email customer service request improvement ideas proof of concept ©copyright 2014 ® all rights...

Email Customer Service Request Improvement Ideas

Proof of Concept

©Copyright 2014 ®All rights reserved Wayne Tarken – [email protected]

A technology, people and data approach

mailto:[email protected]

Proof of Concept Goals

• More efficient, effective handling of emails from customers on service issues by:– Finding resolutions to customer service issues

– Providing high touch service even via emails

– Reducing time it takes to move emails towards resolution

– Leveraging technology to streamline process and reduce errors



Proof of Concept Goals

• More efficient, effective handling of emails from customers on service issues by:– Scanning, mining and analyzing data from the process

to identify bottlenecks as well as potential improvements

– Reducing time spent on email by service staff

– Improving customer satisfaction & engagement

– Shifting reliance on email as a service delivery tool to other channels (Tweets, phone, etc)



The Foundation

• The foundation of social customer service is to meet customers’ ever increasing expectations of rapid and seamless problem resolutionThis is accomplished by:

– Developing highly responsive service channels via all social, mobile, phone, etc. customer touch points



The Process• Documenting every reason why the customer contacts

the company

• Identifying the cost-to-service to process each of these reasons

• Determining the most efficient channel and process to handle each type of request to reduce cost while improving service

• Gradually incentivize and shift customers to the best channel(s) for them and the organization based upon the issue, cost , resources, performance and service.



The Process

• Improve self-service by creating and tapping into a community-based, open knowledge base– Develop community to connect employees, customers

– Use community building techniques to increase engagement and promote knowledge sharing

– Capture all interactions in every channel, make them searchable with easy to use tools in knowledge base

– Use Big Data to analyze data, determine correlations and surface to new ideas, opportunities, etc



The Process

• Leverage the use of emerging technologies such as natural language processing, big data, analytics, etc. to: – Automate the process

– Speed up response times

– Reduce mistakes

– Identify/resolve service issues proactively

– Reduce personnel needed to resolve issues



Know the Customer

• The key is to know each customer so the system can anticipate their issues and surface a solution at the time they make the request

This is accomplished by:

– Every customer having a unique profile

– All interactions being tracked, stored and searchable

– Analytics used to anticipate customers, preferences, needs, requirements

– Predictive and prescriptive analytics are used to anticipate potential future issues and corresponding solutions



Case Study

• Lisa is an executive with a Fortune 500 company

• She leads the customer service function

• Her organization has always had a reputation for a high touch, customized service function

• But now, customers have increasing expectations that they want their problems solved almost immediately

Case Study

• She is concerned that she will need to develop a formulaic, template-based approach to service

• That could lead to the reduction of their differentiator as a high service organization

• Her team has made great strides in service in many of their channels such as Facebook, Twitter, call centers, etc

• The one area of concern remains emails. They haven’t figured out the optimal way to handle service requests from this channel

Case Study

• Email service requests reach the company in two ways:– Completing a form on their web page

– Emailing directly via their pop3 email clients such as Outlook or via web-based tool such as Gmail

• The issue for her is how to improve the process so that customer’s expectation are meet and her resources are optimized

Case Study

• Of course she realizes that email is not the most effective way to provide service

• They have done many things to try to shift customers to other channels that are more efficient and cost-effective for her system and resources

• But the fact remains that due to past behavior, many customers still prefer email as a vehicle for service

Case Study• It is to use a customer profile as an integrated part of the process

• A profile that is updated with all interactions from every channel

• That can be used to guide the service responses based upon the customer's previous interaction, preferences, demographics, etc

• In either case – web-site generated email or email sent directly, if found, the profile will be used to shape the response.

• If not, they will have to make some potentially less accurate assumptions

Case Study• Some of the newer technology that is needed to

improve the service process includes:• Analytics – used to customize information based upon

individual needs

• Natural language processing – using technology to convert text in email into data for analysis

• Big-data – capturing and analyzing data from a variety of sources to search for correlations

• Community-based knowledge centers used to facilitate interactions , manage content, store data, enable searching

Case Study• Email service request can be categorized in three

ways:- Known – responses that can be found in the

knowledge base

- Assumptions - responses that can be reasonably developed through analytics

- Unknown – responses that can not be generated automatically

• Known and assumption answers can be developed with technology

Case Study

• Unknown responses must be handled via call center personnel. This can be accomplished by:- Having the skills, experience of service center employees

developed into a service profile

- Using analytics to queue the request to the service center person who has the greatest likelihood of knowing the answer

- Updating the knowledge-base so the responses can be retained and used again

- Realizing that as knowledge base improves more responses can be handled automatically

Case StudyFor company website email requests, the goal is to:

