Saudi Arabia's Sakani program speeds up customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365

As the nation’s foremost affordable housing program, Sakani receives a large number of inquiries from Saudi homebuyers. Previously, inquiries would be registered as a ticket by a Sakani call agent, then forwarded simultaneously to relevant departments for their action. Departments would then send the ticket back and forth, leaving customers and the service team frustrated.

“We used in-house development basic system and emails to share and resolve the cases and some of the departments they have resolved the issue, while others said they did not receive any. Clearing up such confusion took too much time,” says Eng. Munira Altamimi, Senior Innovator and Business Developer at the NHC.

Sakani had more than 60 categories of services and inquiries, which were reviewed and resolved by as many as 11 departments. There was no unified, real-time view of eachticket. Data was available but hidden in silos, rendering it useless. The manual handling process slowed down ticket resolution, which took as long as 15 days.

Automating for faster response times

Wanting a transparent process in ticket handling, Sakani’s management team implemented Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Sales, and Power Apps to upgrade its customer service processes. Technology partner Ernst & Young helped implement the changes.

The new system now provides a 360-degree view of all customer requests on a single interactive dashboard. A new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution enabled the organization’s employees to have digital interactions with homebuyers. With the change, the Sakani team also eliminated long email correspondences between the departments when solving tickets. Workloads are distributed more equitably, with queries assigned automatically to customer service agents, who then decide how to route inbound requests. An integrated dashboard displays the up-to-date status of open tickets to concerned departments. The CRM solution also provided useful information on customers’ history, such as whether they have applied for home loans, or if they have owned or leased other properties. “With our integrated customer database, we now have a full picture of all our customers and their concerns,” shares Eng. Altamimi.

Reaping the rewards of transformation

Since the CRM solution has been in place, the customer service team has reported tremendous results. “With Dynamics 365, inquiries are resolved in as little as one day, instead of the previous 15 days. In some cases, the inquiries are resolved in as little as three hours, and less” says Eng. Altamimi.

Homebuyers benefited from the change, too. Sakani members can now keep track of all their property-related activities through the Sakani citizen web portal. Using their national ID number to log in, users can view their activities or submit inquiries on their applications. The system also provides customers SMS updates on the status of their query, helping manage user expectations.

Another useful feature integrated into the online portal for showroom visits, built on Power Apps. Homebuyers can book appointments conveniently through the portal, with their details automatically imported from the Sakani CRM database. After booking, applicants automatically receive a QR code confirmation through SMS, which is used for checking into the showroom site. The result is an end-to-end, multi-channel experience for homebuyers and Sakani staff alike.

Expanding the use of digital solutions

For the Sakani team, key to the successful implementation is having a professional team and the right technology. A second key element is providing the right support to end users during migration and adoption. “We held workshops to get our customer service team up to speed,” says Eng. Altamimi. “In the end, our customer service agents found the CRM system easy to use.”

Having experienced how the new CRM solution powered up case management, the team plans to broaden and deepen the use of technology across Sakani activities. One initiative is using artificial intelligence (AI) in responding to open tickets, informed by previous interactions stored in the CRM database. Sakani’s leaders also plan to integrate the showroom booking app into property handovers once a transaction is completed. To make the entire property acquisition process paperless, soft copies of signed agreements or proof of purchases will be sent electronically by relevant departments, triggered by automated processes.

Across the broader organization, the NHC plans to deploy Dynamics 365 across the organization, for task and invoice management, respectively. The housing authority will continue to implement the solution across entire departments, digitalizing the entire NHC in the coming months.

At the heart of all these digital transformations is, ultimately, customer satisfaction. As Eng. Altamimi puts it, “At the end of the day, we want to make sure that the NHC clients and Saudi Citizens are happy.”