Successful automation doesn’t replace human interaction. It does, however, allow us to communicate easier.

Today, we can easily find alternatives to products or services; therefore, the only thing that can set you apart from the competition is excellent customer service. Correctly automated workflows save you money and time while providing your customers with a better experience with your brand. 

Automation – done right, or not at all 

Whatever you choose to automate will have a tremendous impact on your business. Remember, your customers want to be valued.

Start by automating the process – but don’t automate your communication. 

Your clients want to know you care about them and their needs, so a generic auto-reply to their message isn’t going to make the best impression.  

The key to success with automation is helping both your team and your customers. You can design a process that benefits everyone by reading into the data available to you. Think about how you could provide faster – and better – customer service? How can you make your team’s workflow easier and reduce the margin of error? 

Reduce inquiries? 

Look into your data to identify patterns. Think of the most common questions you might receive via emails and direct messages on social media. 

Do people ask about your products? Maybe you receive a lot of emails about your customer service? Is your online store crushed under the volume of delivery queries? Use your data to decide which parts of your team could benefit from automation. Don’t forget, however, to ask yourself if automating your chosen process will provide a better customer service experience.  

Deliver what your customer needs before you automate anything. 

Before you set up any systems or integrations, make sure your customers can find essential information about your product and service on your website. When you know what your customers frequently need help with, start by introducing an FAQ section to pre-emptively answer recurring questions. 

Teach your clients how to get the most out of your product. Use any relevant social media platforms to create tutorials and how-to guides, which help your customers engage with your products and services. Those reduce the number of general inquiries. 

Automate whatever eats the most time. 

Switching between platforms is a common cause for a lot of errors – it eats a lot of time and creates a significant strain on your team’s ability to focus.

When you use various platforms to support different departments in your company, automation can help you assign roles and reduce errors. 

• You can integrate all of your online channels into one tool. 

Start with integration. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s only for the biggest players. I believe that even smaller businesses can save time and money by investing in a tool which enables them to keep all of their data in one place. 

• Customer Management System 
• Entire Content History 

Knowledge is power, and having easy access to your entire conversation history is extremely useful from a customer satisfaction point of view. 

As a communications expert, I help my clients build their business using correct online communication principles. I firmly believe that although you can automate and simplify tasks and processes, everyone should exercise caution when it comes to automating communications. 

• Sales funnel integrations

Integration also comes handy in the sales pipeline.  For visual-minded people, funnel integrations make your sales process and timings easy to understand. See the bigger picture by having immediate access to all of your sales-related communications. 

Join the conversation 

You can use automation to be present in any online conversation about your brand and related topics happening outside your channels. A tool like SentiOne’s social listening (or their social channel integration) helps your team jump into the conversation as it’s happening. 

Customers love to see brands embracing and being involved in the conversation. These tools should support every department from Customer Service, through PR, to HR. 

Which process could you automate to deliver better customer service tomorrow?