Problem description
Retailers of electrical goods often have to provide aftercare to their customers. This can be problematic for both the retailer and customer. Customers are frustrated by having to phone and wait to register their issue and retailers have to support these costly call centres. Other traditional omni channels such as web and mobile apps can also be time consuming so an alternative would be to use the increasingly popular voice assistants from Amazon, Apple and Google to facilitate the logging of service issues.
These voice assistants can also open up upsell opportunities for extended warranties and additional purchases.
Features
For the purposes of this exercise I will define a list of features that the voice integration should support.
- The ability to report a fault with an appliance. "Alexa, tell <retailer> my fridge is broken"
- The ability to request information on new products. "Alexa, tell <retailer> I would like to buy a new television"
- The ability to query warranty information. "Alexa, when does the warranty on my kettle expire"
Description
At purchase time a customer's details and purchases are entered. This is normal practice for most appliance and electronics retailers. If it is a first time purchase an account is set up, otherwise the purchases are just added to the existing account.
Standard information is gathered.
Customer Details
Name
Address
...
Email address
Product Details
Manufacturer
Product (refrigerator, TV, kettle etc.)
Serial number
Warranty Information
...
Product Nickname (Bedroom TV, Man Cave Fridge) — this is used to identify the item in the case of multiple appliances of the same type
The retailer now has a comprehensive list of the appliances that the customer has purchased as well as the customers details. This is all that is needed to perform the required activities.
Fault Registration
To register a fault the customer just needs to tell the voice appliance that there is a fault. A sample dialog could be:
Customer: "Alexa, my fridge is broken"
VA: "Which fridge, the Kitchen Fridge or the Beer Fridge"
Customer: "The Kitchen Fridge"
VA: "This appliance is still under warranty, logging a service request"
Using some of the advanced ServiceNow CSM features like 'Agent Intelligence' ServiceNow has automatically logged the case, categorised it and automatically assigned a work order to the nearest available agent with the correct skills - instantly. The customer can then receive an SMS and/or and email with the Service Case details. If the product requires triaging, say in the case of a computer, a service desk agent can call the customer.
Request Product Information
Rather than forcing a customer to browse online it is often better to target a customer with exactly what they want. This could also be done via the Voice Appliance. A sample dialog could be:
Customer: "Alexa, I would like view a selection of new televisions"
VA: "Would you like to view small, medium and large screen televisions" (rather than add the complexity of specifying exact sizes)
Customer: "Large"
VA: "Emailing you a selection of large screen televisions"
Some time later...
Customer: "Alexa, I would like to buy a new television"
VA: "Arranging for someone to call you soon so you can purchase"
The customer receives an email tailored to their request and/or a call from a sales agent. ServiceNow initiates these two separate workflows. The first to query the products database for large televisions and package that query into a brochure style email for the customer. The second workflow will create a task for a sales agent to contact the customer by telephone at or by a certain time.
Request Warranty Information
The customer should be able to check the warranty information for their purchases. If a warranty has expired the customer can be presented with the option of purchasing extended warranty.
Customer: "Alexa, what is the warranty on my Beer Fridge"
VA: "The warranty is for 12 months and expires on <future date>"
Customer: "Alexa, what is the warranty on my Bedroom Television"
VA: "The warranty is for 12 months and expires on <past date>. Would you like information on extended warranty"
Customer: "Yes"
VA: "I have sent you an email with warranty details. Would you like someone to call you to set up an extended warranty"
Customer: "Yes"
In this case the customer can request a call to immediately purchase the extended warranty providing the retailer with instant upsell opportunity. ServiceNow will initiate a workflow to have an automated email with advanced warranty information sent to the customer. Another workflow will be started to create a task for the notify a sales agent to contact the customer by telephone to place the order for the warranty extension.
Conclusion
In many cases it is difficult to generate upsell from an aftercare system but with the variety of tasks a voice integration can be extended to revenue can be generated through warranty and new sales among other areas. In addition, users are spared from long and irritating phone queueing systems normally used to log technical issues. All of this leads to much greater customer satisfaction and loyalty while lowering the costs of customer aftercare. This is a great example of a solution providing a win-win for the supplier and the customer.
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