Automating Email Management to Maximize Productivity
Highlights
Managing emails in a high-volume customer service operation often involves manual processes that can quickly become unwieldy and error prone.
Prime 8 worked with a provider of cloud services to set up an automated email management solution using the Power Automate workflow tool.
The solution eliminated hundreds of hours of repetitive work and led to a more adaptable, responsive customer service operation.
Email has long been an essential form of communication, but when it’s used as part of a high-volume customer service operation, it can be difficult to manage. Very simply, an email inbox is an ineffective tool for tracking large numbers of inquiries and ensuring that service is provided in a timely and accurate way.
Prime 8 observed this first-hand when a major provider of cloud services retained our consultants to manage an email help desk. This Prime 8 success story shows how we addressed the challenge by setting up a customized, automated email management solution using Microsoft Power Automate and SharePoint.
THE CHALLENGE: LOTS OF EMAILS AND NO EASY WAY TO MANAGE THEM
Like many providers of cloud services, our client relies on a reseller channel to get its solutions out into the marketplace. Because cloud services are constantly evolving, the resellers often have questions, so an email help desk was set up where resellers could submit inquiries.
Widely publicized in sales decks, websites, and more, the help desk became very popular. Our client found it was unable to keep up with the volume of inquiries and brought in Prime 8 to find a better way to handle the load.
As we became engaged in the project, we quickly discovered that the challenge of managing the emails was more complex than it first appeared. For starters, the help desk was being used by more than just resellers. Internal employees and other external partners were also sending in questions.
Also, individual subject matter experts often ended up handling inquiries using their own email accounts. All of this made it difficult to accurately track and manage the service being delivered.
EXCEL WAS NOT THE RIGHT SOLUTION
In an attempt to stay on top of all inquiries — and provide detailed reporting to the client — we began entering data about the emails into an Excel spreadsheet. But as we have discovered in many client assignments, Excel was not the right solution. Using both the email platform and Excel was duplicative, prone to errors, soaked up hours of time, and was not addressing the real issue: This was a business process that had become unwieldy and was crying out for automation.
To make that happen, we turned to Power Automate, Microsoft’s workflow automation tool.
THE SOLUTION: CUSTOMIZED EMAIL MANAGEMENT VIA POWER AUTOMATE
Microsoft’s Power Automate makes it possible to automate workflows using little or no coding. It’s ideal for tasks that involve data collection, file syncing, sending notifications, and moving data between applications. At Prime 8, we have successfully used Power Automate in a wide range of engagements, including helping another customer automate its email outreach, a solution that saved the client $18,000.
For the cloud provider’s help desk, we set up Power Automate to do the job of extracting information from each email and categorizing them — tasks we had previously done manually using Excel.
Now when an email comes in, it's automatically assigned an ID number. Because the client manages emails from multiple sources, we categorized how they come in and can now track the date received so users can tell at a glance how long messages have been in the system.
With columns identifying the requester, their role, and where they are located, users can now analyze who is sending the most questions, e.g., whether it's from the Americas or someone in the UK.
Power Automate sorts the emails into common areas of inquiry such as eligibility, education, partner questions, and tool dependencies. Users can double-click on any email in the list and assign it to a category.
We also created a SharePoint site to organize the emails and make them easily accessible and manageable.
The client's new system is designed for reporting. At the end of the month, users can easily export the list, manipulate data, and make graphs to show trends month over month.
Because the system is based on Power Automate, it’s now easy for the client to adapt the system as changes are needed. For example, after everything was set up, our consultant wrote a rule to exclude meeting notifications that were bombarding the inbox.
THE IMPACT: BETTER SERVICE, LESS TIME
The automated solution was a complete game changer for both Prime 8 and our client. The operational impact was immediate: We reduced the time previously devoted to sorting and responding to emails by about 20 hours a month — some six weeks of a person’s time over the course of a year.
Because the system's flexibility allows for quick adaptations, it enhances the overall responsiveness of the customer service team.
Moreover, the ability to automatically generate monthly reports keeps everyone on top of trends and patterns — the client has become much more data-driven and strategic in their ongoing approach to supporting resellers.
HOW CAN WE AUTOMATE YOUR WORKFLOWS?
At Prime 8, we’re firm believers in taking advantage of solutions such as Power Automate to streamline workflows. It’s become a key element of our business operations practice.
While Power Automate is a low-code/no-code solution, there’s still a learning curve, which is why clients often turn to us to help build solutions like this one for email management.
Looking for ways to streamline business processes that have become unwieldy?
Contact us today to see how we can put automation to work for you!
