Highlights:

• IATA sees up to 40,000 cases a month, many of which are requests for sensitive information like credit card sales, invoices, and password resets.
• While launching Community Cloud to create an authenticated self-service portal, they implemented Email to Case Premium to get clean, chronological case comments.
• Now 80% of cases originate from the password-protected community, and customers are receiving better, faster service from IATA’s team of 100+ agents.

IATA soars over customer service challenges with Email to Case Premium

As the trade association that represents, leads and serves the global airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has its hands full.

After all, IATA represents 280 airlines in 120 countries. Together, its members are responsible for more than 80% of passenger and commercial air traffic around the world—to the tune of 4.1 billion passengers and 59.9 million tonnes of freight every year.

IATA itself has 54 offices in 53 countries—a long way from its formation in Cuba more than seven decades ago—meaning it can sometimes be hard to get employees on the same page.

Its biggest challenge, however, is member support: IATA's customer service team sees 35,000 to 40,000 cases a month.

A thousand cases a day, every day of the year

IATA had been using Salesforce for nearly a decade, but had been communicating with customers via email and phone on things like invoices, billings, password resets and credit card sales. But, as anyone who's tried knows, email and phone don't always provide a reliable way to know if you're dealing with a customer contact who's permitted to access the sensitive information they're requesting.

In 2014, in an effort to make customer requests easier to manage and more secure, they launched Salesforce Community Cloud with granular security access. Reinaut Aerts, Customer Engagement Manager at IATA, explains, "We wanted a way for our customers to control which of their employees were allowed to request sensitive information, and Community Cloud provides that flexibility."

It quickly became apparent, however, that IATA needed a way to get the case communication inside the community in a clean, chronological view.

That's where Email to Case Premium shines.

Email to Case Premium (E2CP) is a critical tool in IATA's toolbox

E2CP enables clean, chronological case comments for IATA's customers and agents alike. In one step, agents create case comments in Salesforce to communicate with customers. No longer do they have to send an email and create a comment in separate steps. They can also update case fields and add attachments at the same time, because the native Salesforce app consolidates four steps into one.

E2CP makes the case communication, including attachments, visible in IATA's community. Even when an agent or customer responds via email, E2CP automatically processes the email and creates a clean case comment.

That's important, Reinaut says. "Without E2CP, you have to open email by email to try to find out where the information is. But with Email to Case Premium, you get them in a nicely organized, chronologically ordered exchange. It's easier and faster when you're looking for information."

Vicasso solves IATA’s overwhelm with Email to Case Premium

IATA has customer service hubs in Madrid, Singapore, Beijing, and Montreal. So as you can imagine, things are complex. It can be hard to find unity with a mix of languages, time zones, cultures and working styles.

But the one thing they can all agree on? Their jobs are so much easier thanks to Email to Case Premium. Canned comments and email templates create consistency, and there's a streamlined view of all correspondence.

75-80% of cases now originate from within Community Cloud. And for the remainder that originate by email, E2CP still processes the inquiry, routes it to the appropriate department, adds new contacts automatically, creates clean case comments, and makes the communication available inside the community.

The result? The customer, its authorized employees, and IATA can still see full chronological conversations in the community months or even years later.

"I think one of the greatest benefits — and this is something I get feedback on from across our 100-member team — is that everything is 'there,'" Reinaut says. "That makes it so quick and easy for them to do their jobs."

IATA agents enjoy a streamlined workflow that saves them time, makes their job easier and gives them more control. As a result, their customers are receiving better service — which makes them feel more in control, as well.

"Thanks to Email to Case Premium," Reinaut says, "everything our staff and customers could want is just… There."

"It's beautiful."

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