MAGAZINE NO.45 | Does AI (Artificial Intelligence) threaten low-code/no-code application development?

CASE 2 - Managing customer requests

Affected business areas: across areas

Organizational needs

We are in a firm of accountants and in this area, as in so many other contexts, it happens that the client has to submit many requests to the consultants; from requests for documentation to the investigation of some practices of a different nature. Some of these requests have specific time frames for processing related to tax/regulatory deadlines and generally their processing is assigned, depending on thescope or the expertise on the client, to a consultant specific.

In addition, some types of requests require the signing of a contract specific contract with the client, others can be processed directly against a general contract already signed by the client. Even the consultant, not being an employee of the firm, may need a specific contract to be engaged on a practice.

The most commonly used way to handle this process is highly unstructured and can be traced to the following main activities:

1. Customer contacts the firm either by e-mail or by phone formulating the request in its own language;

1. Someone is in charge of collecting the request, evaluate it and direct it via e-mail to consultant;

1. If necessary, someone is responsible for: drafting and having a contract signed to the client and/or draft and have the consultant sign a contract.

1. The hired consultant must respond to the request within certain specified time frames;

1. The customer must receive the outcome of his request only upon completion of processing.

Customers participate indirectly in the flow and have an absolutely free for ingagement, just as the engagement of consultants takes place simply via e-mail. The assignment of practices takes place in the absence of an organic vision.

It can be well observed how unstructured management of such a process can lead to several problems, negatively affecting overall efficiency and effectiveness, with direct effects on customer satisfaction:

1. Disorganization and misunderstanding: Customer requests may be handled in a disorganized manner, making interpretation, tracking, and timely resolution difficult;

1. Risks of misplacement: there is a risk that inquiries will be misplaced or overlooked, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and lost business opportunities;

1. Ineffective allocation of resources: It may be difficult to effectively allocate the human and time resources needed to handle customer requests, leading to delays and poor service quality;

1. Difficulties in searching and processing documents: It may be complicated or time-consuming to search or share customer documents and data;

1. Difficulties in monitoring: The lack of proper tracking can make it complicated to monitor the status of requests and overall process performance, making it difficult to identify areas that require improvement.

    

The solution

Trying to properly structure this process and manage it with a tool of process and document automation such as Jamio an organization can streamline the handling of customer inquiries, increasing customer satisfaction and reputation.

The previously decribed flow becomes as follows.

1. The client contacts the firm through a structured form that guides him through the request or by phone by formulating the request in his own language, and someone (even a bot) takes care of reporting the request in the form;

1. The system takes care of automatically assigning the request to the appropriate counselor; alternatively, if the request is of a special nature, someone will evaluate it and refer it to the counselor through the system;

1. The consultant receives an automated email for engagement,

1. The customer receives an e-automatic e-mail notification of the successful acceptance;

1. Where necessary, the system provides for auto dial, send and eventually also collect i contracts for engagement to the client and/or to the consultant and to handle fulfillment only after the appropriate contract documentation has been collected;

1. The hired consultant automatically receives indication of processing times, indicates the actual times and deposits the result of his work always in the system;

1. The customer receives the outcome of his request through an automatic notification e-mail with a link to the system where he can always consult the outcomes of his requests;

1. Also managed in a traced manner are any intermediate interlocutions between client and consultant.
   
   

It is apparent that they are thus delegated to a computer system all those human activities that involve a loss of time and margins of error, such as collecting the request, compiling contracts from predefined templates, sending e-mails, and sorting activities based on a classification of requests or a client's managing consultant.

In addition, the participation in the process by external actors, the clients and consultants, becomes active, as the client imputes his request in a guided manner, The consultant performs the engagement in a guided manner through the system.

Below is a list of the action points:

1. Centralization of requests: All customer requests are collected in a centralized system. The customer can enter the request directly in a guided manner or it can be entered by an operator to a bot following a phone call. This helps keep track of all requests in one place.

1. Classification of requests: Requests are classified according to the type of counseling required. This facilitates efficient distribution of requests to the most suitable counselors while avoiding wasted time.

1. Automatic or manual assignment: the system may automatically assign requests to consultants based on their expertise or may be left to manual assignment by a manager.

1. Status tracking: A status is automatically managed on each request, with the ability to track the fulfillment process. This helps keep customers informed about the status of their requests and greatly improves the image of the organization.

1. Priority of requests: Requests can have different levels of priority based on their nature and urgency.

1. Customer communication: An automatic notification system informs clients about the progress of their requests.

1. Information storage: All relevant information related to customer inquiries is archived so that it can be easily retrieved in the future for reference, analysis, or to respond to similar inquiries.

1. Security and Confidentiality: The system ensures the security and confidentiality of information from secure access.

1. Reporting and analysis: A reporting system could be implemented to analyze process performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions to improve overall efficiency.

The advantages

• reduction of time management
• reduction of errors
• process control
• lifting of branding reputation by the customer
• Instant Sharing of Data and Documents
• Employment of operators in higher value-added activities
• Organizational efficiency