How, in just a few days, the email flow significantly decreased thanks to AI at APRR.
Testimonial from Viven Blanc, Digital Marketing Manager at APRR
APRR manages the highways in the East and South of France.
The customer service deals with various topics such as:
- All telepeage (electronic toll collection) subscriptions
- Badges, their usage, and possible malfunctions
- Telepeage billing and recorded journeys
- Lost items, mainly at highway rest areas
- Quality of reception and customer service
- Toll prices, requests for duplicate tickets, or vehicle classification issues
- Occasional operations like toll exemptions for healthcare workers during COVID
- …and more.
The Problem
A significant portion of these requests are made in writing, either through emails or contact forms.
A considerable number of these inquiries could be handled directly by users themselves, as the necessary information is available on the website, and self-care functionalities exist for subscribers.
There are also emergency situations that require immediate attention, and in all cases, a 24/7 service must be available. During vacation periods, there are significant spikes in the workload, leading to difficulties in managing human resources.
Lastly, a substantial volume of emails requires customer information at the time of sending the email.
APRR’s analysis led them to prioritize three main axes:
- Reduce the incoming email flow to allow advisors to focus on tasks with higher added value.
- Facilitate self-care (broadly defined, including informational inquiries) to both decrease the email flow and enhance the perceived quality of service by users.
- Minimize the need for additional information requests during initial contact.
The Approach
APRR considered two types of solutions: mailbots and chatbots. After issuing a request for proposals, two vendors were selected to conduct Proof of Concepts (PoCs).
Even before arriving at the decision of the best solution, these PoCs highlighted some key points for APRR :
- Importance of analyzing attachments (toll receipts, invoices) to extract relevant information.
- Necessity of integration with the internal Information System for subscriber-related inquiries.
- Significant potential cost savings through reducing back-and-forth interactions, emphasizing the importance of providing assistance to ensure initial inquiries are comprehensive.
- Need for flexibility in the solution to gradually adapt to different challenges and requirements.
The results obtained from these PoCs not only led to the selection of the technology and vendor teams but also precisely defined the top-priority use case: coupling a chatbot and a mailbot, known as the “Formulaire Très Intelligent OWI” (FTI, or Smartform).
The Benefits
The solution was deployed in early June 2021, just before the peak holiday season.
Within a few days, the email flow significantly decreased, and users embraced this new service available to them, contrary to the typical challenges observed following chatbot deployments.
In the weeks that followed, as the solution experienced real and massive usage, it brought to light the main shortcomings and areas for improvement.
Through close collaboration between OWI teams and APRR, and with the gradual empowerment of internal experts, the reliability reached the required level, and all issues were successfully addressed and eliminated.
La solution a été mise en production début juin 2021, peu de temps avant le grand rush des vacances.
En quelques jours seulement, le flux de mails a diminué de façon importante et les usagers se sont appropriés ce nouveau service à leur disposition, contrairement à ce qui est généralement constaté suite au déploiement de chatbots.
Pendant les semaines qui ont suivi, l’utilisation réelle et massive de la solution a mis en évidence les principaux manques et besoins d’amélioration.
En collaboration étroite entre les équipes OWI et APRR, et avec une prise d’autonomie progressive des experts internes, la fiabilité a atteint le niveau requis , et l’ensemble des irritants ont été éliminés.
The Next Steps
When APRR replaced its customer relationship management tools, the integration with OWI happened seamlessly, resulting in even more efficient processes.
The next goal is to incorporate the remaining emails, including the free-form emails, into this chain for processing.
