Nestled at the crossroads of Interstates 95 and 40, Benson, North Carolina, is a vibrant community in Johnston County experiencing steady growth. With a population exceeding 4,000, Benson provides essential utility services, including electricity, water, sewer, and storm water management, to its residents. As the town's population surged by approximately 2% annually since 2014, the need for a robust system to manage resident requests and disseminate important information became apparent. Seeking to improve communication and service efficiency, Benson turned to GOGov’s innovative solutions. By implementing GOGov's Citizen Request Management and Citizen Notifications products, branded locally as “Benson Connect,” the town has transformed how residents engage with municipal services, ensuring every citizen stays informed and connected.

About Benson, NC

Benson, North Carolina is a small-to-medium sized community in Johnston County, located right at the crossroads of Interstate 95 and 40, bringing traffic through the town. Benson provides utility services like electricity and water to its residents and they own their power grid, as well as having water, sewer, and storm water as some other funds operated by Benson. The town’s population has quickly increased since 2014, growing at a rate of about 2% each year. The current population is just over 4,000 citizens within the city.

What was the challenge that brought Benson to GOGov?

With Benson being a town that provides utility services to its residents, they wanted to offer a system for citizens to reach out to the staff if there was a power outage or water issue. With the population at Benson increasing, the town felt that they needed to adopt software to record all requests and send out information, that’s where GOGov came in! Benson decided on GOGov’s Citizen Request Management and Citizen Notifications products to help reach their goals. “Benson Connect”, the town's branded mobile app, gives residents the ability to put in service requests and receive notification updates straight from the town staff. The town in general wanted to stray away from social media platforms like Facebook for important information from the town, since not everyone uses that platform. The mobile app allows every citizen to be updated on all Benson information.

“As a municipality responsible for electric and other utility services, it drove our need for software, but what GOGov offered was just so great. Also, it met our budget restraints.” –
Kimberly Pickett, Town Manager

How is Benson using GOGov today?

Benson uses GOGov for everything! The main goal is offering a platform for citizens to connect with the town, but on a day-to-day basis Benson is using Citizen Request Management and Citizen Notifications to address any issues or requests throughout the community. With different requests or questions related to code enforcement, potholes & clean up, council meetings, and more, “Connect Benson” has been used throughout departments on the staff facing side. It’s been a helpful system to manage requests and ensure that the request tickets are getting to the correct staff member. One factor that sticks out to the staff is the GIS locator that helps the staff know exactly where the request needs to be tended to.

A particular instance where having “Benson Connect” was extremely helpful for the staff was a DOT project that the town was in the process of. This project ended last month, but during the span of it, citizens put in requests related to broken traffic signals, detours, and it was helpful for the town to send notifications out relating to the project. More routine requests that are sent in from citizens usually look like water and sewage issues, which must be urgently fixed.

Future Plans for Benson

Benson plans to continue keeping open communication as much as possible in the community. The town wants to keep people updated on all Benson news and continue to hear from citizens via Citizen Request Management. With any future projects, the staff is thankful to have GOGov’s software to navigate information to residents. The town wants to continue to use GOGov as much as they can throughout the departments in Benson

Advice for those considering GOGov

Kimberly Pickett, Town Manager of Benson, gave us some advice for those who are considering GOGov’s solutions in their own municipality. She recommends using the products as a tool in your toolbox to connect with residents.

“The system has a lot of capability-- don't only restrain yourself into one or two of the things that it can do, actually utilize it for what it is because it is a very good tool for ensuring open communication and showing that transparency with citizens, which is very important”
Kimberly Pickett, Town Manager

Your Municipality Powered by GOGov

GOGov is committed to helping municipalities and local governments enhance community engagement, streamline operations, and foster transparent communication. Our partnership with Benson, NC demonstrates the potential of our solutions to make a meaningful impact on cities of all sizes, and our continued efforts to improve and innovate further.  

GOGov specializes in providing CRM, Code Enforcement, Citizen Notifications, Online Permitting and mobile software to local governments of all sizes. We built our software from the ground up working with the departments and staff that now use our products every single day.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for a demo with the GOGov team today.

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