WO2002029653A1

WO2002029653A1 - An internet based customer feedback management system

Info

Publication number: WO2002029653A1
Application number: PCT/IN2000/000096
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ramanathan Ramachandran
Original assignee: Ramanathan Ramachandran
Priority date: 2000-10-05
Filing date: 2000-10-05
Publication date: 2002-04-11
Also published as: AU2001235966A1

Abstract

An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System comprising a front-end tool and a back end tool, the front-end tool consists of various front-end and back-end tools. The front-end tools consist of the Web page, e-mail module, chat module, Market Research conductor, and the Advertising Module, the back-end tools being the Database and the Coordinator. The Customer being the actual user and the participating Corporate primarily interact with the online CRM management system via the Web Page. A method of Internet based customer feedback management system comprising the basic steps of (1) Triggering an e-mail alert to the corporate if a delay in response to the customers email. (2) Triggering an e-mail alert to customer on the corporates' reply.

Description

AN INTERNET BASED CUSTOMER FEEDBACK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

1. Field of invention:

The present invention relates to a comprehensive complaint/feedback management system for various organisations in the Corporate World and would form a very critical component of these organisations' Customer Relations Management (CRM).

2. Related Art:

Customer Relations Management (CRM) is essentially aimed at distinguishing between customers in order to identify the specific needs of an individual customer and thereafter cater the same. Handling/managing customer complaints and feedback is a very critical component of Customer Relations Management (CRM).

The conventional processes relating to complaints/feedback handling are very inadequate and ineffective for the following reasons:

a. Reaching the complaint/feedback across the company :

Typically customers make complaints or give.feedback relating to company's product or service through phone, email or letters. Each of these media suffers from various shortfalls which ensures that the complaints or feedback do not really get "registered" and the company is unable to satisfy the customers' needs.

^■ Phone - the customers who use the phones to register their complaints or feedback are often an unsatisfied lot. This is on account of the fact that the usage of the telephone for registration of complaints does not ensure accountability from the company's end. Very often, one of the personnel deputed by the company "takes" the phone call, hears out the complaint/feedback and promises to call back. This rarely happens, forcing the customer to call back to the company to follow up on the complaint or often to "re-register" the same. The customer ends up speaking to a different person on each occasion and is forced to repeat the complaint all over again. This leaves the customer unsatisfied even at the stage of registering the complaint.

^■ Email - Although, these days, companies give email ids where customers can give their feedback/complaint, emails are often not replied to unless they are sent to a specific senior person in the company.

^■ Letters - Letters appear to be the most foolproof way of registering feedback/complaints, particularly when they are sent by post (with registered acknowledgement due or through a reputed courier. In this case, the customer is assured of receiving an "acknowledgement" for his letter. This ensures total accountability being pinned on the people handling the complaint in the company.

However, the process of actually writing out or typing letters and having the same being sent through courier or registered post with acknowledgement due, leaves the customer irritated since the same is a time consuming process.

b. The various other reasons which render handling of user feedback /complaint ineffective in organisations are elucidated below: -

Companies suffer on account of factors related to a. People b. Process c. Technology.

a. PEOPLE:

Be it a call centre or web site or any other platform that is used for complaint handling, people in an organisation inevitably are part of the process. The problems associated with the people dependency in an organisation are: ♦ Constraints in handling volumes: With huge volumes of complaints either in the form of telephone calls or email or any other medium, the typical response of a person who begins to suffer from "customer feedback/complaint handling fatigue" is to pass the buck. Thus, the complaint is passed on to another department and the person passing on the complaint cannot ensure follow up on the same so that value is delivered to the customer.

♦ Lack of empowerment: The complaint handling personnel are often not empowered to actually resolve the complaints. It is also quite possible that often the complaint itself does not fall within their purview. This again means the use of another department and associated personnel, to take the complaint forward which process again is often not effectively monitored.

♦ Personalizing issues: Often when complaints are referred to a particular operating department for resolution, the personnel tend to personalize or emotionalise the complaints received relating to the department. They view the complaints as being against the "department", as a slur on their professional competence and generally, their professional pride is hurt. Thereafter, every action of theirs relating to the resolution of the complaint is defensive in nature, thus ensuring that the customer is not provided the value that he deserves.

