E-Mail Mismanagement: Customers often at a loss
Three quarters of all e-mail responses fail to meet customer expectations
Over 50 percent of companies’ reaction times are deemed too slow
New software reduces processing times by 30 percent and improves response quality
Overloaded e-mail systems leave customers at a loss
Customers who mail their questions to German companies are often left feeling at a loss. More often than not, e-mail replies contain pointless queries, standard formulations or unspecific responses. Tests show that three quarters of all service centers provide inadequate responses. More that half of all electronic answers are sent more than three days after the original e-mail was received. Approximately one third of all companies fail to deliver a response altogether. The reason: mail systems that are often overloaded and which fail to relieve the pressure on service staff by delivering unfiltered customer queries to their e-mail inbox. Things can get better, as novomind iMail™, the intelligent e-mail system developed by the Hamburg-based novomind AG, demonstrates. Processing times can be reduced by up to 30 percent.
As user numbers grow, the significance of online service is increasing rapidly
Today, over half of all Germans over the age of 14 are online. Rising user numbers mean that it the importance of effective e-mail service is also increasing steadily. Bertelsmann is a good example of the growing numbers of customers who choose to seek assistance online. At peak times each day, the company receives approximately 1000 e-mails. For the first time, the new software, novomind iMail™, enabled questions and requests to be interpreted effectively, categorized according to subject or task and forwarded to specialist staff for processing. "By implementing the e-mail system, the Bertelsmann Club was able to reduce processing times for incoming e-mail by approximately 30 percent", says Dirk Suda, Customer Care Manager for Bertelsmann Der Club. After just three weeks, the recognition rate for the automatic routing tool had already exceeded 85 percent. Other systems, which has been tested previously, had consistently failed to achieve a sufficiently high recognition rate. The outcome: staff lost valuable time and generated additional costs processing the e-mails manually. novomind’s new e-mail system was up and running at Bertelsmann within six weeks.
Increased market share through optimum customer service
At a time when electronic communication is rocketing, companies see optimum e-mail customer service as a key factor for increasing their share of the market. With over 4.5 million members in Germany alone, Bertelsmann’s Der Club is one of the largest international media clubs and aims to offer their customers optimum service instead of leaving them to hunt for the relevant contact person. For this reason, Bertelsmann provides a single e-mail address for customer queries (service(at)derclub.de). Rapid processing times are vital to ensure that the customers do not have to wait long for a response.
Flexible system:can be customized at any time to suit current campaigns
novomind iMail™ uses the novomind IQ™ natural language dialog engine, the most technologically-advanced system available in this field. Using KI methodology, incoming e-mails are sorted into specific contexts and forwarded straight to the relevant recipient or specialist staff member. A range of pre-defined knowledge packs are available to enable the sorting process. These deal with e-mails detailing changes of address, account information, membership cancelations, delivery queries, new customer correspondence, claims and complaints. The user is able to activate, modify or add to these knowledge packs at any time. The system functions flexibly. If, for example, the user wants to reorganize the defined e-mail categories, this can be carried out by a staff member with no previous programming experience. This functionality was particularly important for Bertelsmann, as the company regularly launches campaigns for which specific target groups must be defined.
novomind: a leading provider of intelligent software solutions
novomind AG is based in Hamburg, Germany and is one of the leading providers of intelligent software for the Self Service sector. novomind software solutions enable companies to automate business processes and reduce costs. The company was founded in December, 1999 by Peter Samuelsen, Marco Busacker and Peter Wiedekamm, and today employs approximately 40 staff members. In the course of the last financial year, the software house, which has not yet gone public, gained significant new clients, including T-Systems, the Otto mail order house’s Shopping24 subsidiary and insurance providers Hannoversche Leben. The company’s clients also include front runners such as Bertelsmann, the BKK Zollern-Alb health insurance providers and Gruner+Jahr.