Boosting Customer Satisfaction with
Integrated Complaints & Returns Handling

Client:
Manufacturer that distributes its high-quality products through upscale venues, including websites, catalogs, and stationery and gift stores

Business Challenge:
To take a customer-centric approach to complaints & returns handling in order to improve customer service

Technology Challenges:
To move complaints & returns functions from a disconnected set of standalone and client-server systems to a single, internet-accessible solution that integrates data from these applications:
• CRM
• Complaints & returns
• Inventory management
• Order processing

... Across these systems:
• Proprietary stovepipe applications
• J.D. Edwards ERP system
• Data warehouses
• IIS web server

Solution:
Creative Data built a web-enabled solution that provides task-specific views into integrated information about customers, complaints & returns, orders, and inventory. The closed-loop system provides timely details about all aspects of each customer, purchase, and issue. It also updates the operational systems with new data. For example, with the solution:
• Staff can field, track, and respond to customer returns and complaints
• Sales representatives can manage customer relations
• Operations people can administer inventory and order processing
• Managers can get their hands on executive overviews and analyses
• The warehouse can track complaints to specific returns

The system has been running flawlessly, 7x24, for over two years -- with less than a day of maintenance.

Benefits:
• Increases customer satisfaction at a critical touch point --
• when unhappy customers complain
• Lowers deployment and maintenance costs because the solution requires
• no client software
• Leverages IT investments in strategic systems such as ERP, CRM, etc.
• Eliminates error-prone data reentry because the solution writes new input
• to all relevant operational systems
• Gives users direct access to related CRM applications through
• web-enabled links
• Accelerates system acceptance and saves money on training because the
• web-enabled application is easy to use
• Cuts ongoing IT development and maintenance costs by replacing more
• than ten home-grown, stovepipe applications with a single,
• standards-based solution
• Reduces demands on IT, which used to perform extensive data reentry,
• migration, and uploading –- a tedious process that resulted in less
• complete, less accurate information



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