Establish a one-contact resolution for customer issues
Ensure that customers must contact the company only once to get their problems resolved
Frank, L., Poll, R., Röglinger, M., & Lea, R. (2020). Design heuristics for customer-centric business processes. Business Process Management Journal, 26(6)
Companies should ensure that all information needed to solve customer issues are collected at the first encounter in the business process. This reduces the interaction effort on both sides and supports the fast and comprehensive identification of solutions.
At Allianz, call center agents are instructed to serve customers in minimum time by prohibiting repeated calls, by permitting only one forwarding per call and by assigning the most appropriate agent available. This way, customers do not need to describe their problem or needs several times and get support as soon as possible.
This heuristic can be realized by reducing the number of loops in business processes and by proactively assigning the most suitable employee or IT-based touchpoint (e.g. chatbots).
Foundational free Patterns
Consider automating activities
Eliminate unnecessary activities
Reduce the number of contacts with customers and third parties
Form cross-department teams for end-to-end case handling.
Establish standardized interfaces
Consider a standardized interface with customers and partners
Move activities to more appropriate places
Offer a green alternative with the same outcome, utilizing different steps, resources, or partners, while retaining the previous existing process
Offer customers the possibility to serve themselves
Expertise-based task assignment
Match tasks to experts' specialized skills for efficiency
Empower workers for more decision-making authority
Reduce the number of contacts with customers and third parties