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View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2025 – NJAC County Biz – December

by Kimberly Bui, Demand Gen Specialist, Polimorphic

When most people think about government, they don’t think customer service. Yet every city, county, and state agency exists to serve residents. Whether it’s answering questions about trash pickup or processing complex public records requests, government touches people’s lives daily—and it’s rarely simple.

As Parth Shah, CEO of Polimorphic, explained on the PIO Podcast:

“Government might be the most complicated customer service organization in the world.”

Why It’s So Complicated

Even small municipalities effectively run multiple “businesses” at once: utilities, public works, planning and zoning, public safety, and more. Unlike a private company focused on a single service, government must manage entirely different operations under one roof. The only consistent thread is customer service.

Parth shared that after studying front-desk operations, he found that half of staff time goes to repeat questions—often from residents who simply can’t find information online. Another 25% is spent on status updates: Where is my request? That leaves little bandwidth for the high-value work staff are actually trained to do.

As he put it:

“Most time is being spent on laundry and dishes—the laundry and dishes of customer service.”

The Impact on Residents

This complexity directly affects the public. Outdated websites, missing forms, and backlogged inboxes lead to frustration and erode trust. Staff—already stretched thin—end up juggling phone calls, emails, and walk-ins without modern tools to help them keep up.

And resident expectations have changed. People want the same transparency and convenience from their government that they get from Amazon or Domino’s: 24/7 access, real-time updates, and the ability to communicate in their preferred language. Meeting those expectations with shrinking staff and legacy processes is incredibly difficult.

How to Fix It

The good news: solutions exist. Polimorphic partners with agencies nationwide to streamline communication and automate repetitive tasks. Our AI-powered tools:

• Answer resident questions across chat, voice, SMS, and email—using only official, controlled content.
• Support 75+ languages so every community can access information equitably.
• Automate workflows for FOIA/public records requests, preventing missed deadlines and lost emails.
• Provide staff with analytics and audit trails to identify bottlenecks and continuously improve.

By offloading the “laundry and dishes” of government customer service, staff can focus on what matters most: solving problems, improving transparency, and strengthening community trust.

Don’t Be Last

Shah leaves agencies with one final piece of advice:

“Now is the time to be second—don’t be last.”

More than 30 million Americans are already served by governments using AI tools like Polimorphic. The shift is underway. The question is no longer whether AI will play a role in government operations—but how quickly agencies will adapt.

Ready to learn more? Request a demo of Polimorphic’s AI for the public sector.