AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog
Genpact’s AI-Powered Solution Helps Amazon Outsource its Device Repair Service in Europe
By Katherine Vahdani, VP Cloud Transformation – Genpact
By Farhan Hussain, AWS COE Lead – Genpact
By Puneet Badlani, Subrahmanyam Madduru, and EJ Ferrell – AWS
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Business process outsourcing (BPO) plays a critical role in the global economy. Its main value-add is the capability to provide customers flexibility and an increase in growth opportunities by allowing organizations to focus on their core business and core skills.
Initially, BPO was associated with manufacturing industries where companies would outsource segments of supply chain-related functions to BPO organizations. This approach later progressed to the customer service industry.
One such business process that Amazon elected to outsource is its Amazon Device Repair services, for devices that are out of warranty.
Amazon has process and regulatory requirements that include managing spare parts, handling service management operations, and customer service. One such regulatory requirement is the Right to Repair rules adopted in Europe by The European Commission. The right to repair rule required electronic devices (such as smartphones and tablets) to be added to a list of products that must be built with repairability in mind.
To meet these requirements, Amazon collaborated with Genpact, leveraging its ContactUs.Ai CXM framework to create an end-to-end solution for the company’s 150+ million out-of-warranty devices.
In this post, we’ll explore how Genpact leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) and the Amazon Connect omnichannel contact center service to help Amazon outsource its device repair service using Genpact’s Amazon Device Repair solution.
Genpact is an AWS Specialization Partner and AWS Marketplace Seller with a core strength in domain-driven expertise running back offices for global Fortune 500 companies across the industry spectrum.
Genpact helps customers to reinvent thousands of business processes and drive real-world transformation at scale. Genpact holds AWS Specializations in Financial Services, DevOps, Migration, and Amazon Connect, and is a member of the AWS Well-Architected Program Partner.
Solution Overview
Given Genpact’s origin is in Lean and Six Sigma, these principles permeate all aspects of solutioning and methodology. Genpact begins each engagement by breaking the requirements into a subset of specialized verticals. From there, the team looks to identify both subject matter experts as well purpose-built technical solutions.
Figure 1 represents Genpact’s solution-definition methodology.
Figure 1 – Genpact’s approach to defining out-of-warranty device support solution.
Amazon’s use case required a combination of purpose-built technical products, such as B2X with customized integrations to AWS services, integrated by Amazon Connect.
As part of defining the solution, Genpact worked with Amazon to align customer support integration and unification requirements (supply chain, repair assessment, status tracking, and transportation management ) using the B2X solution.
For customer support, Genpact leveraged two key principals as foundational to requirements alignment:
- Build cohesion between the Amazon brand and customer experience: Genpact worked with an Amazon user experience (UX) specialist to design and develop the customer-facing site. The team implemented specific elements into the customer channel interactions, such as surveys, selectable options, self-service capabilities, and customer notifications.
- Ensure customer experience is on par with Amazon customer service center: This was achieved by aligning channel parity for both inbound and outbound communications. Genpact ran design workshops with Amazon developers to create integrations into the Amazon website and mobile applications. Further, payment services, standardization of terms and conditions, service-level agreements, and reporting cadence were aligned with this mechanism.
Based on the activities conducted as part of design definition, the proposed solution leveraged Genpact’s ContactUs.Ai CXM framework. This met the requirements while prioritizing customers, emphasizing flexibility in engagement, customer experience, and sustainability. It was intended to extend the lifespan of user devices and reduce electronic waste.
Genpact’s ContactUs.Ai solution is available in AWS Marketplace and is a native omnichannel managed service with extensibility to integrate into customers’ legacy systems or leverage industry-specific solutions built into the packaged service offer.
Business Process Map
The business process map showcases how the Amazon Device Repair website, also known as Amazon Out of Warranty (AOW) and Out of Warranty Service (OWS), provides complete self-service capabilities to customers to execute the repair process for their devices.
Figure 2 – Business process map.
The above process map provides customer service agents the ability to address questions while navigating the solution web portal. These can include queries such as:
- Services offered
- Estimated repair cost
- Products support out of warranty repairs
- Live chat with agent
With the live chat option, a conversational chatbot assists customers with their enquiries. This mechanism provides for an escalation path where the chatbot connects the customer to an agent for live conversation, upon request.
The process also allows for request form, online payment, and automated notifications via the solution web portal.
Customer Service Reference Architecture
Figure 3 showcases the solution architecture that leverages Amazon Connect to meet device repair requirements.
Figure 3 – Customer service reference architecture.
The architecture provides customers three channels to contact Amazon for support:
- Mobile client: This mechanism provides customers with the capability to have a conversation with the Amazon Lex AI chatbot to raise their requests. They can self-service via Amazon Lex with configured support options or ask to talk to a live agent. Amazon Pinpoint further integrates to send customers text notifications.
- Amazon Device Repair website: This provides customers a frontend user interface (UI) that interacts with REST APIs hosted on AWS Lambda functions, and fronted by Amazon API Gateway. The mechanism also provide integration Amazon Lex to process customer request.
- Emails: This mechanism uses Amazon WorkMail where customers can send emails, which are then routed to agents via Amazon Connect.
Business Benefits
Amazon has chosen to pilot this initiative in select markets across Europe, by launching an out-of-warranty service program branded as Amazon Device Repair.
The solution provides benefits such as:
- New avenue for supporting customers and enabling them to continue to enjoy using Amazon devices.
- End-to-end tracking of customer request with the least amount of human interaction.
- Proactive customer notification at each stage of the process.
- Omnichannel customer interaction with virtual and live agents.
The solution is currently offered to Amazon customers in the UK in English. Four more countries (France, Spain, Italy, and Germany) are in the pipeline for 2024, where the service will be offered in four additional languages.
Conclusion
The Amazon Device Repair solution covers Amazon’s longest standing and widest range of devices. The service helps extend the life of Amazon devices, increases customer engagement and satisfaction, and meets regulatory requirements around the right to repair.
The solution integrates AI-powered chatbots and enables logistics management and a repair partner network. Further, a post-guarantee period repair rule establishes the creation of an online repair matchmaking platform for consumers in Europe.
Genpact’s solution also embraces environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities in a way that satisfies the right to repair imperative for Amazon, extending product lifecycles and fulfilling ESG ambitions.
To learn how the solution can be implemented, with functionalities mapped to relevant industry use cases, please contact the Genpact. You can also learn more about Genpact in AWS Marketplace.
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Genpact – AWS Partner Spotlight
Genpact is an AWS Specialization Partner with a core strength in domain-driven expertise running back offices for global Fortune 500 companies across the industry spectrum.