Enhancing Legal Support: Insights from the IT Tool Workshop
In recent years, it has become the ECC Network’s (ECC-Net) tradition for ECC Poland to organise one of the annual network events, the IT-Tool Workshop. This workshop offers legal experts from all ECCs practical training and technical insights into the network's case management systems.
Fostering collaboration: key participants
As the summer was nearing its end, ECC Poland had the pleasure of inviting our colleagues to Warsaw for its fifth edition of the IT Tool Workshop. In previous years, the workshops were aimed at different types of participants. This year, the event catered to colleagues who manage the case management system at their local ECC (ECC-Net’s Key Users), other senior legal experts, and communication officers, who would be best positioned to actively engage with the presented ideas and share them with their centres.
Improving efficiency: focus on consumer query processing
The key theme of this year’s workshop was increasing the efficiency in processing received questions and complaints. The subjects covered a wide range of issues related to the quality of received queries. This focus aimed to facilitate efficient case management and share insights colleagues may use to enhance the overall performance of their centres, while also considering the defined timescales and the value of the data gathered by the network.
A warm welcome: highlights from the first day in Warsaw
Whilst most colleagues managed to arrive in Warsaw without trouble, despite the events causing restrictions on air travel, some needed to participate in the event via online access. The first day featured a two-part session about the onboarding of new staff members hosted by Wojciech, Casehandling Team Coordinator of ECC Poland.
The presentation included useful, research-based information provided by ECC Belgium, which is leading a dedicated project aimed at enhancing the efficiency of workflows within the ECC Network. Additionally, it featured insights from ECC Poland regarding the recent successful onboarding of new staff members. The session also allowed us to showcase the shortened User Manual developed by ECC Poland a few years ago. This guide for legal experts has proven invaluable in the onboarding process.
The first day concluded with the participants being invited to dinner, where they could enjoy the local cuisine and discuss various subjects in a more informal setting, which fosters the spirit of networking between the centres.
Effective case management: sessions on case lifecycles and user experience
The second day’s agenda was packed with topics covering the full lifecycle of cases received by the centres. It began with an interactive session hosted by Linda (Communication Advisor) and Martijn (Legal Expert) from ECC Netherlands. Alongside maintaining and optimising the network’s website - eccnet.eu - ECC Netherlands is leading an initiative to develop a standardised complaint form for all centres.
Participants took part in a user-testing workshop, a structured exercise where people complete realistic tasks while observers note what’s easy, confusing, or inefficient. As part of this user test, participants filled in existing complaint forms used by specific ECCs and shared insights from a consumer perspective. The groups then summarised their comments and presented their findings, which will used for the creation of a common complaint form in the future.
Exploring AI solutions: innovations in resolving complaints
Following a short break, we had the pleasure of participating in a session concerning the use of AI-based tools hosted by Martin, Communication Officer from ECC Bulgaria. We explored how the potential of AI may offer us an edge when dealing with some tasks associated with handling incoming questions and complaints.
The session also involved some practical exercises and a lively discussion regarding the accommodation of such tools in our everyday work, potential risks associated with it and what might be possible in the future. We believe that this is a subject worth exploring further, as it should help increase the efficiency of all ECCs within the network. By automating the most repetitive tasks with minimal involvement from our legal experts, we can enable them to focus even more effectively on resolving complex consumer complaints.
Collaborative improvements: rethinking query classification
Last, but not least, the final meeting was an engaging brainstorming session that revolved around generating exciting ideas on enhancing the query classification system. The suggested improvements will help to accurately classify a wide range of new types of contracts and issues reported by consumers. This enables us to gather more specific information and to highlight concerns regarding common consumer issues that may suggest a need for collective attention or legislative action.
The panel hosting the session (Bianca, Barry, and Wojciech) highlighted the value of data quality and encouraged participants to take a moment to thoughtfully explore and discuss opportunities for improvement in the current categories encoded by the centres. The session ended with the groups presenting their ideas to the rest of the colleagues, where we observed several common themes. The results were collected and should be useful for the ongoing efforts to improve this aspect of our daily work.
Thanking our guests, ECC Poland looks forward to the opportunity to host such events in the future.
Want to know more?
For more information about ECC Poland, please visit Kim jesteśmy - Europejskie Centrum Konsumenckie (in Polish).
The ECC Network (ECC-Net) comprises 29 European Consumer Centres (ECCs) that operate independently. There is an ECC in every EU country, Norway, and Iceland. Read more about ECC-Net on The European Consumer Centres Network.