76 Products, a division of Unocal, is a refiner and retailer of gasoline and lubricants serving markets in California and five other western states. 76 Products consolidated its four southern California corporate offices into its new headquarters in Costa Mesa in January 1996.

The Problem

As part of its retail operations, 76 Products supports approximately 1,300 Unocal 76 retail gasoline outlets. The Customer Service Department in Costa Mesa handles customer complaints regarding retail products or services at these outlets.

Customer Service maintains a Paradox database of every complaint that comes into the department. Customers generate complaints by telephone and correspondence. Originally, the database contained customer information, but not the associated paperwork - the forms, correspondence and documentation (invoices, work orders, receipts and photographs) - which accompany each complaint.

Prior to the DOCS Open implementation, the paper document files, normally stored in file cabinets, would move between the desks of the Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) while the complaint was being processed. There was no log to track these files, so whenever a CSR needed to access paperwork, a check of the file cabinet and then a desk-to-desk search was conducted to locate the file. Most phone inquiries about a complaint required a call back because the CSRs could not quickly locate the customer's file.

The Solution

As part of the move into its new Costa Mesa headquarters, 76 Products initiated several projects using document management and imaging technology to help streamline operations. Image enabling the Customer Service database application was one of these.

The Customer Service Department's complaint handling system consists of a Paradox database, DOCS Open, Watermark Enterprise client, Microsoft SQL Server, and custom VisualBasic code. The Paradox Customer Complaint database has been image enabled, using the DOCS Open Integration Toolkit.

Whenever a complaint comes in, a record is created in the Paradox database. Any paperwork associated with the complaint is scanned in by CSRs using desktop scanners. A profile of each scanned document is created and automatically referred to the complaint record.

An electronic copy of the paper is stored in the DOCS Open document library on a file server. The paperwork is filed by date and moved to long term storage for its legal retention period. The file storage space required by the Customer Service Department has been eliminated.

The Paradox Customer Complaint database application has a button on the screen that allows all documents associated with the complaint to be retrieved, browsed and printed. Whenever a CSR has an inquiry about a complaint, a list of available documents can be instantly reviewed and the electronic image of the associated paperwork brought up with the push of a button. Customer Service Representatives have nearly doubled productivity in claims processing while providing better customer service and higher customer satisfaction levels.

Strategic Advantage

The automation of the Customer Complaint application in Customer service is part of the "We Get It" advertising campaign, successfully launched by 76 Products in January of 1996 to improve market share of 76 Products stations. The strategic objective - to improve the value of 76 Products marketing infrastructure - required a corporate-wide effort to improve the quality of the service stations. Customer Service delivered substantially on the promise -- reducing customer complaints and speeding their resolution.

Another important factor in the decision to proceed with DOCS Open was based on the availability of rapid application development tools in the DOCS Open Integration Toolkit, the DOCS Designer, and a history of speedy deployment of the DOCS Open product. 76 Products managers could not allow ongoing marketing operations, already impacted by a move to new headquarters in Costa Mesa, to be further disrupted by the introduction of new technology. The Customer Service application was designed, coded, integrated, tested and installed in six weeks.

For more information, please contact
David Horwatt at General Networks Corporation. (818) 249-1962. dhorwatt@gennet.com