What is Digital Process Automation (DPA)?

Digital Process Automation (DPA) is a method of digitizing business processes by using software to automate and optimize common workflows that usually involve human interactions resulting in increased accuracy, efficiency, improved safety, and compliance.

As service organizations are faced with increasing pressure to increase performance while lowering costs, the need to rapidly automate processes is a key part of a digital transformation strategy. Pen-and-paper approaches to business processes do not deliver the agility and accountability needed for modern service organizations. As a result, leading businesses in all industries are focused on digitizing their operations to increase efficiency while shifting to a modern and customer-centric approach.

• Automate common processes for internal staff or customers
• Enables self-service capabilities for customers
• Standardizes processes across organizations and skillsets
• Ensures quality control and compliance
• Digitally transforms paper processes allowing process changes to reach the field instantly
• Improves on-the-job learning and knowledge transfer
• Increase the speed and efficiency of service technicians

With Digital Process Automation, visual step-by-step guidance is given to a customer or technician through their mobile device. Flows are customizable and can be built for a variety of use cases and to serve the needs of service organizations for any number of use cases, products, or repairs.

For technicians, DPA streamlines procedures by offering manuals, maintenance instructions, inspection checklists, and more to standardize procedures, increase accuracy and efficiency, and ensure compliance and safety.

For customers, DPA empowers them to perform self-maintenance, troubleshooting, product setup, and other routine tasks without call-center assistance or a technician visit.

Increased Efficiency

By automating hundreds to thousands of manual repetitive tasks within a service organization, technicians and agents are able to solve problems more quickly, with shorter handling time. Improving first-time fix rates means experts can focus on problems that utilize their skill sets.

Cost Savings

Increasing efficiency leads to cost savings. Digital process automation also results in increased accuracy of data entry. With fewer errors, there is a reduction in time to resolution, equipment downtime, and even parts wastage. Self-service options increase customer satisfaction, which reduces product returns and increases brand loyalty.

Adaptability

With digital process automation, enterprises can launch and scale new solutions, products, and processes quickly in response to market demands.

For both field and customer service organizations, Digital Process Automation offers a way to standardize and streamline common processes to save time and increase efficiency.

New Product Activation

Make your customers successful with self-guided product setup and activation, while collecting information for registration, warranties, or future outreach.

Customer Onboarding

Manual onboarding requires collecting a lot of information, processing documentation, setting up training or orientations, and other processes. When an onboarding experience is drawn out, customers can get frustrated.

Warranty or Insurance Claim

Streamline the claim process by enabling customers to file claims with supporting photo or video evidence.

Call deflection / Self-Service

Empower customers to resolve or report their own issues with easy-to-follow on-screen guidance.

Pre-call Information Collection

Sometimes, a customer will need to talk to an agent, but data can be collected before the agent joins the call. Reduce average handling time and scale contact center resources by collecting essential information prior to call start.

Pre-visit Assessment

By collecting all needed information through a Digital Flow before dispatch, you can ensure on-site visits are successful the first time. Ensuring the right technician, tools, and parts are sent out increases both efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Asset Management

Maintain compliance with validated step-by-step maintenance procedures and fully auditable records.

Customer expectations are changing, and modern customers demand modern solutions. The rise of self-service options has empowered customers to solve problems by leveraging rich resources online to help them along.

Businesses see the value of customer self-service too, saving time for their agents who no longer have to wait for a customer to find a serial number. Automating common processes for customers allows increased agility and the ability to scale on top of the immediate cost and time savings.

Digital process automation can help you offer a variety of self-service options to your customers, from completely independent procedures to pre-call information collection. Finding the right balance of self-service options ensures that customers feel both empowered and supported.

Total Self-Service

DPA is used to present read-only information for end-users to help themselves with an option to escalate to a video call. Examples: Installation Instructions, Getting Started Guide, Troubleshooting Steps

Self-Service with Optional Escalation

In this situation, a call will occur but a customer is able to collect information via uploads or forms prior to a video call. Examples: Damage Claims, Warranty Claims, Repair Request, Post Call Follow Up

Pre-Call Information Collection

A customer is prompted to collect information according to predefined forms which will be reviewed by an expert and may result in a future call. Examples: Routine Inspection, Meter Readings

SightCall Digital Flows provides easy-to-follow instructions that make it possible for any technician, regardless of experience, to perform service tasks according to standardized procedures resulting in detailed documentation including photos and videos.

With these standardized processes, the risk of mistakes and safety issues has been significantly reduced.

Field Service Organizations benefit from having an auditable record of all repair and maintenance work performed, which in turn streamlines their invoicing processes and ensures compliance with all regulatory guidelines.

A leading energy company needed to standardize and create auditable reports for maintenance and repair tasks in remote, high-risk locations. Field technicians were previously using pen and paper to document repairs and maintenance tasks, then manually entering information into an FSM. Inconsistent information and a lack of documentation could result in unpaid invoices, regulatory fines, safety issues, and potential shutdowns.

Using SightCall’s Digital Flows Digital Process Automation on SightCall's AR-powered visual assistance platform, digital work procedures were created for all critical procedures. These processes can be updated with new information, and differentiated for specific equipment models, resulting in improved efficiency, increased technician satisfaction, and better quality control.

Many of today’s skilled technicians are retiring from the workforce taking with them valuable knowledge. As technicians are hired to fill vacancies, new hires lack the same level of knowledge. Digitizing processes ensures all technicians have ready access to essential information to complete their tasks.

SightCall Digital Flows is a process digitization solution that delivers visual step-by-step guidance to users on any mobile device. Technician procedures such as manuals, maintenance instructions, inspection checklists, and more are delivered as a Digital Flow resulting in increased accuracy, efficiency, improved safety, and compliance. A Digital Flow is fully auditable. Customer procedures can also be delivered via Digital Flow so customers perform self-maintenance, troubleshooting, product setup, and other routine tasks.

SightCall Digital Flows empowers workers to complete their work more efficiently and confidently. Through carefully designed workflows, workers can be presented with essential information for their tasks and collect information in a convenient manner, reducing burdensome administrative tasks. In short, Digital Flows help people complete tasks more efficiently and accurately.

Contact us for a free demo of SightCall Digital Flows for your digital process automation needs.