As technology and society have changed, so too has the way that companies approach their customers. Only a short time ago, there were limited tools available to assist business owners with client interactions and support, but thanks to a rise in innovative technologies, this is no longer the case.
Thanks to dedicated software, aimed at easing communication and solving problems, entrepreneurs are now able to be far more creative and concise with the way they approach their customer service. This is handy since 80% of consumers of a Hubspot survey stated they would stop doing business with a company following a poor service experience.
Customer satisfaction and care is a complex matter and there are numerous ways that businesses can approach it. Yet no matter what your strategy, a customer-centric attitude and the perfect concoction of clever automation technologies, will be the key to building a strong brand and winning loyalty. Automation technology can actively enhance the customer experience, from speeding up issue resolution to making shopping more convenient.
Speeding up Query Resolution
Good customer service is good business, not least because word-of-mouth and reputation can significantly improve or stunt the growth of your business. Thanks to the rise in social media channels and review sites, customers are choosing to air their grievances in a very public manner. Therefore, the way we handle such matters needs to improve – and speed up!
Customers expect a speedy and thorough response to their queries. In fact, a recent study by Hubspot found that 90% see an immediate response to their customer service questions – within 10 minutes – as highly important. While SuperOffice found that 62% of customers browsing using a mobile device, expect to see live chat functions on the website. This is where automation technology can help!
Arguably the best way to communicate with customers is through live chat, since it enables businesses to instantly converse with customers, resulting in eight out of 10 queries being resolved immediately, according to LiveChat, which is possibly the most popular software and is trusted by 28,000 companies, including the likes of McDonald’s and CBS.
Plus, after every chat you’ll receive a score, so you can constantly monitor and improve your strategy. Other tools, such as Zendesk, Intercom and SupportBee, aid with customer interactions across phone, email, social media and WhatsApp, with queries being amalgamated in one place and ticketed, so you can prioritise them. After all, the faster you solve a customer’s issue, the more likely they will be to return.
Such automation tools can enable your team to deal with multiple queries simultaneously, providing real-time feedback, improving the user experience and limiting miscommunication. Plus, you can log and analyse every response, to make sure your team is providing the consistent, quality support across your business. Ideal for training purposes, such tools also place you in front of the customer, making it a powerful device for driving sales!
Increasing Ease and Convenience
While positive feedback can be a highly beneficial acquisition tool, negative feedback can kill business! As brands compete for custom, people are sorting the wheat from the chaff by measuring the standards of service they receive. If a customer is struggling to find what they need or is having technical difficulties, the last thing they want is to go through a complex procedure in order to gain support.
Most likely, they’ll give up and shop elsewhere! In fact, a recent study by VisionCritical showed that 86% of buyers will pay more for better customer experience, therefore it makes sense to focus your attention on perfecting your technique.
Automation tools make the customer experience easier and more convenient. Make your customers feel special and important and your business will thrive. Explore your own website and services and consider whether the journey is straightforward or complex. Can the customer contact you with the press of a button, or do they need to trawl page after page in order to find your automated hotline details?
Tools such as Matomo and Hotjar allow you to understand how your customers experience your website. With heatmaps, session recordings and A/B testing, you can identify common issues in order to improve the digital journey. If you fully understand your audience, you will have a better chance of attracting a new one, and retaining told ones!
CRM automation tools can also allow you to create customer profiles, in order to track and analyze behaviours – this is highly important since it can cost six times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one, according to Neosperience.
Plus, by providing 24-hour support your customers will be able to contact you at a time that’s convenient for them! By offering multiple channels for contact, including phone, email, social media, live chat, and even text message, your customers will have the freedom to contact you in the way that best suits them. This level of choice will heighten your brand and will set you apart from your competition!
A Personalised Experience
Providing your customers with tailored content could be the most straight-forward route to establishing your brand as customer-centric! HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and Marketo can all assist you with personalisation for the right audience, adding a human touch to every communication and transaction and providing your customers with a sense of individual importance. In short, personalised marketing will make them feel special.
Campaigns can be personalised based on multiple demographics and places information and products in front of the customer most suited to it. This not only makes the buying journey easier, but it means you’re less likely to waste time and money sending communications to people that have no interest.
Facebook and GoogleAds also offer marketing tools that make sure your paid-for advertising is only shown to the most relevant people, whether that be location, gender or age-based, making every piece of content your brand creates relevant and tailored.
Relationship Management
No business can survive without customers, no matter what the sector, and thanks to dedicated Customer Relationship Management tools, such as Salesforce and Freshdesk, we can now record every interaction we have with every client, helping you avoid miscommunication, keeping all team members informed and speeding up the query process.
No one likes to have to explain themselves repeatedly, and this is where CRM tools can help boost the client experience, allowing you to create, store and track communications, contact details and purchases all in one place. Making everything digital also promotes list management and healthy sending habits. Keep your data clean and target the most relevant people to avoid becoming annoying or obsolete to your subscribers.
CRM software is also specifically designed to enhance the relationship between company and client, to encourage customer satisfaction. They speed up issue resolution and deliver personalized support, to help you retain customers and provide better value along the way!
Legal Client Services
Lawyers and Real Estate professionals face some of the most overwhelming workloads of any sector, which can often result in the client taking a back seat. To make sure that the client is always left feeling important and informed, lawyers are turning to automation technology.
Legaltech such as Bigle Legal, Legal Robot and SimpleLegal are there to speed up contract processes, reduce human error and keep your clients waiting for much less time. With such services, firms can begin to build better relationships with clients, speeding up processes and growing their all-important firm reputation.
In short, by simply implementing key automation technologies, you could rapidly change the way your customers see and rate your business. As well as improving customer service, automation can reduce human error, improve employee morale and rapidly improve the reputation of your brand. By bridging the gap between company and client, your business will soon become customer-centric and will allow you more time to dedicate to the further growth of your empire.
