Applying robotic process automation to improve customer operations at Vodafone Portugal

Abstract

The telecommunications industry is becoming more competitive than ever before but is also a sector with low level of differentiation among operators and, in Portugal, is also a sector with numerous complaints from clients regarding the after-sales services, this makes the customer experience a crucial factor to the organization success. Therefore, is vital to evolve and to find ways to fulfil the customers’ needs in the more efficient and effective way possible. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) provides a fast and easy way to change the approach of companies to after-sales support, by automating processes that have value to the customer, such as, notify customers of problems occurring in their network, or providing follow up to their service order when they request. The main purpose of this project was to use RPA technology to developed automated workflow systems to solve the major inefficiencies in the Customer Operations department and therefore improve the customer experience in Vodafone Portugal. Thus, to fulfil the project objective, five automations were developed in three teams of the department – 16916, 16913 and Field Service – and other three quick-fix automations (as supplementary projects) were developed for other related teams.