5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service

Customer Service is at the heart of any business. However, when you are a company with numerous items, it is essential to have a system in place to provide the best experience to your consumers. One of the ways modern businesses improve their service is by implementing Order Management.

As Order Management specialists who have worked with over 100 Food and Beverage businesses, we have firsthand experience with how Order Management can help optimise your business. Especially when we know how complicated and clunky most of the processes are in companies like yours.

That being said, this month we conducted research and chatted with various Customer Service teams in the UK and ROI. Our main goal was to understand how businesses currently approach Customer Service, especially the Order Management process. The numbers that we uncovered are astonishing! Now, before we drill down into the results, let’s see what exactly we mean by Order Management.

What is Order Management?

Order Management refers to the process and set of activities involved in efficiently handling customer orders from the point of receipt to fulfilment and delivery. To successfully manage the methods, it is required to have a system to manage the entire lifecycle of an order, ensuring its accuracy, timeliness, and customer satisfaction.

Order Management involves various stages and functions, including order capture, order processing, shipment and delivery, reporting and analytics, and much more!

As you can see, efficient Order Management is a crucial tool for managing your business. It captures and processes orders, streamlines operations, automatically flags issues and notifies your team of any exceptions. This provides greater efficiency and accuracy for your team and improves Customer Satisfaction. An Order Management solution eliminates the time-intensive, expensive, and often error-prone process of manual order entry. Allowing your employees to instead focus on building customer relationships and providing improved customer service.

Who handles email orders?

Now that we know what is Order Management, we have a question, “Who typically handles email order processing in the food and beverage industry?” Let’s dive into a recent survey conducted across the industry that has shed light on the distribution of responsibilities for this essential task.

Astonishingly, a significant 52% of organisations entrust this responsibility to their dedicated customer service teams. These teams are the backbone of efficient order management, ensuring timely and accurate processing.

In contrast, salespeople, who play a pivotal role in relationship building, take on this task for 21% of companies, highlighting the cross-functional nature of their roles.

Business managers, responsible for strategic decision-making, oversee email order processing in 24% of cases.

A smaller percentage, around 3%, falls under the “Other” category, reflecting diverse operational structures. This data underscores the pivotal role of customer service teams, comprising over half of the responses, showcasing their unmatched expertise in ensuring seamless order fulfilment and customer satisfaction.

What’s more, you might assume that most businesses have this process automated in their workplace. However, during our research, we discovered that a staggering 74% of companies receive orders by phone and email, which means they manually process incoming requests, key in 50 to 100 lines in each order form, and spend most of their week covering this tedious task. Only 16% of companies have a platform for order management that provides them with better customer service and gives them a competitive advantage.

Let’s dive into Order Management and the 5 main reasons why it’s essential to have automation for your Customer Service.

5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service.

1. Data mistakes.
2. Time.
3. Missed emails.
4. Complex forms.
5. Urgent calls.

Reason 1. Data mistakes.

5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service.

The high turnover rate in the Customer Service industry has led to a number of issues, including a lack of experienced employees and a lack of proper training for new hires. As a result, many employees struggle with correctly inputting information into the system, which can lead to errors in order processing.

However, it’s not just the customer service team that is facing challenges. Operation Specialists, who are responsible for keying in important data, also face a high volume of work and are prone to making mistakes. Unfortunately, these mistakes can have serious consequences for customers, including receiving the wrong products or an incorrect number of goods.

Reason 2. Time.

5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service.

Order processing can be a very laborious and time-consuming task that takes up a lot of resources. On average, teams handle hundreds of orders daily, which prevents them from engaging in more valuable work. As per a study, almost 60% of employees estimate they could save six or more hours per week, which is almost a full workday if the repetitive aspects of their jobs were automated.

Imagine what they could accomplish with that extra time! For instance, they could focus on improving customer service, finding new business opportunities, or developing innovative products. Automation can help free up resources, enabling businesses to do more with their existing workforce. By automating order processing, your team can be more efficient, productive, and successful.

