The way that companies interact with their customers has been changing. It’s moving away from phone and even email. More and more our communication is running through chat apps, bots and smart assistants. This is impacting the requirements that our customers regarding our software.

The choices that customers are making in this area are partly driven by the desire to streamline the communication with their customers, but there’s also the need to work more efficiently. We want to highlight two alternative communication channels supported by MA!N.

Portals and websites

Portals or websites can be a relative easy channel to implement. People can access it directly on a website or by clicking on a link in email or text message. This channel is low profile because you can start by using something as simple as a contact form on a website. It can enable customers to register a complaint online. They can select the area of the complaint, related invoices and add a comment. By submitting the complaint, the website will send a message to MA!N and the customer will receive a copy by email. MA!N will file the complaint and can start a workflow.

Bots

During one of our recent customer meetings we have showed a case about a bot that we are developing, through which stakeholders can communicate “directly” with MA!N. The advantages of such a bot is that it uses AI (artificial intelligence) and it can offer way more features than a portal or website. The bot guides a user through a proces to achieve her goal and it will become smarter in time.

Lets say that an account manager has a request for a report. Thanks to the bot she doesn’t have to contact the credit management department anymore. Instead she will open the bot and tell it that she wants a report. The bot will ask her questions like which report, unit and more. At the end of the process, the bot sends the requested report by email to the account manager.

Customers can use the bot for information requests, like a copy of an invoice, or perhaps for a payment plan.

Connecting the bot

Our bot will perform best when it’s connected with MA!N. For various reasons, perhaps security, this might not be possible for your company. If so, it’s also possible that the bot is hosted by CE-iT.

There are of course more alternative communication channels than portals and bots. We have only highlighted a few options to give you a first impression. Do you have suggestions or do you want to know more? Please do not hesitate to contact us.