Although there’s been a sentiment circulating that email as a customer communication channel is on its way out, we have not seen this in practice. In fact, incoming customer emails are a great avenue for making sales – when done well. Thought-through email routing and processing can be very beneficial.
However, manual sorting of incoming customer emails can be a time-consuming process. Customer email processing can be made more sales-focused. It can be done by moving from manual sorting of emails (or no sorting at all) to automated, content-based queues and prioritized replies.
How customer email handling is set up for most companies
Customers are used to receiving automated responses after writing to customer service. It does not matter usually whether the email is a general inquiry or to get an offer for a service. These automated responses give a general idea about when they can expect an answer. Generally, actual response times vary between 3-5 business days, depending on the company.
In some cases, companies may have a full-time position for someone to manually pick out the more important emails. It may mean some emails get a faster reply. However, this means working through each email one by one which is time-consuming manual work.
Most companies, however, do not use any inbound customer email routing or other means to make a distinction between customers’ general questions and emails with sales potential. All of the incoming emails simply sit in a queue until responded to on a “first come first served” basis.
When it comes to responding to emails, large customer service teams mean lower response times. This creates high human resource costs and idle time for agents. When there are fewer agents to answer incoming emails, costs are lower. Then the customers have to wait longer for a response.
No matter the size of the company or customer service team, using intelligent solutions to sort business critical emails from general ones is the easiest and most efficient way forward.
Automatically sorting out emails with sales potential
Feelingstream has developed an AI model that analyzes customer emails in order to determine their business value. It helps prioritize their importance in the queue accordingly.
The model enhances customer email processing as it sends all emails with sales potential into a prioritized email queue. Customer service agents trained in making sales can immediately handle these emails.
Agents can answer the other, not business-critical questions from the main queue in the normal timeframe.
We have clients using Feelingstream’s email processing solution in telecom and banking companies. Here’s an example of how they use it in their operations:
When a customer writes an email to a company’s customer service, asking about general service charges, they typically get a reply within a few business days. When the AI model detects that a customer email has sales potential, the system moves it to a prioritized queue. For example, if a customer asks for an update on their loan process, an agent answers in an hour – that’s 96% faster.
Both customers receive an automated email at first, stating that the response time is 2-3 business days. The customer whose email has been classified by our AI model as a business-critical one will get a great surprise by an unexpectedly fast response.
When businesses send a fast reply in a potential sales situation, it has a strong positive impact on securing sales.
Not only that though – when a customer expects a reply within days but then receives it within hours – that is simply great customer service!
Feelingstream takes inbound customer email routing to a new level
Feelingstreams’ AI solution for inbound customer email routing does not only help catch and prioritize emails with sales potential. This also helps to reach higher customer satisfaction rates.
Automated customer email routing removes time-consuming manual work from customer services as well as reduces costs for companies.
Making more sales through increasing efficiency is something that we are passionate about helping our clients strive towards.
If you would like to learn more about our email routing and prioritization solution, get in touch with us.
