Business Process Services White Paper Automating Email Management: Managing Workflow Effectively
About the Authors Deva Latha S. Assistant Consultant Deva Latha has over nine years of experience in Business Process Services (BPS). She holds a master s degree in Computer Science and has contributed to identifying process automation opportunities in various BPS processes. She has been instrumental in the development of the Customer Experience Portal for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS ) retail practice. Seshadri Samaddar Assistant Manager Seshadri has over six years of experience in BPS. He holds a master s degree in Business Administration and has contributed to identifying process automation opportunities in various BPS processes. He has played a vital role in deploying TCS proprietary TRAPEZE tools across various industries finance and accounting, energy and resources, utilities, media and information services, and market research.
Businesses receive many different kinds of emails from customers: inquiries, requests, orders, complaints, and so on. Quick and effective responses to customer emails have a direct and immediate impact on customer satisfaction. However, it is difficult to efficiently route each email to an employee capable of handling that specific issue and to consistently and efficiently manage workflows for each kind of email. The task is made more difficult by the high volume of emails most organizations receive. This paper summarizes the key problems that businesses face in email management and proposes an automated email allocation, categorization and management solution to address these challenges. The proposed approach improves productivity, accuracy, turnaround time and quality of response. We also believe that such a solution would ensure faster adoption at a lower-cost as it can easily integrate with existing email clients (such as Microsoft Outlook and IBM Notes ).
Contents Introduction 6 Requirements of an Effective Email Management System 6 Approach to Streamlining and Automating emails 7 Integrate with Existing Email Client 7 Automate Email Allocation for Efficiency 7 Customize Workflows 7 Send Bulk Emails and Trigger Emails 7 Define Email Templates 8 Data Analysis and Reporting 8 Key Benefits of an Effective Email Management System 9 Conclusion 9
List of Abbreviations AHT B2C BPS ERU M&IS SLA TAT Average Handling Time Business to Consumer Business Process Services Energy, Resources and Utilities Media and Information Services Service Level Agreement Turnaround Time
Introduction Most B2C organizations (such as public utilities, retailers, etc.) regularly receive large volumes of emails from customers. These emails require intelligent responses that acknowledge and address customer issues and requests. Due to the large volumes, organizations find it challenging to prioritize critical mails and send timely responses. Added to this, the inherent flexibility of the medium makes it difficult to maintain consistency across responses. Standard email clients do not address most problems related to email management. Hence, managers and associates require additional support to manage emails effectively and efficiently. The proposed solution in this paper is an automated application that incorporates business rules, SLAs for responses, and defined workflows to provide a consistent, effective, and timely response to each mail. Requirements of an Effective Email Management System Ineffective management of emails can lead to inefficiency, inconsistency, and confusion in customer communication. Most organizations use email client software, but most of these email clients do not have sophisticated email management capabilities. A good email management system makes it easy to: n Maintain a centralized repository of email history n Generate reports on email volumes to refine operations n Categorize emails and create workflows for each type based on business needs n Set TAT for predetermined triggers and ensure timely response n Track types of emails sent and received by every associate each day n Monitor associate productivity n Distribute workload efficiently among associates n Use templates to draft responses quickly and consistently, especially for long emails or common issues 6
Approach to Streamlining and Automating Emails An effective email management application requires the following features and functions: Integrate with Existing Email Client Adopting a completely new application is not easy, and users need to be thoroughly trained and need time to familiarize themselves with the new process. This reduces the productivity of users during the transition period. Integrating with the existing email client drastically reduces the training and adoption time and is a more effective solution. Automate Email Allocation for Efficiency Typically, emails are routed to a common inbox and are assigned to respective associates manually. An effective approach to email management ensures that emails are directed to the right associate by automating routing rules. The routing rules are based on pre-defined criteria such as product or service categories or keywords. The system also defines escalation paths to mitigate customer dissatisfaction effectively. The email management system should also provide stakeholders with a view of the volume of emails available in each associate s inbox and use this information to route subsequent mails. For a follow-up email, it is more efficient if the application can identify the previous sender s name and allocate it to the same associate to ensure continuity. Customize Workflows Associates may not be consistent in including all necessary information when communicating with customers. Email auditing can help an organization understand how employees handle compliance and uncover potential risks. By sending drafts of critical emails to a senior associate or a quality auditor, email content can be verified before it is sent to the customer. Managers should be able to set up audit workflows for all incoming mails, while allowing users to make exceptions for email auditing based on business rules. Workflow triggers based on email queries can route emails efficiently. The system should also allow for customization of workflows based on business requirements. Send Bulk Emails and Trigger Emails Users should be able to send bulk emails to a list of recipients, scheduled to go out to all users simultaneously. For certain routine inquiries, automated trigger emails can provide timely and informative responses without human intervention. 7
