Enhanced Efficiency and Speed
In the fast paced world of supply chain, time is money. Customer Service automation streamlines routine tasks, such as order processing, tracking, and issue resolution, significantly reducing response times. This efficiency not only improves customer satisfaction but also contributes to the overall speed and agility of the supply chain.

24/7 Accessibility: Automation doesn’t sleep.
By implementing B2B customer service automation, supply chain leaders can ensure that their customers have access to support around the clock. This 24/7 accessibility is crucial for global supply chains, where partners may be operating in different time zones. It enhances the overall reliability of the supply chain and fosters a sense of trust among B2B customers.

Data-Driven Decision Making
Customer Service automation generates a wealth of data that can be leveraged for strategic decision making. Supply chain leaders can analyse customer interactions, identify patterns, and gain valuable insights into areas that may need improvement. This data driven approach allows for continuous optimisation of the supply chain, leading to more informed and effective decision making.

Scalability and Flexibility
As supply chain operations grow, the demand for customer service also increases. Automation provides scalability, allowing supply chain leaders to handle a growing volume of customer interactions without a proportional increase in resources. This flexibility is particularly valuable during peak seasons or periods of rapid expansion, ensuring that customer service levels remain consistent.

Cost Savings
Traditional customer service models often require a significant investment in human resources. B2B customer service automation can lead to substantial cost savings by automating routine tasks, reducing the need for a large customer service team. This cost-effectiveness allows supply chain leaders to allocate resources strategically, investing in areas that directly contribute to the overall efficiency and success of the supply chain.

In summary, B2B customer service automation is not just a technological trend; it’s a strategic imperative for supply chain leaders looking to stay competitive in today’s dynamic business environment. By embracing automation, leaders can elevate their customer service, enhance operational efficiency, and position their supply chains for sustained success in the digital age. It’s time to automate and streamline the path to excellence in B2B customer service.

Upnesh Grewal

As Marketing Coordinator for Esker UK, Upnesh manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for O2C solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2022.

Read more insights from Upnesh Grewal

Customer Service automation should not look like this…

It should look like this!…

What are the driving forces of automation?
Quite simply, they are customers’ preferences and expectations. In today’s digital age, customers do not want to wait, they expect instant help with their issues 24/7. They also expect nothing less than a personalised and specific approach, and mostly through messaging. Most cases will involve the use of bots and automated messages but what automation really enables is freeing up time of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to respond to enquiries a lot quicker. Today’s Customer Service teams must master the human element while meeting the expectations of their customer base.

These days, customers flat out expect more throughout their entire journey. Live chat, social media and mobile functionality are all channels that enhance Customer Experience (CX) and boost advocacy. If only you had the time and resources for it …

There are two ways to serve customers: proactively or reactively. Customers prefer the former — CSRs who can respond to email enquiries quickly and accurately, and always know why, when and where orders are being processed.

This is all fine in an ideal world but how are they supposed to do this if they simply don’t have the time and need to spend their time carrying out repetitive, tedious tasks day in, day out. AUTOMATION is the answer! Who wouldn’t want to improve quality of data, increase flexibility, increase consistency and identify process improvement opportunities faster?

Not only does automation radically reduce the amount of unfulfilling day-to-day tasks for CSRs, it opens the door for new career-pathing opportunities by necessarily redefining some positions. What’s more, customisable dashboards make it a cinch for managers to better identify top-performing CSRs by tracking metrics tied to individual performance.

Enter Esker…
Esker’s Customer Service solution suite automates routine tasks associated with managing customer requests, orders and claims so the CS team can perform more fulfilling tasks that directly impact your customers and company, while weeding out the root causes of failure in Customer Service processes such as:

Customer Enquiry Management

Acting as a digital assistant for the shared inbox, automation within the customer enquiry management process frees up your Customer Service team to address enquiries faster and improve CX by fixing issues such as:

• Lost or deleted emails
• Limited collaboration
• Lack of clarity & context when addressing customer enquiries Wasted time & talent by forcing staff to search & sort through shared inbox
• Cost impact of low productivity, higher turnover & customer dissatisfaction

Order Management

By enabling all incoming customer orders (fax, email, phone, website, portals, EDI, etc.) to be managed in a single, centralised solution, automation creates a value-added ripple effect, addressing common pains like:

• Order processing errors & slowdowns (leading to high DSO & sluggish cashflow)
• Lower levels of team collaboration, productivity & overall morale
• Narrow range of analytics, reporting & audit trail capabilities
• Excess paper, postage, transport & physical archiving expenses
• Increase in disputes & dissatisfied customers

Customer Claims Management

Another important duty of Customer Service teams is reducing the number of customer claims — something which AI-driven automation solves by addressing common claims management bottlenecks like:

• Inability to analyse claims by type, date or customer
• Limited collaboration with coworkers from multiple departments on the verification, approval of dispute of claims
• No way to automatically post claims as a credit note or to a G/L account in the ERP

Find out more here!

Upnesh Grewal

As Marketing Coordinator for Esker UK, Upnesh manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for O2C solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2022.

