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Perfecting the Process of Automated Customer Service

Amol Mategaonkar
July 19, 2018

At Appian World 2018, Princeton Blue launched a new solution called Automated Customer Service (ACS), which optimizes the customer experience by combining the capabilities of business process management (BPM), low code application development, robotic process automation (RPA), and artificial intelligence (AI).

The technology behind the magic of ACS's customer service process includes Appian BPM, Low Code, Blue Prism RPA, and Amazon Alexa.

Watch the video of our Partner Theatre session from Appian World for an overview of the ACS solution, and a deep dive into its applicability to banks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymUGpsM692E

But ACS doesn't end there. Over the past two months, our clients have provided feedback about adopting ACS for other industries such as insurance, healthcare, etc. In this blog, we'll explore the applicability of ACS beyond banking.

The Need for Customer Service

Every organization strives to achieve superior customer experience across multiple channels and touchpoints with their customers. Analysis of the Customer Journey Map of consumer-oriented companies such as banks, insurance companies, healthcare providers and telcos reveals that Customer Service is one of the most important aspects of overall customer satisfaction. These companies are at a risk of losing unhappy customers to their competitors because of poor or inadequate customer service. How can these companies take their customer service to the next level?

Enter ACS.

Use Case: ACS for Insurance

Insurance companies rely on customer service to create a differentiation with their competition. The primary drivers for customer service success for an insurance company are as follows:

    • Prompt and precise response to the status of claims

    • Personalized service based on status and history

    • Easy registration of complaints and service requests

    • Minimized waiting times on phone calls for customer service

    • Quick resolution of complaints and requests

The following scenario shows how ACS can help insurance companies deliver superior customer service.

Customer Email

Customer Warren Burt sends an email complaining about the claim he filed for a flood in one of his offices. He did not hear back from his Insurance company, so he now follows up with an email.

Blue Prism Robots

Once Warren's email arrives, a Blue Prism robot reads it and proceeds to retrieve Warren's customer information from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. (This can be done with an API as well if one is available)

Appian Process Trigger

The Blue Prism Robot then triggers an Appian process and passes the email content along with the customer information from the CRM.

Appian AI Analysis

The Appian process first invokes the Appian sentiment score function to understand the customer's sentiment. In this case, Warren's sentiment seems to be very negative.

Decision on Next Best Action

An Appian Decision Table is used to determine the next best action based on Warren's status with the insurance company, the insurance policy type, and sentiment score. In this case, the Decision Table recommends opening a complaint. A case is created, and the case number is communicated to Warren via email.

Alexa Interaction

A little later, Warren is able to check on the status of his case via Alexa. Alexa responds with the latest case status and expected closure date.

CSR Resolution

Appian creates a task for the Customer Service Representative to process and provide a resolution for Warren's complaint about his claim.

Resolution Approval

The complaint resolution is sent to the Customer Service Manager for approval.

Case Closure

An email is sent to Warren notifying him about the resolution, and the case is closed.

Customer Service Dashboards

The Customer Service Manager gets full visibility into the process through real-time customer service operational metrics via various charts, dashboards and reports.

Benefits of the ACS solution:

    • The customer can interact with the Insurance company using email and Alexa. This can be extended to include SMS, Chat, social media, and more, for true omni-channel communication.

    • Using AI, ACS can understand the customer's sentiment and automatically log a complaint. The customer will receive an acknowledgement with a case number almost instantly.

    • Repetitive and manual tasks are automated using RPA. The only steps that involve humans relate to actual resolution of the case and its approval. Thankfully, robots cannot do those tasks!

    • ACS provides a flexible and dynamic workflow for quick resolution of the case, with SLAs driven by business rules, which can easily be adapted to the changing business needs.

    • Customer Service Managers can get in-depth visibility into customer service operations via meaningful dashboards, charts and reports.

Conclusion

So, as you can see in this scenario, an Insurance company can provide superior customer experience while maintaining high efficiency and low costs for its Customer Service operations, leveraging Digital Process Automation technologies like Appian, Blue Prism and Amazon.

Contact us to see an ACS demo and learn how it can be applied to your industry.

Amol Mategaonkar

Princeton Blue

Appian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian AI Process Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimize even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world's most innovative organizations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimize operations—resulting in better growth and superior customer experiences.

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