Email is a valued asset for so many companies running ECM and CRM systems, yet most are still waiting for a simple, easy to use integration, connecting these two mission critical applications. Imagine an application which could seamlessly integrate email from Microsoft Outlook and Exchange with Laserfiche or any other enterprise application. Seamless management of customer correspondence in the financial industry is not only required, but also boosts employee productivity and customer satisfaction.
The Problem:
The financial industry adheres to regulations which require those companies to keep track of all their customer communications and case files. FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, publishes guidelines for records to be made and kept. SEA Rule 17a-3 and 17a-4 outline the general guidance for exchange members, brokers, and dealers and specifically address electronic record keeping.
Advisors and customer representatives handle between 25-50 customer related emails per day. Some companies will print and file email in paper form. Others will have their employees manually copy, import and index for electronic filing. Both methods consume approximately 1 minute per email per day – which translates to 25 -50 minutes per day, not including the start-stop time it takes to transition from one task or thought to another. Additionally, future searches are often very time consuming, chaotic and frustrating.
The Solution:
An application that is embedded inside of Microsoft Outlook and Exchange to automate email capture. One which allows emails to be tracked and classified by customer name, customer number, policy number, etc. Imagine the fields from your CRM or document management system available to you inside of Outlook or auto-filled based on the customer’s email address. Or possibly you already organize your inbox with Microsoft Outlook folders, and in which case, a solution which polls those folders for new mail items and then copies them to the appropriate records system for you.
Now customer service and account representatives are able to search for past email communications alongside other documents stored in the customer file. Similarly, advisors can easily see client communications to and from the customer service department.
Impact:
One of our Financial Service customers has over 1500 customer facing representatives for pre-sales, sales, and customer service. Saving 25 minutes per day per person translates 625 hours per day. Annually, the company saves 125,000 productivity hours. The ROI for the software was net positive within the first 3 months of implementing Email Manager.
90% of all electronic correspondence is still conducted through email. Customer service and billing are no exception, as many companies send their billings through mass email or directly from an accounts receivable clerk electronically. What happens to all those emails that are stored in your service rep’s inbox? Worse, what happens when an electronic billing bounces back due to an invalid customer email address? 
