Every company wants to reduce operational costs and make time for meaningful, creative tasks that only humans can perform. The recent rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent process automation techniques promises huge opportunities to this end.
Although the true potential of the technology remains untapped by most companies, industry leaders are eager to embrace it, paving the way for the rest of the pack. Yet businesses that successfully harness the benefits of automation do not like to share their success stories. One possible reason is ethical: at the end of the day, automation reduces staff numbers.
However, there are some amazing cases to study out there. Keep reading and you will learn what advantages you could reap from automating customer support, report management, human resources, and sales.
Report management automation
The first case on this list is a look at automation from the inside out. Intetics helped a large freight and vehicle operator automate breakdown reporting. The company has numerous units in the field. In the past, every time one of them broke down, they would have to do a lot of paperwork and would suffer financial losses due to the long downtime.
Drawing upon our Inspection Form Manager (IFM) app, we created a product tailored to the needs of this client. We automated:
- driver authentication by integrating the company’s CRM with the Active Directory system
- vehicle breakdown registration by integrating the app with the client’s planning system
- report mapping by integrating Google Maps with GPS tracking.
Once reporting was automated, the average unit downtime caused by technical problems dropped dramatically. The company also cut related bureaucracy to the point where they could finally focus on expanding the business rather than constantly struggling to deal with administrative issues.
Sales and marketing automation
Established in 1946, Casio remains one of the leaders in the consumer electronics market. The manufacturer automated its marketing on a large scale by introducing a popular CRM, HubSpot.
Casio UK streamlined its customer journey by removing a lot of manual work from the process. They create landing pages that engage visitors and encourage them to share their personal information.
Further engagement down the sales funnel is fully automated. The system nurtures prospects with highly personalized follow-ups based on their interests and activity.
The CRM company claims that the automation of marketing for Casio UK resulted in a 26% revenue growth, a 12% rise in organic traffic and 496% more leads. As a software development company that has been helping businesses with similar tasks for decades, we can say these figures look realistic.
We can help you achieve stellar results through automation as well.
Customer support automation
The use of AI in customer support is growing as the technology evolves. In 2019, a study by Gartner predicted that about 40% of contact center requests will be handled automatically by 2023. Two years earlier, Alibaba Group provided an impressive demonstration of how serious it is about establishing itself as a forerunner of the trend.
The Chinese e-commerce giant introduced an AI-powered chatbot, Alime Shop Assistant, to provide higher efficiency for merchants trading on its platforms. On June 6, through the promotional campaign launched by Alibaba, the chatbot helped L’Oreal Paris to process 89% of customer requests, where 63% of all inquiries were resolved without human agents.
In addition to customer service, Alime Shop Assistant is equipped with AI techniques like natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning which allows it to:
- personalize product recommendations
- nurture customers via email
- process order details
- handle returns and refunds.
Human resources automation
KPMG has been one of the world’s leading employers for many years now. In 2019, the Big Four firm hit No. 6 on the list of the World’s Most Attractive Employers released by Universum, a global employer-branding company that surveyed college students in the 12 biggest economies.
The leading accounting company is also renowned for its openness to innovation. With over 1300 employees and more than 300 hires annually, KPMG Belgium took its HR to a new level in 2015. They automated four main areas of their onboarding process:
- Compliance
- Clarification
- Culture
- Connection
Thanks to the automation, every new hire at KPMG Belgium receives the same level of support and guidance on their employee journey from day one.
The system provides newcomers with placement documents, sets milestones, gathers feedback, connects them with their direct coworkers, delivers messages from the company’s top management helping employees embrace the KPMG culture and more.
The accounting firm reports that its employees have rated their hiring experience at an average of 4.45 out of 5 since the automation has been introduced. They also managed to decrease the waiting time from signing a contract until the first productive day at work, which resulted in improved efficiency across departments.
Conclusion
Well-established companies cover up the details of how they automate their processes not only because automation takes human jobs away. Competitors watch each other closely in order to adopt practices that have proved themselves highly efficient; automation, without a doubt, is one of them. No one wants to share their secret weapon.
Odds are that as you’re reading this, your competition is also introducing advanced automation techniques. Contact us for a quote and see how we can help you get ahead.
