Closing the correspondence loop...
I was disappointed but not surprised to hear from Dr J that a plan to scan in all inbound communications for Congressional offices had been abandoned. Like managing inbound email, it is hard to do properly, but I have seen it done, and it can work really well.
At my last company, all inbound communications were scanned, and 'routed' like emails and phone calls to the most appropriate agent (this service center covered Europe, so, for example, we needed to have letters in German sent to a German service agent). Then, when that agent logged in, they could see the letter on the left hand side of their screen ready to be answered, and find the correct contact in the Contact Management System (CMS).
Once they found the right person, the screen changed so that the image of the original letter was on the left, and on the right was the correspondence functionality to enable them to respond appropriately.
The contact management system could then generate the letter with the correct address, and keep a record of the letter that was sent. This ensured that any service agent who received a follow up call by the customer knew what letters has been sent to the customer, when, and what communication had triggered the correspondence.
I am not suggesting this was an easy solution to implement, nor a cheap one. But for big offices it is definitely worth it for the improved synergy between all the different forms of communication.
At my last company, all inbound communications were scanned, and 'routed' like emails and phone calls to the most appropriate agent (this service center covered Europe, so, for example, we needed to have letters in German sent to a German service agent). Then, when that agent logged in, they could see the letter on the left hand side of their screen ready to be answered, and find the correct contact in the Contact Management System (CMS).
Once they found the right person, the screen changed so that the image of the original letter was on the left, and on the right was the correspondence functionality to enable them to respond appropriately.
The contact management system could then generate the letter with the correct address, and keep a record of the letter that was sent. This ensured that any service agent who received a follow up call by the customer knew what letters has been sent to the customer, when, and what communication had triggered the correspondence.
I am not suggesting this was an easy solution to implement, nor a cheap one. But for big offices it is definitely worth it for the improved synergy between all the different forms of communication.
