Archives for August 2008
Document Scanning Triggers: Customer Service
In the eyes of most customers - and let’s face it we are all customers either as individuals or as businesses - the key requirements of good customer service means getting our questions answered and our problems solved quickly and efficiently. Most of the time, this happens over the phone and could involve us trying to solve an invoicing issue, following up on a general enquiry or simply requesting extra information on a product.
Somehow, no matter how entertaining the “holding music” is, being put on hold for minutes at a time while someone finds the information they need to give us our answers does not deliver the customer service level we expect in today’s electronic world. Yet we are faced with this situation time and time again. Often, this is a result of an organisation keeping their records in paper format – even a small organisation cannot hope to have all their paper files immediately to hand, particularly when even the best paper indexing system will still leave gaps.
So what’s the alternative? Well, with all of your company’s paper documentation stored electronically, you change the playing field entirely. There is no longer any time delay in finding the information that you need to respond to your customers’ queries - instead, by accessing their files or documents with the information they are looking for, you’ll be able to respond immediately. And with paper documents available online, alongside email correspondence, you have all the relevant information at your fingertips.
In fact, having this information available allows you to take it one step further, giving you the opportunity to focus much more clearly on the real reason for their question and take a more proactive approach. While at the same time, by being able to answer your customers’ service enquiries more quickly, you can also reduce the costs associated with, saving you money at the same time. A real WIN - WIN situation
So next time you are listening to “Green Sleaves” wondering when the person on the other end of the phone will return with the documents they need, make a mental note to get those key customer documents scanned and indexed and watch your customer service ratings soar.
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Loyalty brings success at Waterstone’s
Loyalty cards have become part and parcel of everyday life and are an increasingly important tool for businesses looking to reward customers who remain loyal to their brand. However, for the system to run smoothly, there is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes from the moment the customer completes the application form to when they use their reward points and the savings they bring.
After careful planning, Waterstone’s launched their own loyalty card, The Waterstone’s Card, in September 2007 giving their customers the chance to earn points every time they purchased books in their stores or online. The scheme also gave the cardholders the opportunity to take advantage of unique special offers, receive email newsletters and enter exclusive competitions.
To process all of the application forms being returned from their stores, Waterstone’s needed a partner able to manage this key part of the operation. The company would need the resources in place to receive and scan the incoming loyalty card forms before securely sending on the details. They consulted Careline Services, one of their trusted suppliers, who in turn was able to recommended Preview as the ideal partner to fulfil this role and a company they already enjoyed a successful working relationship with. Having some of the most comprehensive systems in the UK, Preview was well able to handle the requirements.
The national loyalty scheme is across 330 Waterstone’s stores in the UK and Europe, and on Waterstones.com. Customers were asked to fill out an application form, and these forms were then batched up at the end of each day and sent via Royal Mail directly to Preview from each individual store. Sending the forms straight to Preview meant that the process was significantly speeded up and allowed the customers’ details to be registered on the database as quickly as possible.
Upon arrival, the forms were verified and prepared for scanning. Once scanned, these images were forwarded to the CRM database where key information from the forms including name and address and email address were recorded. This all ensured that when their card was used in store, the points were added correctly, Waterstone’s knew which customer was shopping and could therefore track their behaviour, segmenting them into specific customer groups ensuring any communication to them is relevant.
The Waterstone’s Card has proven to be an overwhelming success and, as of the middle of August 2008 1,701,446 card forms have been scanned and the pace shows no sign of slowing which is good news for Waterstone’s and great news for the thousands of new cardholders joining the programme every week.
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Document scanning: PRODS will show you the way
Technology that we use on a day to day basis both at work and home is in a constant state of change. At home, having the latest and greatest (or at least a recent version) is often more a case of keeping up with the Joneses than anything else. However, in the business world, sticking to methods which have been superseded simply because they are “how we have always done it” offers your competitors the chance to gain a real advantage and can be tantamount to commercial suicide.
One such area is that of business documentation used within the company or as part of the interactions with suppliers and clients. In this area, paper documents have always been considered the safe option, but this is no longer enough. In today’s business environment, retaining information purely in paper format means that it can no longer benefit your company – indeed, it is undoubtedly now holding you back.
However, making sure that your information is available in electronic format is relatively easy to achieve, simply by ensuring that all relevant documents are consistently scanned and indexed. If you are unsure why this is important for your organisation, then just remember PRODS:
Protect
Scanning your documentation ensures that the information it contains is safe and secure. While paper can be inherently difficult to store securely while still making it accessible, digitally stored information allows you to maintain tight security as required while offering pre-determined levels of access to those needing it. Just as critically, by keeping backup copies off site, your data (and hence your business) remains safe and secure, giving you complete security and peace of mind in terms of disaster recovery.
Reference
Information is there to be used and referred to, so it’s important to make sure that wherever it is stored, it can referenced quickly and easily. By capturing the data once through a programme of document scanning, you then have the ability to refer to it and use it many times over in the different ways your business requires.
Organise
Information tends to be accumulated at an alarming rate in organisations of all sizes, so making sure that it is carefully organised and easy to locate when required is essential. Managing this process using filing cabinets and storage boxes is difficult at the best of times and finding information can be a nightmare, particularly if it is stored across multiple locations. With scanned documents, information can be indexed and organised for quick and easy location and access – in addition, you are not restricted to a single person using it at a time, instead many people can have access whenever required.
Distribute
Getting the right information and the right documents to the right people when they require it is difficult even when they are all located in the same office. Add numerous people across multiple offices who need to receive the information and the job becomes a logistics nightmare. With scanned documents, the task becomes as simple as attaching a document to an email and sending it to the relevant people – for non confidential information only of course. Alternatively, an online repository provides the secure access, while email or RSS delivers the means of letting the right people know where to find it.
Share
There is also the need to share information, whether this is related to an individual project or we are talking about a department or company wide programme. Having the ability to share the information between all relevant parties gives you a level of interactivity which means the information can be used even more effectively and the company can benefit from people sharing ideas and information quickly and efficiently.
The next time you are looking for a document or trying to access information that you don’t have available, give yourself a couple of PRODS and see if you could also benefit from having the information you need at your fingertips.
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