Stadsbank Oost Nederland supports residents in the regions of Twente and the Achterhoek who are dealing with financial difficulties. They provide debt counseling, budget management, and preventive support, working together with municipalities, housing corporations, and social organizations. Their goal is to help people regain control of their financial situation and look to a brighter future.
Stadsbank Oost Nederland aims to make financial support as accessible as possible. Previously, residents and referrers could not always find the right information directly via the website, which led to more frequent contact by phone or email. As a result, it often took a long time before residents received answers to their questions. There was a clear need for a new website where residents could quickly find the right information.
This project came about through Twentse Koers, where the initiative started with a Quick Scan to explore ways to better support residents in the region. The development of a virtual assistant proved to be a promising solution to lower the threshold to support and make information easier to find.
During the development of the new website, Datacation implemented this virtual assistant, Sam. Sam uses LLM technology (Large Language Models) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). This allows him to search for the right answers within the context of the website and immediately help visitors with relevant information. Sam is available day and night and can therefore guide residents at any time to the most appropriate support and answer their questions to help them move forward.
In addition, a dashboard was developed that provides insight into the questions asked to Sam. This helps Stadsbank Oost Nederland better understand which topics are relevant to residents and where services can be further improved.
The new website and Sam provide:
With this step, Stadsbank Oost Nederland reduces the distance between residents and support providers. This makes the path to help shorter, more effective, and more user-friendly, for both residents and professionals—helping to relieve concerns and restore value.
