The virtual help center for digital scanning equipment produced by High$-$Tech Company processes $1\mathrm{.}8$ million customer inquiries per year. Roughly $50\%$ of the time, the chatbot can successfully resolve the customer question without the help of a live agent. Live agents are paid $$22$ per hour and stay on a call for six minutes on average. After High$-$Tech Company engaged in process benchmarking, the need for live agent intervention dropped by $15\%.$

REQUIRED

a$.$ What was the annual salary cost of the live agents prior to benchmarking?

$Answer $1$

b$.$ What is the annual salary cost of the live agents after benchmarking? What is the cost savings in one year?

Salary cost of the live agents after benchmarking:Answer $2$Cost savings in one year:Answer $3$

c$.$ To determine the success $($or failure$)$ of the benchmarking process, what other financial and nonfinancial items would you consider?

Classify each consideration as financial or nonfinancial.

Answer $4$financialnonfinancial$1.$ Over how many years would the company realize the cost savings?Answer $5$financialnonfinancial$2.$ How does the increase in chatbot usage affect customer satisfaction?Answer $6$financialnonfinancial$3.$ Did technology costs increase in order to improve the efficiencies of the chatbots?Answer $7$financialnonfinancial$4.$ What was the cost of the study?Answer $8$financialnonfinancial$5.$ What is the average time of resolution of the customer questions before and after the improvements?