Refund and change request automation

Purpose

1.1. Automates the process for customers to submit refund and change requests for air taxi bookings.
1.2. Routes requests through multiple channels (e.g., email, web forms, chat) into a unified queue.
1.3. Automatically validates booking details and eligibility for changes or refunds per policy.
1.4. Issues updates to customers and internal teams on request status.
1.5. Initiates, tracks, and finalizes refund or change processes with airlines, payment providers, and accounting systems.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Customer submits a request via SMS, email, webform, or chatbot.
2.2. Backend receives an ‘amend booking’ or ‘request refund’ API call.
2.3. Status webhook from payment providers indicating a refund event.
2.4. Internal agent logs a request on behalf of a customer.

Platform Variants

3.1. Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: SMS webhook trigger; configure Twilio Messaging Webhook to POST to a request endpoint upon receipt of refund/change keywords.
3.2. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Inbound Parse API; receive and parse emails sent to refunds@ or changes@, then route content to the automation platform.
3.3. Zendesk
• Feature/Setting: Ticket creation API; configure a trigger that creates a ticket tagged as ‘refund’ or ‘change’ for requests, and launch automated workflows.
3.4. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Slash command or incoming webhook; set up /refund or /change request collection from staff or customers in shared Slack channels.
3.5. HubSpot CRM
• Feature/Setting: Workflow automation; trigger refund or change deal pipelines based on new form submissions tied to air taxi bookings.
3.6. Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Custom Flow; configure entry criteria for refunds/changes on Case object, automatically send tasks/emails, and update booking status.
3.7. WhatsApp Business API
• Feature/Setting: Message webhook; catch ‘refund’ or ‘change’ messages, parse conversations, and trigger workflow initiation.
3.8. Shopify (relevant for selling bookings as products)
• Feature/Setting: Order API ‘refunds/create’ webhook; triggers on refund actions, updates records, and notifies customer.
3.9. Stripe
• Feature/Setting: Refund API; initiate a refund via the ‘/v1/refunds’ endpoint when eligibility is confirmed.
3.10. PayPal
• Feature/Setting: Sale Refund endpoint (‘/v1/payments/sale/{sale_id}/refund’); invoked when refund condition matches booking.
3.11. DocuSign
• Feature/Setting: Envelope webhook; triggered by completed change request forms that require signature; parse and launch next internal action.
3.12. Google Forms
• Feature/Setting: On-submit trigger; sends details via webhook/integration to automation workflow for processing.
3.13. ServiceNow
• Feature/Setting: Catalog request item; configures refund or change as a service request, launching automated tasks and approvals.
3.14. Freshdesk
• Feature/Setting: Ticket fields automation; apply scenarios to auto-route and escalate refund/change requests from customers.
3.15. Intercom
• Feature/Setting: Event-triggered workflow; monitor customer chat for refund/change requests, and auto-assign to a specialist or bot.
3.16. Calendly
• Feature/Setting: Webhook event or Zapier integration; on booking modification/cancellation, initiate refund/change checks.
3.17. Microsoft Power Automate
• Feature/Setting: Automated flow; on receipt of eligible email/form, trigger sequence to update records and request payment processor refund.
3.18. Zoho CRM
• Feature/Setting: Blueprint automation; manage refund/change request movement between stages and notify stakeholders.
3.19. Mailgun
• Feature/Setting: Inbound route; parses incoming refund/change emails and sends data to a webhook for processing.
3.20. Monday.com
• Feature/Setting: Custom automation; new item with refund/change label triggers internal approval and finance notification flows.
3.21. Google Sheets
• Feature/Setting: ‘On edit’ trigger; updates in customer support sheet (refund/change columns) can launch actions for payment reversal or rebooking.
3.22. GSuite Gmail
• Feature/Setting: Gmail API watch; auto-categorize and label refund/change requests for further automation.

Benefits

4.1. Minimizes manual processing and response times for customer refund/change requests.
4.2. Unifies multi-channel requests into one auditable pipeline.
4.3. Improves policy compliance via automatic eligibility checks.
4.4. Cuts operational costs, reduces human error, assures real-time notifications, and enables scalable service.