5 Customer Service Horror Stories (and How to Avoid Them with Automation)

Ghosts, ghouls, and... growing inboxes? Last week, Esker hosted a frightfully insightful webinar: “5 Customer Service Horror Stories & How to Avoid Them.” Behind the spooky theme were five very real challenges that B2B Customer Service teams face every day — along with real-world examples of how AI automation is helping companies turn these scary predicaments into strategic wins.

Today, approximately 80% of B2B buyers — well-conditioned by the ease, convenience and personalization enjoyed in their daily consumer experiences — now expect the same type of real-time interaction on the B2B side. Unfortunately, they’re often left in the lurch thanks to the siloed nature and manual workflows common to conventional B2B Customer Service, Operations and Supply Chain teams. 

Webinar hosts Nick Carpenter and Graham Smith dug into these metrics in depth, revealing what AI automation strategies are being used by Esker customers to conjure up the best possible outcomes for their teams, customers and company. 

Let’s pull back the cobwebs and take a closer look.

Horror Story #1: The endless inbox

"We’re drowning in customer inquiries and can’t keep up!"

Why it’s scary:
As Nick pointed out in the webinar, many B2B Customer Service teams spend more time sorting emails than solving customer problems. Without a fast, accurate, and intelligent way to route inquiries, messages pile up and resolution times drag on.

Before Esker, for example, FUCHS Lubricants manually processed every customer inquiry from a centralized mailbox. That meant relying on humans to determine urgency, route messages to the right teams, and track down order information. Their turnaround time? Up to 48 hours. Their metrics to benchmark or improve? None to speak of.

With Esker’s AI-powered inquiry classification and sentiment analysis, FUCHS now automatically categorizes 84% of incoming emails. Response times dropped to just six hours, and customer-facing staff are free to focus on value-adding conversations instead of inbox triage.

“To me, Esker’s AI engine is magic. It automatically classifies all our inquiries into the proper categories that we pre-customized when we set up the solution.”
Chris Raleigh, Business Process Expert (O2C), Americas

Horror Story #2: The vanishing minutes

"We’re taking an eternity to respond to orders and questions."

Why it’s scary:
As Graham explained, responsiveness isn’t just a nice-to-have in today's business landscape — it’s a competitive differentiator. When teams are bogged down in manual data entry or stuck answering the same five questions, customers are the ones who suffer.

MCR Safety, a PPE manufacturer, previously handled all orders and inquiries manually, with an average response time of 12–24 hours, sometimes longer. But modern customers now expect real-time answers, especially when safety gear is involved.

By implementing automated routing and order triage, MCR achieved a 91% order automation rate, cut data entry errors by 63%, and sped up response times to near instant. Even better? They freed up CSRs to take on proactive customer roles, resulting in higher employee satisfaction and better service delivery.

“CSRs now have more time to talk to the customers and build rapport... and other things that actually add value.”
Deborah Buck, Director of Customer Care

Horror Story #3: The growing pains

"We can’t scale our order process as we grow."

Why it’s scary:
Growth necessary for an organization's survival — but it also exposes weaknesses. As Nick noted, many organizations hit a wall when rising order volumes outpace their capacity to manage them manually.

NVIDIA, the global tech leader, experienced explosive growth driven by demand for their AI chip and gaming technology. But their order entry process couldn’t keep up. Manually entering even repeat orders took up to five minutes per transaction.

Using Esker’s Order Management automation solution, NVIDIA reduced that time to five seconds — a 98% improvement. They also cut manual effort by half, giving staff the flexibility to scale with demand, not burn out from it.

“We’ve been able to slash the processing time... and our employees feel more empowered and productive than ever.”
Angela Garceau, Sr. Director of Business Operations

Horror Story #4: The invisibility issues

"We don’t have visibility into what’s slowing us down or where issues originate."

Why it’s scary:
When things go wrong in customer service, it’s not always obvious where the breakdown occurred. As Graham emphasized, lack of visibility into processes makes it nearly impossible to improve performance or prevent future issues.

Sanofi Spain struggled with recurring problems — invoice disputes, returns, claims — but lacked the data to trace root causes. Departments were siloed and issue ownership was unclear.

By centralizing issue and claims management in Esker, Sanofi now enjoys 100% visibility across their service workflows. AI-driven tracking flags errors, matches issues to order data, and identifies systemic patterns. As a result, they’ve halved claims processing time and significantly reduced order-related errors.

“Thanks to the increased process visibility, I can quickly identify critical issues and correct any inefficiencies.”
Javier Fernández Linares, Customer Service Manager

Horror Story #5: The claims catastrophe

"Our claims process is manual and chaotic."

Why it’s scary:
Claims may not be glamorous, but they’re critical to cash flow and customer trust. As Nick explained, when claims are handled manually — across spreadsheets, inboxes, and EDI files — it’s easy for important data to fall into the abyss.

GBfoods, a leader in the food and beverage industry, was managing promotional claims with disconnected tools. It was time-consuming, error-prone, and nearly impossible to track performance.

With Esker’s centralized claims platform, GBfoods now automatically captures data from claims documents, assigns categories and cost centers, and routes them to the right teams. The outcome? Claims processed 50% faster, 500 hours saved annually, and five straight years of 98%+ customer satisfaction for order delivery.

“We’ve improved the whole O2C process and enhanced our collaboration with customers.”
Susana López, Front-Office Retail Customer Service Manager

Just scary stories? More like real customer service experiences

Each of these customer service nightmares came straight from the experiences of real companies. And in every case, it wasn't a magic potion that broke the curse, just the right tools at the right time from the right solution provider. Automation and AI helped them overcome issues withscale, visibility, and workload that had haunted their teams for years.

Whether your team is buried in emails, overwhelmed by orders, or dreading another round of claims processing, Esker’s Customer Service automation suite is here to help you turn the lights on — and the chaos off.