Answering all those emails is quite a challenge!
Ah, it was good to see Dr J back at the lectern on Tuesday night!
It didn't surprise me that he said Congress gave up on using technology for managing inbound email - I have rarely seem anyone successfully implement AI-type solutions. I, for one, am not a fan of auto-response email solutions. They are very hard to implement (no, let me qualify that - they are hard to implement well) and deliver dubious time savings - often, for every email you manage to answer more quickly with an automated system , you end up wasting more time dealing with a wrongly chosen answer to a disgruntled constituent.
For me, a human is better placed to answer an email quickly and effectively. However, they are a few things you can do make that process more efficient:
Routing
In the same way calls are routed in a call center to the correct agent, so you can use rules and AI software to route emails to the most relevant person or queue - e.g. if the subject contains Education, direct it to someone who understands Education issues, if it is in Spanish, direct it to a Spanish speaker. That way, a human still responds, so hopefully reducing the risk of someone not seeing that extra personal comment tagged on the bottom. But at the same time it makes sure the right person is responding and you can monitor the workload queues and quickly re-assign emails if the queues are getting too long.
Another technique is to place unique ids in each email you send, which can be read if the email is replied to by the constituent, and routed back to the person who originally replied to maintain a consistent chain of communication.
Templates
Most reply emails will have some standard phrases in them, and each topic will have some standard comments about a representative's position on that issue, with maybe some links to the website. With more sophisticated software, the person replying can select a standard reply and then personalize according to the original email. That way, you get the best of both worlds - accurate response, while maintaining the personal touch.
Document Libraries
More sophisticated systems also have a document library of all relevant materials in PDF or word format that can be attached to the reply emails.
Synergy
If the email is maintained in the same system as the paper correspondence and phone records, you can make sure that any email is consistent with other communications you may have had with the person.
Contact History
Keeping a complete contact history is crucial. If all inbound email is replied to from a contact management system, you can keep a track of all the emails from one person, and see any themes/threads in their communications to you.
It didn't surprise me that he said Congress gave up on using technology for managing inbound email - I have rarely seem anyone successfully implement AI-type solutions. I, for one, am not a fan of auto-response email solutions. They are very hard to implement (no, let me qualify that - they are hard to implement well) and deliver dubious time savings - often, for every email you manage to answer more quickly with an automated system , you end up wasting more time dealing with a wrongly chosen answer to a disgruntled constituent.
For me, a human is better placed to answer an email quickly and effectively. However, they are a few things you can do make that process more efficient:
Routing
In the same way calls are routed in a call center to the correct agent, so you can use rules and AI software to route emails to the most relevant person or queue - e.g. if the subject contains Education, direct it to someone who understands Education issues, if it is in Spanish, direct it to a Spanish speaker. That way, a human still responds, so hopefully reducing the risk of someone not seeing that extra personal comment tagged on the bottom. But at the same time it makes sure the right person is responding and you can monitor the workload queues and quickly re-assign emails if the queues are getting too long.
Another technique is to place unique ids in each email you send, which can be read if the email is replied to by the constituent, and routed back to the person who originally replied to maintain a consistent chain of communication.
Templates
Most reply emails will have some standard phrases in them, and each topic will have some standard comments about a representative's position on that issue, with maybe some links to the website. With more sophisticated software, the person replying can select a standard reply and then personalize according to the original email. That way, you get the best of both worlds - accurate response, while maintaining the personal touch.
Document Libraries
More sophisticated systems also have a document library of all relevant materials in PDF or word format that can be attached to the reply emails.
Synergy
If the email is maintained in the same system as the paper correspondence and phone records, you can make sure that any email is consistent with other communications you may have had with the person.
Contact History
Keeping a complete contact history is crucial. If all inbound email is replied to from a contact management system, you can keep a track of all the emails from one person, and see any themes/threads in their communications to you.
