Using AI to transform customer service.

Transforming service across three organizations.

Serving more than 1.7 million people across the Las Vegas Valley Water District, Southern Nevada Water Authority, and Las Vegas Springs Preserve, the District’s approximately 110-person Customer Care organization manages thousands of interactions across billing, service requests, water conservation, water quality, assistance programs, visitor information, and more.

With water a precious resource in Southern Nevada, every customer interaction matters. But legacy technology, long hold times, and limited self-service made it difficult for customers to get help quickly and for agents to focus on more complex needs.

Empowering customers with AI and self-service.

The District selected Talkdesk to give its Customer Care team greater control over the customer experience. The initial deployment included Talkdesk CX Cloud, Autopilot, Workforce Management, and Quality Management.

Today, Talkdesk Autopilot handles routine transactions and routes customers to the appropriate specialist, empowering customers to achieve an 80% self-service rate. This allows customers to get answers faster while enabling agents to focus on conversations that require human expertise.

“Let’s grow this platform together,” says Anisha Cathey, who leads Customer Care Operations. “We’ll take a chance on you if you take a chance on us.”

The District has also introduced live transcription and sentiment analysis to help agents navigate conversations across language barriers and recognize when customers may need additional empathy or de-escalation.

Talkdesk Copilot surfaces relevant knowledge from the District’s SharePoint library based on conversation context, giving agents the information they need without manually searching. As Blanca Barajas, Manager of Business Support for Customer Care explains, “They’re not trying to search for the information they need, it’s right there when they need it.”

Faster service, smarter operations.

AI and automation have helped transform both the customer and employee experience. Call abandonment has fallen below 2%, while hold times that once exceeded 30 minutes have been dramatically reduced.

Intelligent routing also ensures customers reach agents with the right expertise. Using disposition data, the District continually refines routing based on why customers are calling, helping create more efficient interactions.

Real-time dashboards give supervisors visibility into call volumes, queues, and staffing while giving employees greater insight into their own performance.

“It helped change the trajectory of our business,” Cathey says, citing the impact on staffing, hiring, budgeting, and workforce planning.

Building the future of customer service.

The District continues to expand its use of AI and is evaluating additional generative AI and Copilot capabilities. Its approach remains focused on balancing innovation with responsible governance.

“We need to make sure that when we roll this out, we roll it out right,” says Barajas.

By combining AI-powered self-service, intelligent routing, agent assistance, and greater operational visibility, the Las Vegas Valley Water District is creating a more responsive customer experience while giving its employees the tools and autonomy to work smarter.