This manufacturer’s customers were frustrated, sometimes it took hours and even days to get information about an order. The older the order the worse the delay.

The Company: A US division of a Top 100 global manufacturer

The Problem: The customer service department was challenged to meet their client information needs in a timely manner.

This division processes hundreds of orders per day and the information around those orders, things like packing slips, bills of lading, PO’s where all kept in a paper form. This meant when a customer had a question about an order the customer service agents had to try and find the file.

Worse yet, if the order had aged a bit the files might even be stored off-site. Then once the paper was found a copy might be mailed or faxed to the customer, nothing was electronic. This delay in providing timely information was frustrating customers and the labor involved to serve them was growing.  The situation was not good in today’s ‘I need it now’ environment. Something had to be done.

The Solution: We provided to this customer an OnBase software solution along with a mid-range production level scanner. All paper documents are now scanned into the OnBase application. Each item is indexed in such a way that retrieval of a specific documents image is literally instantaneous.

This means that when a customer calls the customer service representative can pull up the needed information while the client is one the phone. If they need to send a copy to the client then can email it right from OnBase. Instant service! 

The Benefits: Customers are receiving the information they need immediately. Each customer service representative is able to manage a higher volume of service transactions. Physical storage space is eliminated. Customer service representatives are more satisfied by being more effective.

Next Steps: Now that the information is stored electronically the natural next step is to make it available to customers directly through the internet enabling self-service, delivered just in time.