Read more insights from Upnesh Grewal

Is your customer service department providing the excellent customer experience that your customers deserve? Is it possible for your team to provide this, or are processes still mainly manual? Read this blog to learn about augmenting customer service through the use of AI-driven automation, and the impact that automation tools can have on the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, TALENT RETENTION, and OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE.

Does your customer service team still perform repetitive manual tasks? Is this repetitive behaviour hindering your customer service team from providing an outstanding customer experience?
Ultimately, we all turn to the customer service team within any business organisation when we encounter problems with their goods/services. We expect them to have all the answers to our queries on hand, and if not, we get frustrated that our problems are not being solved! If you are left feeling disappointed or frustrated, would you return to this business? On the flip side, we do not stop to think about the customer service representative on the other side of the phone. Maybe it’s impossible for them to answer the query; maybe they do not have the resources or capabilities to do this!

We as customers now demand an easy order experience, fast delivery and quick resolution should an error occur along the way. In essence, “buying something” has become the “customer journey!” This requires back-office customer service to become truly customer-facing. First of all, by ensuring that the orders are fulfilled quickly and correctly, and secondly by being able to access accurate information fast when needed.

How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help get orders right?
From the start, orders, regardless of the type or format will be identified and allocated to the appropriate queue. Order information will be accurately extracted and orders will be created in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with a full audit trail. Subsequently, order confirmations and shipping notices will be sent directly to customers from the ERP. When customers contact the company via email the AI digital assistants automatically route emails to the right person or group who can handle that request. All round this allows an optimal customer service experience.

How can AI improve TALENT RETENTION?
Handing off repetitive, manual and error-prone processes to intelligent automation technology that encourages collaboration and communication on all levels lowers business costs, creates visibility for everyone and, subsequently, makes customers happy and keeps them coming back. Making use of AI doesn’t mean replacing the humans with robots and algorithms, but instead profiting from the best of both worlds where, humans and algorithms interact: By replacing the tasks that are dull and susceptible to mistakes with intelligent automation, the humans can focus on interacting with other humans again. Various AI technologies can assist in automating routine tasks so the Customer Service Representatives (CSR) team can focus on customer success, making for happier and more fulfilled employees.

EMAIL TRIAGE:
Natural language processing algorithms analyse incoming emails and take over the classification and routing tasks. Orders are forwarded to the appropriate software, while enquiries can be separated out and routed to CSRs for further processing.

CAPTURE ORDER INFORMATION:
AI-based software solutions can leverage multiple learning technologies such as machine and deep learning. These capture the key data on incoming orders, no matter if they are received by email, EDI or even… fax. The algorithms also improve over time by taking user corrections into account.

PRIORITISE ORDERS:
Priority orders, for example those with a tight requested delivery date, from priority customers or for products that need to be delivered with a particular urgency, can be captured automatically by utilising data recognition capabilities, then validated and moved along to the ERP quickly and correctly.

ANOMALY DETECTION:
Delivering and processing returns of incorrect orders drains time and costs. The AI will detect unusual quantities or amounts by analysing historical order data and sending questionable orders back to the CSR for verification.

How can AI improve the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE?
Offering customers a portal where all information related to their order is viewable and enables them to get answers to questions creates an efficient and streamlined experience. CSRs can also perform actions such as creating new enquiries and tracking both internal and external conversations so that they can answer customer questions quickly and accurately. A portal setup empowers customers to manage their orders when they want, rather than having to write emails or make phone calls during business hours. They can:

• See purchase orders, order confirmations & advanced shipping notices
• Track the shipment status
• Place new orders — either directly from a portal, or indirectly from their company’s procurement application that connects to it
• View & pay invoices

All the information that CSRs need is right in front of them so they can focus on the customers, not technology. It also enables them to give input on success metrics and focus on more critical cases, creating happier customers in the long run, too.

• Order automation rates
• Processing time
• SLA compliance
• Enquiries by date/category
• Views filtered by customer/division/region/country

CSRs can work more proactively and think analytically and creatively, leading to a better customer service experience for everyone.

How can AI improve OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE?
Having all business-relevant analytics and KPIs readily available will not only give management peace of mind by knowing what is happening but can also make the Customer Service team operate in a solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented manner. The result? You do not need to pull data together from different sources, you can go straight to problem detection and solving. It’s easy to use and helps you better understand your business and interact more effectively with your customers.
All the information that CSRs need is right in front of them such as:

• Historical data for answering a customer enquiry
• Pricing/availability requests
• Open orders
• Product questions
• Change order, return, signal a claim

Having this information easily accessible allows the CSRs to focus on the customers, not technology. It also enables them to give input on success metrics and focus on more critical cases, creating happier customers in the long run, too.

BUSINESS SUCCESS IS BEST WHEN SHARED At Esker, we believe the only way to create real, meaningful change is through positive-sum growth. This means achieving business success that doesn’t come at the expense of any individual, department or company — everyone wins! That’s why our AI-driven technology is designed to empower every stakeholder while promoting long-term value creation.

Upnesh Grewal

As Marketing Coordinator for Esker UK, Upnesh manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for O2C solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2022.

Read more insights from Upnesh Grewal