Reason 3. Missed emails.

5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service.

Another significant flaw with manual order management systems is missed order emails. It comes from companies relying on employees to manually monitor and manage incoming order emails. This can often lead to missed emails, which can cause a variety of problems for the business.

For example, if an order confirmation email is missed, the team may not be aware that they need to fulfil the order, which can result in a breach of the delivery terms. Additionally, missed emails can also lead to a decrease in customer satisfaction rates, as customers may not receive timely updates on their orders.

Moreover, missed emails can leave the team feeling helpless and frustrated, as they are unable to provide the best possible customer service due to issues beyond their control.

“All our orders arrive by email & occasionally by phone. On average, we would take around 200 orders which keeps our team super busy! Our main challenge is missed emails that we come back too late because it affects our Customer Satisfaction Rate.” – Sales Specialist.

Reason 4. Complex forms.

5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service.

Following the time issue, complex order forms are a common concern for many businesses. They take up most of a working day from Customer Service teams and can cause significant delays and inefficiencies. In most industries, these forms range between 50 to 100 lines and require a lot of time to fill and process, especially if done manually. This prolonged process can lead to the exhaustion of the team responsible for handling the customer orders and processing the forms.

In addition to the time-consuming nature of complex forms, they can also cause confusion and errors, which can further exacerbate the problem. This can lead to additional time and resources being devoted to correcting mistakes and addressing customer complaints, which can be frustrating for both the customer and the customer service team.

“Although we receive customer orders by web, EDI, and email and have everything in one place, our 3-person team is exhausted. All order forms are complex, and it takes enormous time to fill them. Due to the tedious and repetitive work, we would find data entry mistakes and inaccurate figures.” – Customer Order Manager.

Reason 5. Urgent calls.

5 Reasons to Automate Customer Service.

Urgent calls are a critical aspect for any business that relies on order processing and were the last issue highlighted during our research. While emails might be a complicated method for Operation Managers, phone calls can be even more challenging.

Customers often call with urgent orders and expect next-day delivery, even if they haven’t paid for the product yet. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the Customer Service team, as they are responsible for managing these orders while balancing other tasks. The team must remain alert and respond quickly to these calls to ensure customer satisfaction.

To make matters worse, urgent calls often come during peak business hours, leaving little time for staff to focus on other essential tasks. This can lead to increased stress and pressure on the team, resulting in reduced productivity and performance. Automating the process of handling urgent calls can help alleviate this burden, freeing up the Customer Service team to focus on more complex tasks and improving overall efficiency.

In fact, recent studies have shown that up to 70% of workers believe that the biggest opportunity for automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work, such as handling urgent calls or keying order emails. By implementing an efficient Order Management system, businesses can improve their overall performance, reduce stress on their staff, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction.

Conclusion.

Customer Service is one of the most crucial departments in any organisation, and it is directly impacted by the lack of modern technologies in its processes. It is safe to assume that most companies that process orders experience the issues mentioned above. Without proper automation in place, customer service representatives may struggle with manual data entry, resulting in delays, errors, and unhappy customers.

However, there is a solution to this problem. Research shows that 16% of businesses that have implemented Order Management automation have reported significant improvements in their sales processes. Automation has allowed them to re-engage their salespeople in other aspects of the business and focus on high-value tasks.

According to a Sales Coordinator, “We have a customer portal, and we couldn’t imagine our working life without it! Customers place orders that are automatically filled and updated accordingly in our system. The platform takes almost no time to fill the form when our orders have between 50 to 100 lines! Our team now deals only with exceptions or orders coming via phone. It allows us to re-engage salespeople in other aspects of the business and allows them to take part in high-value tasks.”

If your company is struggling with similar issues, it may be time to consider an Order Management solution. By implementing an automated system, you can empower your customer service representatives to focus on high-value tasks, improving customer satisfaction and streamlining your operations. Chat with us today to learn more about how automation can benefit your business!