Effective customer service does not happen by accident. It requires a "service quality management" approach in which services have defined methods of delivery (process), and service quality targets (expected time to deliver).

Every customer service request needs to be tracked, logged, traceable and visible through to a complete request closure state. Where necessary, different categories of requests need to be channelled to suitably trained staff who have been authorised to execute those processes.

Every customer interaction (by phone, fax, email, letter or online access) should be captured to give you the greatest visibility and corporate memory of your transactions.

Open Office's Customer Service Module provides everything you need to achieve high quality efficient and effective execution of fully managed customer service processes.

Don't have all your processes defined? That's OK. Start simple, then implement and improve your services on a "continuous improvement" basis using the administrators "no programming required" interface.

• Request logging, review, decision support and approval processes
• Implementation of processes, authorities and escalations
• Routing of requests to authorised staff for execution
• Automatic escalation of service quality exceptions (when a step, or request exceeds pre-defined time limits).
• Statistics on ongoing trends of service volumes and service exceptions
• Pre-defined request risk rating and escalation processes
• Billing and on-line payment for chargeable services
• Administrator interface for control of categories, parameters, and customisations
• Correspondence management
  • Standard letters with managed variations
  • Imaging and workflow for incoming correspondence
  • Email, fax and paper
• Secured "internet portal" access for all stakeholders
• Authorised officer mobility solutions
• Transaction audit trail captures and logs every step in the process
• Direct links to your existing finance system