Cross-departmental processes? This is how you take control

If processes involve different departments, you have to deal with different transfer moments. If you have not automated those processes very tightly, it can lead to a lot of manual work and inefficiency. In most cases, this does not contribute to an optimal customer journey. In this blog, Jan Willem van Asperen, sales director at BPM Company, explains how you can implement process management with limited effort.

Overdrachtsmomenten

Cross-departmental processes can cause a lot of – often hidden – inefficiencies. Years ago I was a department manager at a large insurance company. At the time, I thought I had my department pretty well organized. The manager before me in the process chain also thought so and the manager after me in the chain was also very satisfied. And yet something regularly went wrong with a customer. We see this more often in organizations that are still working like this. To handle customer requests, and certainly the more complex ones, different departments are needed and different officials carry out part of the process. If you then have to deal with manual transfer moments, papers have to be exchanged and data retyped. This results in a loss of time and a high probability of error.

Step by step to a better customer experience

Oke,change the entire organization so that it fits better with the customer journey could be a solution. But perhaps as a first step you could better investigate how you can support that customer journey with automation. In this way you create insight into your processes and you can often gain more control over your processes with limited effort. You can then automate further step by step. This shortens your lead times, reduces the chance of errors and increases the quality of the customer experience.

Bumpy service process

De Mandemakers Groep, market leader in kitchens, furniture and sanitary ware, was faced with this issue a few years ago. How do we improve the service process to our customers where multiple departments form an important link, without adjusting the organization. We have tackled this step by step, from overall process management and insight to further automation. The entire service chain for kitchens has now been digitized and integrated with the help of Pega. From the moment a service request is received up to and including completion internally or even on site at the customer, digital support is provided and continuously synchronized. Efficiency has risen sharply, as has the satisfaction of customers and employees involved in this service chain, in other words: happy technicians, happy service employees, but above all: happy customers!

Want to know more?

Do you also have the feeling that cross-departmental processes can be done more efficiently and better and do you want a quick first insight into the possibilities? Please feel free to contact us.