Splashy, a Chatbot for Water Meter Reading Transmission Worldwide

“Splashy” is a virtual personal assistant for water metering reading.

Our innovative developers are constantly looking out for product extensions that can make the lives of water suppliers easier. In the autumn of 2016 a new idea began to flourish in our office – why don’t we let citizens transmit their water meter readings via a Facebook chatbot.

We looked it up, we asked around and were surprised to find out that there is no such service out there! We knew we were stepping into something big, which had the power to change the water sector forever. For this reason, we are now launching “Splashy”, a virtual personal assistant for water metering reading. You can chat with splashy at https://www.facebook.com/waterloo.splashy/

More and more people are using chatbots because they appreciate the numerous advantages it gives while doing their daily tasks. The term “bot” stands for robots and refers to a software that is capable of performing certain tasks completely independently and automatically.

With the ever-increasing computer performance, Chatbot systems can also access more extensive data volumes faster and offer intelligent dialogs for the user. The knowledge of our chatbot is obtained from WATERLOO’s database of the water provider.

Our chatbot Splashy communicates with the citizens via the Facebook Messenger and guides them through the most important steps of water meter readings. Information such as meter number, customer number and meter reading are recorded and sent to the respective water supplier in less than 2 minutes. In addition, Splashy recognizes erroneous data and gives citizens tips like where they can find their user number.

Splashy offers numerous advantages for water suppliers and their customers

Not only citizens, but also water suppliers can benefit from the numerous advantages of our latest product expansion. We have summarized some advantages for water utilities and their citizens:

The benefits for your citizens:

• This service is completely free for citizens.
• Direct meter readings save valuable time and nerves for citizens.
• No stress around the reeding appointment agreement.
• Citizens enjoy the perfect temporal and local flexibility.
• This service ensures better quality of life and customer satisfaction.
• Splashy detects erroneous meter numbers and helps citizens avoid typing errors.
• Transmission confirmation via e-mail as proof.

The benefits for water providers

• Reach your citizens, where they spend their free time. Facebook is the most used communication tool of today.
• Water suppliers, who offer this service to their citizens, position themselves as trend-conscious opinion leaders.
• It is an innovative citizen-service for municipalities pushing a high quality of life as well as closer proximity to the citizens in their municipality.
• Absolute error prevention by means of direct meter reading by the consumer, without annoying typing of from reading cards.
• Splashy detects erroneous data and gives citizens useful tips in order to make the transmission error-free and enjoyable.
• Saving time, money and work during the readout – significant reduction of the cost of acquisition by up to 70%!
• Citizens can also send a photo of their water meter to you.
• Simple use of an instantly working system. You don’t need a server nor to install any software – it does not get any easier!

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Taxonomy

• Water
• Monitors
• Data Management
• Water Monitoring
• Metering
• Water Monitoring
• Water Supply
• Software & Services
• Data & Analysis