note (told to the citizen) and Reason (when rejected, told to the citizen), then Change the status. Scheduled, In progress, Resolved and Rejected are told to the citizen by the automatic messages.
- Assigned to and Assign. A received request moves to Assigned.
- Further down: the category, district, what happened, address and Internal notes to edit, a photo link to add (for example one the citizen sent by email), the rating once given, and the history.
Turn the assistant on
The power button in the header opens this drawer. It lists what is still missing: the name and kind of institution, office hours, at least one request category, an office with hours when appointments are on, and a service guide or questions and answers (recommended). Sample records do not count. Below is the Assistant answers citizens switch and what starts with it; anything still off (such as consultation surveys) is named. While sample data is loaded, a warning reminds you to remove it before real citizens write.
Report
Reports › Citizen services sums up the last 7, 30 or 90 days; tick Include sample data to count the sample records. Citizen requests shows new, resolved, the average time to resolve, the share resolved in time, open now and rejected; Ratings shows Great, Okay and Not happy; bars break requests down By category, By district and By status. Further down are appointments (booked, came, no-show, cancelled, satisfied) by office and service, events and courses, subscribers and announcements, surveys, and what the assistant and the team handled.
Features
Service questions
Answered from your approved service guide: which documents to bring, fees, forms and which office to go to.
Office appointments
Free times per office and service, booked in the chat, with a reminder the day before and a short satisfaction question after the visit.
Events and courses
Sent as cards with capacity, fees and documents to bring. Registration in one tap, with a waiting list when full; when a place frees up, the next person is moved up and told.
Announcements by topic and district
Citizens subscribe by topic (roadworks, water cuts, events…) and district, only with their consent. Announcements go out a little at a time, with delivery counts.
Consultation surveys
Up to five questions (rating, choice or written answer) for subscribers, answered right in the chat, with results per question. Off until you turn them on.
Reports
Over 7, 30 or 90 days: requests by category, district and status, time to resolve and the share resolved in time, ratings, appointments, events, subscribers, announcements and surveys, and what the assistant and the team handled.
Screenshots
Citizen Services Assistant taking a street lighting report with the location and giving a reference number
Requests list across departments with status, district and time to resolve
A request with the citizen, category, map link, photo and status change
An office appointment with the documents to bring and a reminder the day before
A consultation survey answered in the chat, with results per question
Citizen requests report by category, district, status and time to resolveFAQ
Which institutions is it for?
Municipalities and public institutions. You choose the kind of institution once, and the categories, topics and wording follow it.
How are citizen requests handled?
The assistant picks the category, asks for a photo and the location pin when the category needs them, and gives a reference number. Each category goes to its department with its own time to resolve, and requests past their time are flagged to supervisors.
Do citizens hear what happens to their request?
Yes. They hear when the work is scheduled, in progress, resolved or rejected, with your note, and are asked for a rating at the end. A low rating creates a callback for your team.
What happens with emergencies?
Emergencies are never turned into requests. The assistant gives your emergency instructions instead, and hands over to your team whenever a person is needed.
Can it be used for election campaigns?
No. This app is for public services. It is not for political parties, candidates or election campaigns, which WhatsApp does not allow.
Which channels and languages does it support?
WhatsApp, Instagram and web chat, around the clock, in the citizen’s own language, including voice messages.