PROCESS:

The processes in every organisation are inadequate. In that, they do not ensure that a complaint is effectively tracked from start to finish. Almost on all occasions the complaints are passed on to the related department for resolution, with effective monitoring of the same being left to chance.

This ensures that the customer has to get back to the company repeatedly to follow up on his complaint. Even the complaints that are escalated by the customer directiy to the top management are often not tracked because of ineffective processes. The complaint thus gets "lost" and again, the customer, even if he is replied to, does not get the value that he deserves. This problem is particularly relating to companies that operate in a wide geographical area or through a large number of franchisees or intermediaries. In such situation, control over the process of complaint handling is virtually impossible.

c. TECHNOLOGY

Organisations, which do not possess the technology of effectively following up the complaints, cannot render satisfaction to customers. Many organisations try to "fit in" the technology as part of their attempts to gear up their customer service. But find it difficult in an organisation that is already weak and submerged in their chase of business targets. The use of technology again is limited by the fact that the technology cannot work in isolation and needs to be supported by people and processes, which are much equally important components of the system.

For the reasons enunciated above, and due to the rather short-term vision of businesses, in many organisations, customer service is still synonymous with "complaint handling".

Complaint handling is often seen in a very narrow perspective. The limited objective of people in call centres or complaint handling personnel in general is to make sure that the customer "stops cribbing". To that extent, the customer who does not come back with his complaint is seen as having been satisfied. While, more often than not, the customer has moved away in sheer frustration or disgust and is thereafter lost to the company.

3. Objects of the invention The need for The Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System was felt for the following reasons: (a) All good corporates feel the need to interact directly with the customers. However, inefficient systems and processes prevent such direct interaction from being really effective. (b) Customer complaints are "handled" but grievances are not genuinely redressed.

(c) Similarly, the customer feedback is "taken". By whom? At what level? Are these internalised by the organisations? Is the learning factored into the product/service enhancements? Very rarely so.

(d) The use of intermediaries in the process of dealing with customers is inevitable. Often, organisations work through franchisees. Under such systems, it becomes difficult to effectively track if the customers actually get what the company promises to give. So also, for the organisations with wide geographical network. The Company's service promise is thus at the mercy of the dealer or franchisee, and monitoring of its quality is extremely difficult. (e) In many organisations, even forward looking ones, customer delight is still only a stated objective. Accountability is laid down at all levels for business targets but is rarely for customer satisfaction.

The Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System performs that function of Direct interaction with clients

Provides a comprehensive feedback/complaint management module which is b oth interactive and "closes the loop", i.e. it ensures that the customer complaint is tracked till it is resolved, resolved either to the satisfaction of the customer or to the best of the company's abilities.

It is a present happening that "in every organisation MIS reports are manufactured" - which means information is filtered at various levels before it reaches the top management. Thus the top management, particularly the CEO, only gets to hear what others in the organization want him to hear. By escalating periodic MIS reports to the top management of corporates, The Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System presents a "white paper" on the true level Of customer satisfaction delivered by the company and through trend analysis identifies processes that need to be altered to make the organisation truly customer friendly. .

XV. Businesses often do not get to understand the aspirations of the customer.

Through this portal, the management of companies get to knowthe "customers'" perception of the company's product, services and the image. The Interαet Based Customer Feed Back Management System helps corporates listen to their customers and understand their aspirations better.

V. This portal helps organisation internalise and learn from user feedback, factor in improvements in products, services & processes and thus gain competitive advantage in the market place.

VI. The user feedback and complaints provide a wealth of information. The data mining services offered by giveviews.com help organisations leverage on these information and operate as customer focussed entity.

Brief Description of Drawings

Now the invention will be described in detail with reference to drawings accompanying the specification.

Figure 1 of the drawings illustrate various modules of Internet based customer feedback System.

Figure 2 of the drawings illustrates various components of e-module used in the embodiment of the invention.

Figure 3 of the drawings shows the components of chat module.

Figure 4 depicts various components of market research conductor module. Figure 5 of the drawings shows various elements of data base .

