Automation is trending, and more and more businesses are looking to integrate it into their operations. While automation can help streamline your company and increase its effectiveness in performing many functions, it could come at a cost to your customers.
Engaging with your customers is key to retaining them, gaining their trust and establishing loyalty. Changing the relationship dynamic can be detrimental unless you are able to provide automation in a way that enhances their overall customer experience.
Below, eight members of the Forbes Business Development Council discuss some of the ways you can implement automation for efficiency without losing personal connections. Here is what they recommend:
1. Keep Your Doors Open
Brands need to anticipate scenarios where consumers will interact with automated systems and be interested in speaking with a company representative based on their needs and preferences. This is a high-risk development process with large overhead costs involved, but the reward of a well-done automation system with an option for human connection will create a positive customer-brand relationship. - Christian Valiulis, Automatic Payroll Systems
2. Enhance UX At The Close
In the insurance business, our salespeople are often required to collect signed applications, financial disclosures, etc. This can be cumbersome to potential customers and can get in the way of closing deals so we utilize e-signature and automated templates to make this "clunky" part of the process feel seamless to the prospective client. A swipe of the finger via their smartphone now closes the deal. - Jen Tadin, Gallagher
3. Automate By Likelihood To Produce Revenue
One sure-fire way to reap the benefits is to implement automation around what customers to contact and when. Once you have an automation platform, outline the majority of calls a seller makes by type, then rank them by most likely to produce revenue. This will drive production and productivity, while still maintaining customer contact and relationships. - Christopher Kingman, TransUnion
4. Pilot, Perfect, Scale
Every new sales rep spends their time writing one-off emails. It's the most important writing practice as a new employee. It further encourages variation and creativity. Once a rep has developed structure and a technique that has brought them early success, they then scale their outreach. Scaling techniques are highly dependent on the open and reply percentages. When in doubt, personalize! - Farah Akhtar, Contently
5. Segment Your Audience
When a visitor is on your website, they are providing you information about their decision-making process and business needs. The more activity that is logged, like downloads, webinar visits or tradeshow interactions, the more info your business development staff has to close the deal. Use automation tools to segment your audience based on website activity. This will boost your close ratio! - Andrew J. Herkert, M.A., TruScribe
6. Extract Key Info And Nurture Leads
On my team, there are only two use cases: 1) Extracting key info to prepare the sales team to walk into an opportunity already equipped with a consultative solution, in this case acting as the first sales development rep, with salespeople take over a scheduled, qualified lead, and 2) Nurturing cold leads with required call steps in place that prevent automation from taking back over until the call is completed. - Jared Shaner, Trellis
7. Scale To Meet Competition
Sales automation is crucial today to compete. The keys to successful implementation are knowing your ideal customer profile, identifying accurate contacts in your CRM and building personas for each role you target. Then, stage tailored sets of communications to the individual receiving a series of both electronic messages and old-fashion staged calls. - Chris Lukasiak, MyHealthDirect
8. Let Customers Decide How To Engage
Although research shows that customers’ preferences are moving toward self-service and automation, I think they’ll still expect the option to engage with a representative. Our customers can make purchases on our website directly, but we also offer them the option to chat with a virtual agent or a live representative. We give customers choices on ways to engage and let them decide. - Rakhi Voria, Microsoft
