When residents call Wyandotte County for help, they want answers — fast, clear, and accurate. But with just five people fielding more than 70,000 calls a year, even the most dedicated staff can only do so much.
So when Crystal Sprague, director of innovation and performance for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas, saw data showing that most calls came from residents looking for information already available online, she knew it was time for a new approach.
That realization led to an experiment that is now reshaping how Wyandotte County communicates with residents. Partnering with Granicus, the county implemented the Government Experience Agent (GXA), a generative AI tool designed to improve responsiveness, reduce call volumes, and strengthen trust in public service.
Sprague’s team began by combining hard data with human stories.
“Our 311 call center handles about 70,000 phone calls a year,” Sprague said. “If those call center reps are working every day of the week, all year long, it gives them about two minutes per phone call. That’s not enough time to really dig into a customer concern.”
The county’s Treasury Department faced a similar challenge, fielding another 70,000 calls about motor vehicle and property taxes. To keep up, staff were pulled away from serving in-person visitors to answer phones, a stopgap solution that wasn’t sustainable.
“Looking at those two variables and understanding that we had a ton of phone calls coming in, we wanted to combine that intelligence with an understanding of the customer pain points and start to look for a solution,” she said.
Armed with that data, Wyandotte set an ambitious goal to reduce call volume at the Treasury Office by 30%.
“The treasurer let us know that we had about 30% of those 70,000 phone calls coming in that were answered on our website,” Sprague said. “If we could pull off those 30% of phone calls by giving another solution, it would allow the treasurer to restore a very skilled, highly tenured staff to solving really complex problems.”
Achieving that goal required teamwork.
“We pulled in the treasurer and had a conversation about what really moves the needle for your customers,” Sprague said.
By balancing efficiency and empathy, the project aimed to improve residents’ experience while empowering staff to focus on higher-value work.
When it came time to choose a technology partner, Wyandotte wasn’t just looking for software. “We also knew that we needed to invest, not just in a technology but in a relationship,” Sprague said.
That mindset led the county to Granicus. “Partnership was important. We’ve had a relationship with Granicus for a long time,” she noted. “That partnership is really grounded in the concept that Granicus believes the same that we believe, that the customer comes first, and we should be driving toward customer interaction and successful task completion.”
Sprague said three factors drove their decision: partnership, fit, and trust.
With 31 languages spoken across a community of 168,000 residents, inclusivity and control were crucial. “We needed a product that we could trust and believe in and that we could absolutely have some controls over what information was being provided to the customer,” she said.
Through GXA’s admin console, Wyandotte staff can make quick content updates and see how residents are interacting with the system in real time. “All of our employees live in our county,” Sprague said. “These are our neighbors, and we want to give them the same confidence and care that we would if we were on the phone with them.”
Sprague described the county’s rollout as “a disciplined path to success.”
“With our implementation with Granicus, not only did we know that they would be a partner with us through the implementation, but we also learned how important a good structured process was,” she said.
One key to success was staff involvement. Granicus made sure county employees were part of testing and refining the AI system before launch. “It allowed our staff to do unit testing in real time,” Sprague said. “We could actually hear what the residents were saying and what the staff feedback was.”
The county also used automated testing tools to ensure accuracy. “Whatever we launch, I trust the day we cut over that it’s going to be right,” Sprague said.
Wyandotte focused on measurable success, not just proof of concept. “We wanted to not have just a proof of concept. We wanted to have a proof of value,” Sprague said.
That value came quickly. Within two weeks of going live, the AI agent handled 800 digital conversations and began changing how residents engaged with the county.
“We typically get pretty negative feedback,” she said. “But in the two weeks that we’ve gone live, I’ve started to see some thumbs-up on our website pages. That tells me the addition of the agent is improving the overall experience of the customer.”
Even county employees have become fans. “The staff is even using the agent to discover things for themselves,” Sprague said. “We realized we didn’t have a content problem — we had a consumption problem.”
As Wyandotte County expands its use of AI, Sprague sees clear opportunities to replicate success across other departments.
“You do it once, you’re expected to do it again,” she said. “Being able to have a delivery methodology that we can replicate was huge.”
Granicus, she added, “set us up with the tools to be able to replicate and really drive home what that customer-centered design looks like.”
That next phase will continue to be guided by data. “Instead of picking an area at random because we think it would be a good idea, what are the customers telling us?” she asked. “Where is it needed the most? And where is the data telling us that we could actually move the needle on satisfaction?”
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