Figure 6 of the drawings illustrates various web pages according to the invention. Figure 7 describes the flowchart of various processes which the customer make use of the Internet based customer feedback management system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

The Process The Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System primarily aims to provide direct interaction between a Corporate and its Customer. The broader description of the process would include a registration process, capturing details of the product/service purchased by the customer and the process of interaction between the customer and the corporate, which can be tracked by the customer, the corporate and the coordinator. The process is designed to carry the interaction between the customers and the corporate to its logical conclusion, which is providing value to the customer to best of the corporate' s abilities.

Figure 1: It illustrates the various modules of 'the Internet Based Feed Back Management System'. It consists of various front-end and back-end tools. The front-end tools consist of the Web page (1) e-mail module (2) chat module (3) Market Research conductor (4) and the Advertising Module (6) The Back-end tools being the Database (5) and the Coordinator (9). The Customer (7) being the actual user and the participating Corporate (8) primarily interact with the online CRM management system via the Web Page (1). Figure 2 It describes the various components of the e-mail module, which is an integral part of 'the Internet Based Feed Back Management System'. The Customer (7) access the e-mail server (2) a back-end tool via the Web Page (1) where in he/she could send e-mail to the participating Corporate (8) to express his views, complains, grievances, appreciation etc. The Coordinator (9) also can use the e-mail server (2) via the web page (1) to send e-mails to both the Customer (7) and the participating Corporate (8). The emails server accessed via the Web Page (1) contains a notice trigger (10) which informs the various user of the e-mail module namely Customer (7), Coordinator (9), Corporate (8) of the status of their e-mail as and when communicated through the e-mail server (2).

Figure 3: It illustrates the functionality of the Chat module. The Coordinator (9) plays a crucial part in the role of the chat module. On inviting decisive personals of the participating Corporate (8) to chat on the Web Page (1). This chat is made available to the Web Page (1) via the Chat Server (11), which is activated by the Coordinator (9). This enables the Customers (7) to interact with the Corporate (8) this creating a direct forum between the Customers (7) and the Corporate (8).

Figure 4: It depicts the different components of the Market Research Conductor module. The Customer (7) can access the Market Research Conductor (4) via the Database (5) that validates each Customer (7) to authenticate the research results. The Coordinator (9) collates the results of the marker research, which is stored in the Database (5) and can send the same to either the Customer (7) or the participating Corporate (8) or both to give a feed back. /

Figure 5: It illustrates the functions of the database both when the Customer and the participating Corporate Uses it. Both the Corporate (8) and the Customer (7) go through the Registration process, which gives authenticity and security to the process. After the registration is validated the Customer goes on to view options Inbox (A), Contact (B), Give Views (C) that are enhanced by various backend tools. The Customer on selecting the Contact has a choice of Companies (12) whose Products (13) he can choose from a dropdown menu. The Customer can using the e-mail module (2) express his concerns to the Corporate, the e-mail module forwards this message to the Corporate Inbox (D) and gives acknowledgement to the Customer's Inbox (A). The Corporate can view his Inbox (D) and he has the option to sort by Alphabet (14) and view all customer queries (15). He could respond (E) to the customers using the e-mail module (2) which will deliver the message to the Customer Inbox (A). The Customer can based on his experiences give a ranking to the Corporate using the Ranker (16) this ranking will be displayed using the Ranking Displayer (17) which even the Corporate can view (F) which will point to the Ranking Displayer (14).

Figure 6: It illustrates the various Web Pages that form a functional network of the 'Internet Based Feed Back Management System'. 'The Internet Based Feed Back Management System' has a Web Page (1) as its front end tool and consisting of all the modules described in Figure 1 and the Advertisement module (6) displays details of various participating Corporates. The Customer on clicking on it can be directly taken to the Corporate Web Page (18), which will in multiples of the number of participating Corporates. The Corporate Web Page (18) will also contain the modules described in Figure 1.

Figure 7 (Ftow Chart}: The flow chart describes the process by which a customer makes use of the Internet Based Customer Feed Back System. The Customer before accessing the Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System needs to register oneself if they are a new user and if they are a prior registered user they need to log on using their login name and password given to them while they registered as a new user. On the completion of the registration (19) the customer proceeds to add a product which they wish to monitor (20) on doing so they are taken to their personal home web page (21).

