25 Nov Automate simple processes
Earlier this month it was my wife’s birthday. I ordered a food processor on the internet. In order to prevent my wife from seeing the gift when it would be delivered, I picked Saturday as delivery date. However, next Thursday a water heater was delivered at my place. On the website of the services provider I tried to start the return to sender process. Because the original delivery date was set on Saturday I was not able to start the process. Therefore I contacted their customer service. The customer service employee asked me to return the delivered product and told me she would cancel my order and promised me I would get my money back. The only thing I needed to do was re-order my food processor. This was the plan, until the following Saturday.
But to my astonishment, the ordered food processor was delivered that Saturday and on top of that I got an email from the customer service in which they asked whether or not my order was delivered correctly. They did not inquire about the water heater. In case my order had been properly delivered (which indeed was the case) I didn’t have to respond. So now I have a food processor and I have a water heater for free as well.
Simple Processes
The above story is an example of a communication- and system registration error in the return to sender process. Every organization runs processes. The bigger the organization, the more processes. Most process optimization and – automation projects aim at complex processes, where most effectivity and efficiency is to be gained. However, the majority of the processes are relatively simple processes. Think for example of the start of a new employee, accepting an invoice, complaint handling, creating new customers and so on.
Mostly your attention is not directed to these processes, but to the more complex processes in your organization. You just don’t have the time, attention, resources and budget to design and build these simple processes in a business process management solution. A logical and valid argument. Still, simple processes require the most human activity, they have the highest error rate and relatively take the most time of your employees.
Therefore imagine: there is no direct involvement of the IT department to design, build and bring these processes live. You can do this yourself in less than 30 minutes. Imagine how much time you would save, how much effect this would have on the error rate, how much money you would save. If the provider in the example had automated their return to sender process, the chances that I got stuck with a unwanted water heater would be considerably smaller.
Solution
There is a solution! With the SPRINTer™ powered and developed by You-Get, it is possible to optimize and automate these simple processes in the organization. This tool is developed to enable the business to rapidly design and bring live their simple processes, without specific IT knowledge. The customer service manager is able to automate the customer request process in a simple manner, without having to wait for his IT colleagues. This will improve the customer experience and – satisfaction, and I’m not stuck with a water heater. The tool is based on Business Process Software IBM BPM and developed by You-Get. More info about the SPRINTer here.