Automating Enquiry Management Process
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA), a global network of specialist procurement and business advisors, is using Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform to connect its email exchange with its CRM system and automate the enquiry management process.
ERA operates as a family-owned, independent organisation, which, since 1992, has built a formidable team of more than 150 franchise partners and is a trusted adviser to over 1600 organisations across the UK and Ireland.
To assist with its sales and marketing activities and to respond to enquiries, ERA use a CRM system called ONTRAPORT. Once a prospective customer’s details are entered into the CRM system a series of information emails are automatically sent to them. Tasks are then allocated to the individual accounts for follow up and the distribution of information packs.
The challenge that the organisation had, however, was that it was receiving 1000 to 2000 enquiries a year via email, and this part of the process wasn’t automated. Each new enquiry had to be manually entered into the CRM system causing a delay in responding to enquiries.
“The main problem we had was that if someone enquired during the evening or at weekends, they weren’t getting the information until the next day. If they enquired Friday evening they wouldn’t get any information at all until Monday morning. It just wasn’t a great user experience from that point of view. If you make an enquiry and you don’t get a response for a couple of days (especially over the weekend) it doesn’t give you a great impression of the business.” Dominic Williamson, Marketing Coordinator, Expense Reduction Analysts.
Removing Manual Processes from Enquiry Management
The organisation wanted to eliminate this manual process so that it could focus purely on following up the enquiries. This would help it to create a more efficient process and deliver a much better end user experience.
“It’s always been an issue having to put all those details manually into our CRM system. We had a cheaper solution previously that just wasn’t up to the task. We needed something that was a little bit more bespoke and was more customisable.” Dominic Williamson
The company is now using Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform to connect the email exchange with its CRM system and automate the enquiry management process. The BPA Platform’s flexibility has made the entire automation process easy to manage and allows ERA to tweak and change the tasks in response to any new email structures.
“Flexibility was key for us because we didn’t want to have a solution that meant we would have to pay to have something developed every time something changed our end. With Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform we can simply create a new task to match the incoming enquiry and configure the task itself to match the email. That flexibility was important to us, and that’s what the BPA Platform gives us.” Dominic Williamson
Download the case study to learn more about how Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform helped Expense Reduction Analysts improve its customer service by automating enquiry management processes.