Key elements
- Process and task automation
- Online workflow management
- Online task assignment
The brief
Processes involved a lot of manual sourcing and checking of information and manual production of emails and letters. This kind of situation, though common, inevitably leads to errors which can affect the reputation of the organisation in the eyes of its membership.
The aim of the project was to provide a platform to allow defined process to be automated where possible, but still allowing staff intervention at points where required.
The solution
Achorda developed a bespoke workflow application integrated with their membership CRM using Microsoft .Net MVC.
A method was devised for defining the processes in terms of triggers, decision points, delays, automated actions and manual task raising for staff.
A system was then built to store processes and their documentation in a central database portal and process simultaneous workflows for the processes when triggered.
The first workflow added was for automating the process of chasing payment after a Direct Debit cancellation. This process involved finding the reported cancellation on a weekly report, checking the member record to see if payment was still expected, then if it was contact the member to determine the reason and reinstate it if it was a mistake.
Manually, this process was laborious and could easily result in no action being taken with the loss of a member, or wasted admin time when the reason for cancellation was obvious due to retirement, life membership being awarded, etc.
With the new automated process workflow system, the cancellation of a Direct Debit is picked up automatically which starts the workflow. The first step uses an API call to query the membership system to see whether payment is still expected for the member. If not, the process finishes there with nobody needing to spend any time on it. If, however, payment was expected, a couple of nicely worded emails are sent to them member a few weeks apart to ask them to reinstate the Direct Debit, pay by card or let us know if they no longer require membership. If they pay then again, the process finishes without any admin time being spent. If not, a task in raised for the membership department to contact the member to encourage them to stay. There are then various branches the staff member can select based on the outcome of the call.
Each process can be analysed so that the number of processes that follow each branch and reach each outcome can be seen clearly. This not only shows the effectiveness of the process, it identifies where other changes to the process could be used to achieve the desired outcomes.
