Inboxes: sometimes it seems like your entire day is spent just trying to get to the bottom. And even if you do make it, sure enough, like groundhog day, it starts all over again almost immediately.

And that’s just your personal inbox. Now consider the black hole that is a shared customer service inbox. Companies the world over rely on them to handle everything from invoices to orders, remittance to claims, and everything in between. As well as being a time-consuming manual process to manage, shared inboxes present no end of pitfalls, including:

• Lack of context. Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) spend countless time searching for background information and prior interactions on the issue
• Team member overlap. With multiple people responding from the same email account, duplication or missing an email is both common and confusing for all parties.
• Inefficiency. No insight into what has already been responded to is a further drain on the department’s time.
• Lack of transparency. With only a short subject line to go on, customer service staff can’t quickly identify which emails are urgent, meaning they’re often overlooked.

Many companies have at least one CSR dedicated to their central inbox. A job that’s manual, ineffective, and unmotivating. Whilst some have email processes in place in attempts to curb these problems, they’re not a reliable fix and can ultimately end in creating more complexity than they solve.

Using AI to sort out shared inboxes

There is a solution to this email chaos – and no, it isn’t the ‘delete’ key!

Using the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, Esker’s Customer Enquiries solution was built specifically to categorise emails and documents such as orders, invoices, RFQs and queries. By scanning the email’s subject line and body, the solution automatically sorts requests into different queues for efficient handling, and providing key information at a glance.

With all this information easily accessible from a customisable, user-friendly dashboard, CSRs can prioritise those urgent requests, and see in real-time whether an email has already been validated or actioned by a colleague.
Templated responses can assist with a quick response to the simplest queries, such as pricing requests, whereas internal conversations can tag in a colleague where further clarity is required. All interactions are recorded directly in the system, so any follow-on queries can easily be put into context.

Having these processes in place no doubt leads to faster customer service response times, increased customer satisfaction, and ultimately better employee morale and an improved company reputation too.

Want to learn more about how the visibility and efficiency of an AI-driven email triage solution could benefit your company and your customers? Contact us to find out!

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

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