Freight forwarder and logistics provider SEKO, Itasca, Ill., has deployed a new voice-based, automated delivery notification system. The system was created in a joint effort with Prairie Systems Inc.
to save time spent by customer service personnel notifying customers of booked shipments and on-hand destination arrivals.
People often spend substantial amounts of time scheduling freight delivery appointments manually, often leaving messages with requests for the customer to call back. The text-to-speech technology of SEKO's new system allow these calls to be placed electronically and messages left without manual intervention.
"By providing a tool that makes the initial contact and automatically leaves a message, we can relieve the calling load on our customer service representatives, allowing them to spend more time taking care of our customers in person,” said Randy Barnett, director of telecommunications for SEKO.
The SEKO system can recognize whether a person or an answering machine answers the call. The initial phase consists of two types of automated calls. The Booked Notification lets the consignee know their freight has left the origin and they should expect a call within a few days to set up delivery date and time. The On Hand Notification call lets the consignee know of arrival at destination. From this point, a delivery time can be scheduled by either connecting directly to the destination office or by having the consignee call back at his or her convenience.
SEKO's delivery notification application is built on the Prairie Systems voice solutions platform, which offers extensive inbound and outbound automated alerting capabilities, integrated within a common environment with text, email, fax and other messaging protocols.