• Provide a series of steps to present relevant information to solve the customer’s issue prior to submitting a form. This is accomplished by:⁻ Searching for the customer’s profile (if found)⁻ Using a series of structured questions to refine customer’s issue⁻ Scanning text fields and using natural language processing to

determine key issues⁻ Searching knowledge base for answers⁻ Using predictive analytics to propose questions to clarify issues

during the form updating process⁻ Proposing targeted FAQs to the customer based on profile,

analytics, text analysis and knowledge base

Case StudyFor emails sent directly to company by user the goal is to :

• Provide a series of steps to analyze and push back answers directly to the customer in an email reply. This is accomplished by:⁻ Searching for the customer’s profile if found based upon email

address

⁻ Scanning the message and using natural language processing to determine the real issues

⁻ Searching knowledge base for answers

⁻ Proposing targeted response directly back to the customer based on profile, analytics, text analysis and knowledge base

Case Study

• In both email scenarios, sent directly to the company or via the company’s web-based form, the customer has the ability to:

– Route the response back to the call center for additional help

– Engage in a dialogue with others via the community to search for their own answers

– End the process if they are satisfied

Case Study

• Her team knows that a critical piece is that:– All call center interactions must be captured in the knowledge

base for use in future interactions

– Keeping a knowledge base updated can be problematic unless employee’s expectation and internal processes are modified to encourage this behavior

• Especially in tier level support systems where Tier 1 personnel is often not aware of solutions proposed in Tier 2 or 3 interactions

– There must also be a way to capture the knowledge acquired by the customer during the process

Case Study

• After the new process was implemented, the improvement in email throughput was dramatic

– An increasing number of email requests were automatically handled by the system

– The knowledge gained by response was used to improve other service channels

– Customer service levels and engagement went up

– Call center personnel was more engagement and effectively utilized

– The volume of email requests went down

– Call center resources could be shifted to other channels

• Proposed flowcharts

Message is scanned using natural language

processing

Customer sends email from Outlook, Notes,

Gmail, etc

Analytics determines the problem

Email received from SMTP

server

Customer profile is accessed

Customer history and analytics are processed to

determine best answer

YES

Sends response back to customer with suggested

fix

Knowledge base is searched for best solution

Is email address

recognized?

NO

• Message assigned to customer service rep based upon rep’s experience with type of issue and size of their backlog

• Customer gets response back telling them of service rep name and anticipated response time

• Interactions, solution is stored in customer profile as well as in knowledge base

Message is scanned using natural

language processing


Customer profile is updated

Customer profile is created

YES

Is problem

new?

NO

Customer Sends Email from Outlook, Gmail, Notes, etc


Is customer

happy with

outcome?

NO

YES

Finished

Start here


Finished

Is email address/IP recognized?

YES

• Search customer profile

• Search knowledge base

• Use predictive analytics to propose questions to clarify issues

• Propose FAQs and other solutions to customer

• Customer profile is updated

NO

• Search knowledge base• Use predictive analytics

to propose questions to clarify issues

• Propose questions to clarify issues

• Propose FAQs & other solutions to customer

• Customer profile is created and updated

Is issue resolved

YES NO

Customer fills in online form to send

email

Customer submits form

Customer Sends Email through Company Website – Initial Steps


Start here

Customers wants to send

email via website

Is customer logged in?

NO

YES

Customer is presented with FAQs

Was issue

resolvedYES

NO

Finished



fix






language processing



YES

Is problem

new?

NO


Customer Sends Email through Company Website – Processing Steps


Is customer

happy with

outcome?

NO

YES

Finished



fix





Finished



language processing



YES

YES






NO






Is issue resolved

YES NO

Is problem

new?

NO


email


Customer Sends Email through Company Website – Combined Process


Is customer

happy with

outcome?NO

YES

Finished

Start here


email via website


NO

YES


Was issue

resolvedYES

NO

Finished


Message is scanned using natural language

processing

Customer sends email from Outlook, Notes,

Gmail, etc

Big data & analytics

• All interactions will be captured and remain searchable

• Analytics will be applied to data to identify recurring problems, unexpected correlations, etc

• These findings will be used to proactively develop, then push out solutions in all customer outreach channels

• Eventually eliminate most reasons to reach out to company via email

• Predictive and prescriptive analytics will be used to proactively anticipate potential future problems. Develop, expose customers to solutions before they are needed


Email received from SMTP

server

Customer profile is accessed

Customer history and analytics are processed to

determine best answer

YES


fix


Is email address

recognized?

NO




Finished



language processing



Customer profile is created

YES

YES






NO






Is issue resolved

YES NO

Is problem

new?

NO


email


Customer Service Email Responsiveness Improvement Concept


Is customer

happy with

outcome?

NO

YES

Finished

Start here


email via website


NO

YES


Was issue

resolvedYES

NO

Finished


email customer service request improvement ideas proof of concept ©copyright 2014 ® all rights...

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