Automated Real Estate Customer Complaint Management System: Enhancing Customer Experience through ML-Powered Complaint Classification and Response

Core Concepts

An end-to-end pipeline, RE-GrievanceAssist, that automates the classification and response to customer complaints in the real estate domain, leading to a 40% reduction in manual effort and monthly cost savings of Rs 1,50,000.

Abstract

The content introduces an automated pipeline, RE-GrievanceAssist, designed for real estate customer complaint management. The pipeline consists of three key components:

Response/no-response ML model: Uses TF-IDF vectorization and XGBoost classifier to determine if a complaint requires manual intervention or can be handled automatically.

User type classifier: Employs a FastText classifier to identify the type of user (owner, broker, developer, service user, etc.) associated with the complaint.

Issue/sub-issue classifier: Utilizes a hierarchical approach with TF-IDF vectorization and XGBoost classifier to categorize the complaint into specific issue and sub-issue classes.

The pipeline is deployed as a batch job in Databricks, running at 20-minute intervals to process incoming customer tickets. For tickets that do not require manual intervention, the system generates automated responses using predefined templates or a GPT-3 based generative AI model. For the remaining tickets, the user type and issue/sub-issue classifications provided by the pipeline reduce manual effort by approximately 50%.
The authors report that the implementation of this system has resulted in a 40% reduction in overall manual effort and a monthly cost reduction of Rs 1,50,000 since August 2023.

Stats

"On average, these platforms receive more than 1000 complaints daily from different kinds of users pertaining to different sets of services."
"There are approximately 35 issues (e.g. payment related, package related, etc) and 10 sub-issues (e.g. payment status, need invoice copy, etc) within each issue category."

Quotes

"To overcome these challenges and enhance the customer experience on the platform, we have developed an end-to-end pipeline for real estate complaint management (RE-GrievanceAssist)."
"With this pipeline, we effectively address approximately 40% of daily tickets without manual intervention. Furthermore, for the remaining 60%, we reduce manual efforts by 50% by leveraging insights from the user-type and issue/sub-issue classifiers."

Key Insights Distilled From

RE-GrievanceAssist: Enhancing Customer Experience through ML-Powered Complaint Management

by Venkatesh C,... at arxiv.org 05-01-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.18963.pdf

Deeper Inquiries

How can the RE-GrievanceAssist pipeline be extended to handle more complex or ambiguous customer complaints that may not fit neatly into the predefined issue and sub-issue categories?

To handle more complex or ambiguous customer complaints, the RE-GrievanceAssist pipeline can be extended in several ways:

Dynamic Issue Classification: Implement a dynamic issue classification system that can adapt and learn from new data. This can involve using techniques like active learning to continuously improve the classification models based on feedback from manual interventions.
Natural Language Understanding: Incorporate natural language understanding (NLU) models to better interpret the nuances and context of customer complaints. This can help in identifying underlying issues even if they do not fit neatly into predefined categories.
Hierarchical Classification: Enhance the hierarchical classification approach by introducing more levels of hierarchy to capture finer distinctions in customer complaints. This can help in handling complex complaints that may involve multiple interconnected issues.
Feedback Loop: Implement a feedback loop mechanism where manual interventions and feedback from agents are used to refine the classification models. This continuous learning process can improve the system's ability to handle diverse and ambiguous complaints effectively.

What are the potential limitations or drawbacks of relying on machine learning models for customer complaint management, and how can these be mitigated to ensure a consistently high level of customer satisfaction?

Potential limitations and drawbacks of relying on machine learning models for customer complaint management include:

Bias and Fairness: ML models can inherit biases from training data, leading to unfair treatment of certain customer groups. Mitigation involves regular bias audits, diverse training data, and fairness-aware model training.
Lack of Interpretability: Black-box ML models may lack transparency, making it challenging to understand why certain decisions are made. Address this by using interpretable models or post-hoc interpretability techniques.
Data Quality and Quantity: ML models require high-quality labeled data for training, which may be scarce or noisy. Improve data quality through data augmentation, active learning, and data cleaning techniques.
Adaptability to New Scenarios: ML models may struggle with novel or unseen scenarios. Continuously update and retrain models with new data to ensure adaptability.
Overreliance on Automation: Over-automation can lead to impersonal customer interactions. Balance automation with human oversight and intervention for complex or sensitive cases.

To ensure a consistently high level of customer satisfaction, these limitations can be mitigated by:

Regular model monitoring and performance evaluation.
Incorporating human oversight and intervention in critical decision points.
Providing avenues for customers to escalate issues beyond the automated system.
Implementing robust feedback mechanisms to improve model performance over time.

Given the significant cost savings and efficiency improvements achieved, how can the RE-GrievanceAssist system be adapted and applied to other industries or domains beyond real estate customer service?

The RE-GrievanceAssist system's success in real estate customer service can be adapted and applied to other industries by:

Customization for Industry-specific Needs: Tailoring the pipeline components and classifiers to suit the unique characteristics and challenges of different industries.
Data Integration and Preprocessing: Adapting the system to integrate and preprocess data from diverse sources specific to the target industry.
Model Transfer Learning: Utilizing transfer learning techniques to leverage pre-trained models and fine-tune them for the new industry domain.
Collaboration with Industry Experts: Working closely with domain experts to identify key complaint categories and develop specialized models for effective classification.
Pilot Testing and Iterative Improvement: Conducting pilot tests in the new industry domain, gathering feedback, and iteratively improving the system based on real-world usage.

By following these strategies, the RE-GrievanceAssist system can be successfully adapted and applied to various industries beyond real estate, leading to cost savings, efficiency improvements, and enhanced customer experience.