If you are to increase the number of referrals that you get, you must up your customer experience game and delight your customers.
Photo credit: Christina
Customer referrals are one of the most effective ways to increase sales. Most people are willing to purchase a product or service if someone else recommends it. That’s why most people turn to review sections to read about a brand before making the purchasing decision.
Unfortunately, you can’t expect a referral from unhappy customers. If you are to increase the number of referrals that you get, you must up your customer experience game.
However, delivering a good customer experience constantly is easier said than done. If you don’t standardize processes, you are likely to run into inefficiencies and inconsistencies that can lead to delays and frustrations.
The good thing is that technology is providing ways to improve the online customer experience. For instance, Clickfunnels are sales funnels that are helping businesses keep track of their leads, and optimize their conversions by making the online customer experience smooth and seamless. Furthermore, with Clickfunnels addons, you can automate processes to avoid delays and errors, consequently enhancing customer experience.
Here are ways that automation can help you improve customer experience to not only increase customer retention but also encourage referrals.
Automate inventory management
When customers place an order, he or she expects to find the products in stock. After purchasing, the customers want to know the status of their shipment from the store up until it gets to them. You can achieve this by automating your inventory management.
Automation will help in collecting real-time data that you can use to forecast market trends and demands. This way, you will stock the right items that customers are interested in, at the right time. It will also help you display the number of items in stock so that the customers can be sure to find what he or she orders.
Additionally, automating inventory management helps send order status, delivery time, and carrier information to customers, as well as notify them when there is a delay with updated details.
Automate customer segmentation
Customers feel valued when they are offered a personalized customer experience. As you send them recommendations and other content, they want you to match it with their needs and preferences.
Of course, with the bulkiness of data, it can be challenging to know what each customer wants. Automation helps in analyzing customer order history, browsing behaviors, preferences, and real-time interactions with you. This way, you can be able to segment your customer’s list for you to deliver relevant information to the right people through the right medium at the right time. It also enhances your email marketing efforts, as you are able to send them recommendations and offers based on their interactions with your brand.
Automate electronic forms
There is a high chance of making errors when dealing with paperwork. These errors often lead to delays that end up in frustrations and customers jumping ship. You can eliminate this by using electronic forms for purchase orders and any other forms that you may require. Take it a notch higher by automating these forms to facilitate filling, processing, and approval. Automation can help in auto-filling the forms using customers’ information gathered in your database. This way, the customer’s work is minimized and chances of errors eliminated.
Use chatbots
Another area that frustrates the customers is having to wait for answers when interacting with your brand in real-time. You can beat this by using AI-powered chatbots to provide answers to real-time inquiries within no time. These chatbots are designed to distinguish between a query and complaints. They handle what they can, and reroute the customers that need additional help to the right agents.
You can also use chatbots to collect customers’ information that you can use for segmentation as discussed above.
Automate ticketing system
If you have segmented your package plans, a person holding a premium plan or an SLA for fast ticket resolution can easily get frustrated if he or she has to wait in line before being served. You can automate your ticketing system to update ticket priority depending on the account that a customer holds. That way, when a high priority ticket comes into the system, your agents are able to see it first. They can then act on it promptly to avoid losing these customers.
Conclusion
As illustrated, automation for customer experience is an area that you can’t afford to ignore if you are to take your business to the next level. You need it to delight your customers so they will be more willing to refer you to other people. Automation can also help you time your referral request so it happens at the point where customers are most satisfied with your brand.
