28th January 2025
Exploring benefits and return on investment opportunities
By Anthony Eghan, Business Development Manager, Civica
One of the common questions asked by organisations implementing the Civica complaints and case management solution is what existing business systems should be integrated to further improve cost-savings and process efficiencies? This is a key question and our experience has shown that integrating the Civica complaints management solution with other business systems (including 3rd party artificial intelligence agents) can bring significant benefits and return on investment (ROI) opportunities.
The Civica complaints and case management solution is mature and robust and designed not only to record, manage and report on service user/customer complaints, but also provides a comprehensive set of standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), allowing for seamless integration with other business systems. We will now explore some of the key benefits and ROI opportunities that integrating the Civica solution can bring.
At a high level, some of the key benefits of integration include:
- Improved data consistency and accuracy: Integration with a CRM and other business systems ensures that service user/customer information and complaint history are accurate and up to date across key touch-points
- Increased efficiency and productivity: Automation of complaint submission and processing reduces the time and effort required to handle complaints
- Enhanced customer experience: Providing multiple channels for submitting complaints, including email, website forms, chatbots and social media, offers service users/customers convenience and flexibility
- Improved compliance: Integration with the likes of policy/payment systems ensures that additional business rules can be put in place, meaning that complaints that meet certain criteria are handled in accordance with organisational policies and procedures
- Better reporting and analytics: Integration with existing MI reporting tools and data warehouses provides real-time insights into complaint trends and patterns, allowing for quicker and more accurate decisions to be made
- Reduced costs: Integration facilitates further automation, which streamlines the complaint handling process, reducing the need for manual data entry and other administrative tasks/actions
- Improved collaboration: Integration with telephony systems and other business communication systems enables team members to work together more effectively to resolve complaints quicker and with better customer outcomes
- Enhanced transparency and accountability: Integration with document management systems and other key business systems provides a clear audit trail of all complaint-related activity in one central place.
In Civica’s experience, there are a number of key integrations with which organisations can typically expect to see a significant ROI. In many cases this can mean a payback period of well within 12 months. We will now take a look at some of the key benefits and ROI in more detail:
Reduced handling time and costs - One of the key areas delivering ROI is the reduction in case handling time and costs. By automating the complaint submission and processing workflow, organisations can significantly reduce the time and effort required to handle complaints. For example, integration with email and company websites can automatically create new complaint records and intelligently assign them to the relevant team/team members, eliminating the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and minimising delays in case allocation. This can result in complaint handling cost savings of up to 50%, as realised by some of our existing customers.
Improved First Contact Resolution rates (FCR) - Integration with CRM and other business systems can also improve FCR rates. Providing team members with access to service user/customer information and allowing complaint history to be shared seamlessly between different systems eliminates the need for duplicate data entry and reduces the risk of errors. This can result in FCR rates increasing by up to 30%, reducing the need for additional follow-ups/escalations and resulting in significant cost savings.
Identification and support of vulnerable customers - Integration with key business systems can also help organisations to better identify and support their vulnerable customers, in line with the FCA’s Consumer Duty and other regulatory guidelines. By sharing data across various systems, organisations can quickly and consistently identify customers who may be vulnerable due to financial difficulties, health issues or other factors. This can enable organisations to provide targeted support and accommodations, such as payment plans or additional communication channels to help these customers manage their financial obligations and avoid further difficulties. This can result in a reduction in complaints and issues related to vulnerable customers, as well as improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Enhanced customer experience and retention - Integration with chatbots, social media and other channels can also enhance the service user/customer experience and improve customer retention. By providing service users/customers with multiple channels for submitting complaints and receiving automated, timely and effective responses within regulatory deadlines, organisations can improve service user/customer satisfaction and loyalty. This can result in a reduction in customer churn of up to 15% and an increase in customer retention of up to 10%.
Improved compliance and reduced risk - Integration with HR/legal procedure systems can also improve compliance and reduce risk. By ensuring that all complaints are handled in accordance with organisational policies and procedures, organisations can reduce the risk of non-compliance and associated fines and penalties. This can result in cost savings of up to 30% in compliance costs and a reduction in risk associated with regulatory fines. The FCA and other regulatory bodies continue to monitor and assess firms and have no hesitation in taking action where required, as seen with these published FCA fines in 2024. https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/2024-fines
Increased efficiency and productivity - Finally, integration with existing and new artificial intelligence (AI) systems will increase efficiency and productivity. By providing team members with access to complaint-related AI agents, organisations can reduce the time and effort required to manage and resolve complaints. This can result in productivity gains of up to 80%, providing the business with compelling operational savings.
In conclusion, integrating the Civica complaints management system with key business systems can have numerous benefits and significant ROI for organisations. Integration further streamlines and automates the complaint handling process, improves data consistency and accuracy, and by providing multiple channels for submitting complaints, organisations can improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs and enhance their overall reputation. Additionally, by implementing an integrated Civica solution for identifying and supporting vulnerable service users/customers, organisations can demonstrate their commitment to the FCA’s Consumer Duty (and other regulatory bodies’ best practice principles) and enhance their reputation and brand.
Whether it's integration with an existing CRM system, email solution, company website, policy/payment systems, chatbots, social media, Office 365, Google Workspace, telephony systems, document management systems or newly implemented AI solutions, the benefits and ROI of an integrated Civica complaints management system are significant.
For further information about how Civica can help your organisation, or for case studies detailing how our existing customers are realising the value of a Civica complaints and case management solution, please contact the team at Civica Case Management | Civica