Define Email Templates A defined template provides an easy way to deal with usual or repetitive queries, encouraging organized, complete and consistent responses, and increasing productivity. An associate can save the time spent on drafting a complex response or on repeatedly typing similar messages, by selecting a template from a menu and then adding information to it as needed. A template also ensures that all relevant information is consistently provided for each type of query. Using a template can improve both productivity and response quality. n Efficient Resource Utilization: Automation helps reduce the response time and the AHT for each email, releasing time that associates can use with more productive activities. n Quality Improvement: Pre-defined templates reduce the risk of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Data Analysis and Reporting An effective email management approach provides pre-defined and customizable reports that give managers visibility into the volume and status of emails, associate productivity, and other measures. Reports should also indicate which associate handled a particular email. Below are some typical reports that managers and associates can choose to receive: n Daily email volume and status: This indicates the number of emails received and handled each day. A sample report is displayed in Figure 1. Received Emails - 60 Resolved Emails - 50 10 14 5 50 Complete - 50 Escalation - 5 Pending - 14 Follow Up - 10 Figure 1: Daily Email Activity Sample Report 8
n Associate-wise email volume and status: This helps managers track productivity of associates by reporting on the status and volumes of emails in their mailboxes. Figure 2 displays a sample report. Associate-wise email Volumes Associate 6 40 0 3 8 Associate 5 27 9 7 5 Associate 4 39 8 6 2 Associate 3 28 0 8 3 Associate 2 15 2 9 2 Associate 1 30 3 8 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Completed Escalation Pending Follow Up Figure 2: Email Activity by Associate Sample Report n Emails received in each inbox: This provides information on the number of emails received and handled by each associate, enabling judicious planning and enhancing efficiency. These reports provide users easy-to-use information in real time. Associates can monitor their email volumes better and priotitize their activities, and supervisors can allocate emails efficiently and optimize queues. Key Benefits of an Effective Email Management System This approach to email management provides the following benefits: n Increases productivity by automatically routing emails to relevant users n Monitors mailboxes and email status to ensure all emails are handled effectively n Enables managers to define workflows for better productivity and quality control n Improves response quality through a built-in audit process before emails are sent to customers 9
n Maintains an audit trail of each email, improving accountability and encouraging adherence to best practices n Provides a centralized repository of emails for greater visibility and knowledge sharing n Generates customizable and pre-defined reports to analyze trends and efficiency, which enable proactive decision-making n Uses pre-defined SLAs for every email 'type' to trigger actions and prioritize emails, ensuring compliance and improving customer satisfaction n Enables users to create standard templates and auto responses for specific types of email to improve consistency and productivity Conclusion The usefulness and flexibility of email technology has greatly facilitated business communication, but allocation, tracking, managing and analyzing emails continues to be a challenge. This paper proposes an automated approach for effective management of customer service emails, including categorization of email by incorporating pre-defined business rules in the automated process. We propose the use of defined workflows and email templates to enhance user productivity. By automatically tracking metrics, such as emails received, allocated, pending, etc., associates and managers get more visibility into their performance. Automated triggers, workflows and audit processes also enable improvement in SLA compliance, response times, quality of responses and associate utilization. Such an email management solution streamlines email management and provides users with a real-time view of what s happening in their mailboxes. The audit trail provides details of contents managed in the repository, with actions taken on each email recorded and readily available for future recall. By providing easy integration with existing mail clients, the solution ensures that users can quickly adapt with minimal training and without much loss in interim productivity. An effective email management solution not only increases employee productivity, but also equips managers with better visibility into associate and team performance. It also improves customer satisfaction through faster and more effective responses to customers. 10
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