Here they would among others have primarily three functional components; Inbox (22),

Give Views (23) and Market Research (4). The inbox (22) will have recorded all the dialogues between the customer (7) and the corporate (8). The customer can also view the corporate response to the dialogues had with the corporate. Based on his experience give his Ratings (24), which the corporate can view. The other module Give Views (23) enables the customer to get online acknowledgments (25) for all the dialogues. The customer can also using the Market Research Conductor (4) take part in focused market researches.

Figure 1 illustrates the various components that are used to achieve this objective are communication of messages through electronic mail, direct interaction through a chat server, database manager that enables storage and reuse of information, the corporate home page which presents the corporates 'face' to the customer, the market research conductor that enables the corporate to feel the pulse of the customers, the advertisement module which enables dissemination of information by a corporate, relating to its products and services and a coordinator who facilitates the direct interaction between the corporate and its customers and passes on the benefits of 'knowledge management' to corporates by helping them internalise and learn from the customer feedback.

1. E-mail: A standard SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) Server is used through which mails are directly delivered to the customer and the corporates.

2. Chat Server: A standard TRC Chat Server is used on the server end through which the customers can interact with the corporate.

3. Database: A Standard Microsoft SQL server is used to store information. All information about the customer and their dialogues with the Corporate are stored here. Giving each individual customer a unique login and password provides all standard security features and restriction towards the access of others data.

4. Market Research Conductor: This uses the information procured from the customers on particular issues related to a product or service and the same is collated and displayed for the corporates immediate view. 5. Advertisement: A standard Ad Server is used to disseminate information relating the corporates' products/services. 6. Dialogue: The dialogue that a customer has with a corporate is stored in a tree structure always ensure that the loop of communication is closed and is not a one way interaction. 7. Corporate Web Pages: Each corporate has its one distinctive Web Page in the portal which the customer accesses through a sub domain name like for example a Corporate by the name of ABC Limited can be http //ABC xxx com where 'xxx' would be the portal's domains name. This is made possible through the use of a standard DNS server and Web Server.

8. Coordinator The Coordinator module is a corporate entity by itself; which specialises in the business of 'knowledge management' and helps corporates internalise and learn from customer feed back. The Coordinator provides corporates a forum via the portal for direct interaction with the customers. The

Coordinator maintains all the system modules and helps keep them functional.

The Coordinator also facilitates the process of value delivery by corporates to customers through electronic reminders for messages that are not responded to within a set time period. The Coordinator also present Management Information

System (MIS) reports to top management of the corporates by conducting an analysis of all the data obtained from the interaction between the customer and the corporate.

This is a closed portal. Every new user has to necessarily register before utilising The Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System. The registration details are stored in the database and used to validate the customers' entry into the portal. The customer could register/log in either through a sub-domain or the portals' own home page. The customer goes through a standardised registration format.

The customer then moves to a page called "Add a product". This portal allows the customer to give feedback/complaints related to a company's product/service only. The "add a product" page asks the customer to provide various details relating to the product service purchased by him. He can store details of one or more products/services (13) purchased from one or more corporates (12).

On clicking submit button at the end of "add a product" page, the customer gets a personal folio opened for him. This is the customer's own personalised home page. This page enables direct interaction between corporates (12) and customers (7) and stores each and ever dialogue between the customer and the corporate through in the Customer Inbox (A) and Corporate Inbox (D) and enables the customer to track each part of his continuing dialogue with the company.

This page gives the customer the option of viewing his "inbox" (A) and tracking dialogue in the manner explained above as also "choosing a product" that he has stored and "giving views" (C) on the same. Here, the term "views" refers to feedback, complaints, suggestions or opinions relating to a product or service purchased by the customer.

The "give views" page has a "heading" box, which is a drop down list of complaints/feedback classification. Typically, user feedback/complaints in every business can be classified into a few major headings with those that do not fall under these being classified under "others". This list under "headings" is customized to each company, which has a tie-up with the portal.

The customer chooses from the "heading", keys in the "subject" and in the subsequent box, gives his views. On clicking "submit", the message is electronically transmitted to the company using the email module (2) and the customer gets an online acknowledgement in his inbox (A) with details of date and time of registering the views. The message is also stored in the "inbox" (A) in the customer's home folio.

The company, which is registered with portal logs on to its backend of the portal that has been specially configured for them. Their access is restricted through password and the designated person(s) from the company log on at periodical intervals to actually read the views expressed by their various customers.

