How Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Can Enhance Customer Service Delivery

Exceptional customer service is imperative for business success today, with 89% of companies competing mostly on customer experience [1]. However, delivering consistent and high-quality service across channels remains a key challenge. This article analyzes how Microsoft‘s Dynamics 365 Business Central, an integrated ERP solution, enables organizations to transform customer service through omni-channel support, superior case management and advanced analytics.

The Case for Customer Service Excellence

In increasingly competitive markets, customer experience has become pivotal to sustainable growth and loyalty. According to Forrester, 72% of businesses prioritize customer experience improvements for revenue growth [2]. Further, customers who have the best experiences spend 140% more compared to those with poor experiences [3].

Yet, many businesses struggle on key customer service parameters like resolution times, first contact resolution and omni-channel support. Leading research highlights the scale of the problem:

Table 1 – Current vs Best-In-Class Customer Service Benchmarks

These gaps underline the urgent need for customer-centric, digitally transformed service models. This is where integrated ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can drive dramatic improvements.

Core Benefits of Business Central for Customer Service

Business Central is an end-to-end ERP designed specifically for mid-sized organizations. Its embedded customer service module helps companies deliver transformed service through:

1. 360° Customer Data Consolidation

Business Central consolidates customer data across domains onto a unified platform:

Figure 1 – Business Central provides a unified customer 360 view across sales, service, marketing and commerce

With data fragmented across systems like CRM, billing, ecommerce etc. agents waste significant time piecing data together. Business Central‘s customer 360 provides agents instant access to information like:

• Contact History – Interactions via calls, email, chat, social platforms
• Cases Data – Support tickets, communications and resolution details
• Entitlements – Warranty, contracts and SLA status
• Marketing Profile – Campaign interactions and responses
• Purchase History – Transactions, invoices and shipment status
• Accounting Status – Credit limits, payment cycles and invoicing details

This single unified view dramatically improves customer context enabling faster issue diagnosis and personalized resolutions.

2. True Omni-Channel Engagement

Modern customers engage across channels and expect seamless transitions between them. Business Central makes this possible by unifying all customer communication channels under a single pane of glass.

Agents get a chronological activity feed with timelines and quick navigation between interaction modes like calls, emails, chats, social messages and in-person conversations. This provides complete context and minimizes repetitive information gathering.

Channel hopping capabilities also reduce transfers for a frictionless experience. Unified CTI with CRM integrations further enables screen popups of customer data on incoming calls based on the number.

By interlinking engagement channels, Business Central delivers seamless omni-channel customer journeys. According to Aberdeen Group, companies with omni-channel customer engagement retain on average 89% of their customers compared to 33% for companies with weak omni-channel support [4].

3. Intelligent Case Management

Efficient case handling and assignment is crucial for service outcomes. Business Central optimizes case workflows through:

Routing Automation – Smart assignment based on agent availability, workload and skill sets for the fastest first response

Queues Prioritization – Categorize and filter high priority cases for accelerated handling; VIP customer queues

SLA Tracking – Dashboards to monitor case volumes vs. service levels for different channels

Resolution Analytics – Reporting for identifying resolution delays and ongoing improvement areas

With dynamic case assignment, priority management and SLA tracking, teams handle rising case volumes better while optimizing resolution velocity. Gartner finds that such capabilities can improve first contact resolution rates by 15-20% [5].

4. Self-Service Options

Business Central helps balance cost and customer experience through self-service:

• Knowledge Portal — Curated solutions for popular inquiries that customers can access online 24/7
• Peer Forums — Allows customers to tap solutions from other users reducing one-on-one interactions
• Intelligent Chatbots — Quick answers for common questions using NLP-based conversational interfaces

These expand the self-service bandwidth – an efficient way to handle certain low complexity issues. According to Forrester, adding forums, bots and portals to contact centers reduces live-agent cases by 20% to 60% [6].

5. Field Service Management

For on-site product support, Business Central optimizes scheduling and dispatch via:

• Location-based job auto-routing
• Resource optimization using demand heatmaps
• Integrated booking with inventory for parts availability
• Mobile access to tech portals and knowledge base

These capabilities allow field services organizations to deliver higher first-time fix rates. Reports show 48% of businesses with optimized field service management achieved first-time fix rates greater than 90% versus just 29% for others [7].

6. Service Analytics

Business Central provides 40+ customizable analytics dashboards covering all areas including:

Operations – Case volumes, backlogs, resolution times, utilization rates
Channel Efficiency – Cost-to-serve, CSAT, outcomes for phone, email, chat, social etc.
Tech Productivity – Fix rates, on-site times, parts consumption
Satisfaction – NPS, CSAT, complaint ratios across channels and products

Advanced reporting allows management to continually optimize operations and staffing to maintain peak service levels.

Tackling Key Customer Service Challenges

While the capabilities above represent core platform strengths, Business Central also alleviates some of the most pressing customer service challenges:

Table 2 – Key Customer Service Challenges Addressed by Business Central

With these problems costing companies millions in poor experiences, inefficiencies and churn, Business Central provides a uniquely holistic solution.

Key Takeaways

This expert analysis underscores how Dynamics 365 Business Central enables organizations to deliver customer service excellence by:

• Consolidating customer data onto a unified platform giving agents 360° visibility

• Providing true omni-channel engagement with seamless transitions across interaction modes

• Streamlining case management through automation, priorities and SLA tracking

• Expanding self-service options across knowledge bases, communities and chatbots

• Optimizing field operations via intelligent routing, scheduling and dispatch

• Building a culture of continual innovation powered by data-driven analytics and insights

With these end-to-end capabilities spanning technology, processes and insights, Business Central empowers mid-sized enterprises to deliver best-in-class customer experiences while maximizing efficiency. This rare blend of attributes makes it a unique customer service accelerator in the ERP space today.

Sources

1. Walker Research Study, 2018
2. Forrester, Customer Experience Drives Revenue Growth, 2020 Report
3. SuperOffice, Importance of Customer Service Experience, 2019
4. Aberdeen Group, State of Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Report, 2017
5. Gartner, Smarter Case Management To Improve Customer Support, 2020
6. Forrester, The Expanding Customer Service Ecosystem, 2022 Report
7. Field Technologies Online, Impact of Mobility and Scheduling On Service Metrics, 2021 Study