For document capture services that handle large numbers of documents, it's easy to get caught up in the daily needs of your business when completing tasks. However, services also need to remember that taking a step back every once in a while and examining how a service is run is vital to a business. Specifically, one industry expert put together a list of criteria that a data capture business can use to ensure that their operations are running as efficiently as possible.
In a blog post for AIIM, Richard Medina explained that there are 11 different areas he looks at when examining a capture service, which are:
- Primary Processes
- Supporting Processes
- Primary Technology Capabilities
- Supporting Technology Capabilities
- Operations
- Quality Mechanisms
- Human Resources
- Customer Satisfaction
- Financial Management
- Vendor Management
- Business Continuity.
Some, like primary and supporting processes, are obvious. Capture services should make sure that their indexing and scanning are both up to date and operating efficiently. This goes for supporting processes, such as managing customers and projects, customer service and managing records.
But there are many other traits of a document capture service that shouldn't be forgotten. Quality mechanisms, customer satisfaction, and business continuity options should also be invested in to create a well-run business.
Medina suggests monitoring quality using error tracking and statistical sampling. By finding where a capture service is may be producing low quality work, with high levels of tracking a business can see what is going wrong and how to fix it.
In terms of recording customer satisfaction, Medina suggests using surveys and follow ups to ensure that customers are happy after a job is completed, and use this when creating different pricing and promotional options. By tracking how customers responses, businesses can improve their operations and illustrate to potential customers their high-quality services.
Lastly, partnering with a back-up site is necessary for business continuity, in case something goes wrong onsite. With a strong plan in place if a system malfunctions, data capture services can be sure that their business will be protected.
Tab Service Company is a Chicago based company and the leading provider of document scanning services and data entry services. As an SOC2-approved service organization, we apply industry-best practices to our approach with clients.