By typing on top of the customer's message, the company can respond to a customer's views, which are stored in the Corporate's inbox (D). On clicking "submit": i. The company's response together with the customer's views is transmitted to the customer's "inbox" (A) in his personal home folio. ii. The email module (2) automatically triggers a message to the customer's email id with the message "the company has responded to your views. Please click here to log on to the portal and view the response".

The customer thus gets a reminder after which he logs on, using his password, to his personal folio in the portal to view the company's response, which is stored in the "alert box" till such time he reads the message (thereafter, the same is stored in the "inbox" as part of the dialogue between the customer and the company).

The customer reads the response and either: (i) "replies to the message" where he merely wishes to acknowledge the response. Or (ii) has the option of "rating" the response as "satisfactory", or "unsatisfactory" using the ranker (16).

If the rating is unsatisfactory, a new page opens up with the title "you have rated the company's response as unsatisfactory, what do you want the company to do?" Thereafter, the customer is provided with a box wherein he can indicate what he wishes the company to do to satisfy him.

This message is again transmitted to the company electronically and the customer gets another online acknowledgement. The whole process can be continued atthe customer's and company's end till the customer is fully satisfied or the company has tried its best and is unable to do any better.

Like the customer, any person authorised in a company can view the dialogue box (D) with a particular customer by clicking on "choose a product" and thereafter, choosing the customer's name from "choose an alphabet" (14). The Corporate can also view (F) the rating accorded by the customer to its response. This system thus, ensures complete transparency by maintaining an indelible record of the interaction between the customer and the company. It also aids in the decision-making since the top management have ready information available for their intervention, if called for. The Coordinator (9) using a specialised data mining software automates the backend, which consists of providing value-added' MIS reports to senior managements in corporates on analyses relating to customer feedback/complaints and all related information. The data mining software enables correlation of dissipated data gathered from various customer interactions.

Market Research:

Opinion polls and surveys are conducted through the portal as part of market research customized for various companies. Traditional market research is very time consuming and expensive. The portal offers a readily available database that will be used by us for market research.

This customer database (5) is held in confidence by the coordinator and will not be divulged to any person, whatsoever. However the diverse customer database available with the coordinator (9) is used for market research. The market research, in the form of opinion polls or surveys or in any other form, is conducted through the personal folio of registered customers (7)

In order to participate in such market research, however, a registered user has to complete Part 2 of the registration, which he may have skipped earlier. Only then will his participation in the polls be activated and can the customer use the market research conductor (4).

On participation in the poll, an instant display of the results in graphic or other form is available for the companies at their backend.

Chat Sessions:

Through the use of specialised chat servers (11), this portal enables online interaction between senior officials of registered companies (8) and their customers (7) at periodic intervals. The coordinator (9) plays a pivotal role in inviting such officials this contributing to the modular functioning of the system. i. Chat Server enables companies and their customers to convey their views online and get an immediate response to the same. This facilitates direct interaction between them. ii. The customer can receive message from the company using the chat utility. iii. The customer can send the message or response to a message from the company using "chat."

It is to be understood that various objective of the description are primarily intended to explain various salient features of the invention. It is to be further

Understood that the description is in no way limit the scope and ambit of the invention, which is defined in the statement of claims. It is to be noted that within the scope of the invention various modifications are permissible .The scope of the claims is appended in the following description.

Claims

1. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System comprising a front- end tool and a back end tool. The front-end tools consist of the Web page, e-mail module, chat module , Market Research conductor , and the Advertising Module , the back-end tools being the Database and the Coordinator , the Customer being the actual user and the participating Corporate primarily interact with the online Customer Feed Back Management System via the Web Page.

2. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System as claimed in claim 1 wherein the display component is a browser.

3. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System as claimed in claim 1 wherein the customer and company communicate via the Internet.

4. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system has a coordinator who facilitates interaction between customer and company.

5. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system provides a forum for the customer and companies to interact with each other.

6. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system comprising an e-mail module where the customer and companies' can exchange e-mails.

7. An Internet Based Customer Feed Back Management System as claimed in claim, 1 comprising an e-mail module where the customer and companies can exchange e-mails and such e-mails can be monitored by the system for responses.