Ensuring Customer Service Excellence with Appian's Application Platform

The customer is always right. How many times have you heard that one?

Yes, this implies that you always have to put the customer first, but I propose an amendment:"The customer shall always be put first."

This is true of mainstream organizations looking to gain a leg up on the competition in the digital world. With the onset of mobile and technology innovation, organizations are challenged to deliver an excellent standard of customer service almost instantaneously.

Take the video example below. Ryder System, Inc.is a leading provider of transportation and supply chain management products and is especially known for its fleet of rental trucks. Ryder is committed to setting the industry standard for IT-led business innovation that optimizes the customer experience while also accelerating performance and reducing cost.

To that end, Ryder saw an opportunity to improve disparate systems and time-consuming paper-based processes to support the end-to-end commercial truck rental process. Previously, all customer-related documentation was uploaded at on-site rental counters using email, mail or fax.

Ryder selected Appian's application platform to unify systems through multiple synergistic applications, including the Rental Signature Capture andBreakdown Analysis Workbench apps. Accessible via Android tablets, the Rental Signature Capture encompasses all formerly paper-driven processes within the rental cycle, including yard check (verifying which vehicles are in the yard, their condition, mileage, etc.), customer vehicle check-out and check-in, and signatures.The Breakdown Analysis Workbench app works behind the scenes to support the Ryder customer experience by determining the root cause of vehicle issues to ensure fast repairs and actions to reduce the number of future breakdowns.

By developing a digital business across Appian, Ryder has transformed operations related to its fleet management and truck rentals in order to create a faster time of delivery for customer use. Since deploying this series of application in 2014, Ryder has experienced a50% reduction in customer rental transaction times(reduced to 9 ñ 14 minutes, as opposed to prior estimates of 18 ñ 22 minutes). In addition, Ryder's digital platform supports the company Rental Guarantee that customers will be in and out of a Ryder location within 20 minutes of less. Since deploying Appian, Ryder has experienced less than 1% ofviolations.

Read more here about how Appian has enabled Ryder to reach new levels of customer service excellencethrough the adoption of an application platform.

-Mike Ingrisano, Media Relations Manager