Today’s eCommerce market can be turbulent, making it daunting for anyone with a small business who wants to breakthrough.

If you are one such person, you may need to develop strategies to effectively compete with the bigger and more established brands to remain relevant. The key may be innovative technology and an effective marketing strategy based on automation.

In terms of sales, most businesses focus primarily on products and pricing to drive sales. However, consumer attitudes have changed quite remarkably in recent years and now focus on the customer experience they get from a business.

For this reason, you will find most customers are willing to pay more to get better services.

Automation is widely considered the key to enhancing the consumer experience.

Technological advances have brought specific software to win customer loyalty by providing them with the best experience.

It has also made it far easier for small businesses to operate (cheaply!) as an outbound call center or even a virtual call center to reach out to current or future clients.

By incorporating such technology and making your business customer-centered, you are practically guaranteeing yourself an edge over other businesses.

Here are seven ways that automation can help you…

#1 Faster Resolution Of Customer Queries

There is no better way to retain customers than by offering top-notch customer service.

Studies have shown that it costs more to convert a new customer than to retain an existing one.

Most, if not all, customers hate having to go through a complex process before getting a solution to their problems.

They want service that is fast and proactive. Customer retention automation is a combination of those attributes that makes it far easier for businesses to keep customers on their side.

It would be best to consider how public comments on social media could taint your business reputation. If you make it easy for customers to bring their comments directly to you, you can keep a lid on this.

At the very least, create a policy to automatically identify brand mentions (with social listening) and respond thoughtfully and constructively.

A functioning life on your website is a great tool for this purpose. In addition, instant engagement with your brand will prevent a lot of situations from escalating.

It also allows you to collect data on the feedback your customers commonly provide.

#2 Around The Clock Availability

The internet means that most businesses are now international. Different customers in different time zones are hard to manage!

Automation can help to keep your services running 24/7. Systems like conversational IVR are beneficial for this; they can operate at virtually any scale and give customers a near-human experience.

What’s more, most conversational automation has out-of-the-box multi-language capabilities, so you can actually expand your global reach.

In practice, using these systems is a lot like using Alexa or any voice system, something with which most consumers are very experienced.

#3 Improved Personalized Customer Experience

Automation can seriously streamline your services.

It’s simple for automated call center services to gather customer information on different channels and create custom messages for each customer.

This is especially true for routine queries like billing and shipping issues or requests to update user data.

If there’s a point in the interaction where it becomes too complex for the system, it’s easy to transfer to a live agent automatically. That way, you can still offer customers real, human support while taking care of a lot of the boring stuff – data entry, for example.

As such, you are guaranteed to retain your clients and even converting them to loyal brand ambassadors for your business.

#4 Increased Convenience

Customers are now opting for brands with automated services since they are more convenient in terms of time and cost-effectiveness.

They find it easier to go for brands that they can contact at the very least without having to break a sweat. In the past, clients had to visit the brick-and-mortar store to ask queries or air their grievances. In addition, commuting meant that they had to incur expenses and cut their time.

Automation has mitigated the need for such since they can now explore brand websites to get the information they need.

When consumers notice that it is easy to access your services and your support without checking different pages to get your details, you are guaranteed a reduced client churn rate.

Therefore, clients get the kind of experience they need, and you get to improve your ROI.

#5 Improved Customer Self-Service

Automation services have allowed customers to have the self-service option.

Most people opt for the self-service option other than having to go through customer care support. This is because most customers tend to feel empowered and trusted enough by brands to allow them to handle their problems.

Giving your customers such control enhances their loyalty to your brand since they feel valued. As such, they report better experiences with such a brand and help you win more clients.

#6 Consistency

When your business platform is automated, the information gathered by the software from your clients provides your brand with customer information and expectations.

When customers visit your website, you already know what they want regardless of their history and can satisfy their needs faster.

If you can meet their needs in good time, you’ll see a major improvement in customer satisfaction metrics, which compels them to stay loyal to your brand.

#7 Improved Efficiency

Customers get to rate your standard of customer care from the efficiency of your delivery.

Humans are prone to error, and this has been witnessed countless times in businesses.

However, as a business, you need to be striving towards perfection to achieve an epic consumer experience. Therefore, there are minimized errors in your services when your system and services are automated.

Machines and software have specific algorithms that they follow and, unless tampered with, offer accurate results. As a result, the number of complaints in your service delivery is reduced to a minimum, improving your reputation in the business realm.

In conclusion, automation of services has proved effective in building a seamless customer experience.

Despite having a small business, you have a better competitive advantage with the already established one when implementing effective automation technology in your strategy. Besides, you are bound to increase your income since automation will also improve your brand image.

Improved customer relationships resulting from the automation will guarantee your business acquisition and retention of the right kind of clients.

7 Ways Automation Improves Customer Experience

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