You probably already know how integral the customer experience is to the success of your business efforts. It goes without saying that learning how to harness the power of automation and personalization in a way that supports your business is crucial.
Without focusing on the customer experience, you’ll find yourself experiencing several problems such as poor customer retention rates, lower customer lifetime value, loss of control over your reputation, and devalued word of mouth marketing.
So why is it that so many business professionals I talk to aren’t taking advantage of automation and personalization tools to improve their customer experience?
Maybe it’s because there are so many competing business priorities and implementing new technology into your business processes might seem time-consuming and difficult.
Well, the time for inaction is over and this guide is here to help you understand why. In this post, we’ll be giving you three effective, yet simple recipes for improving your customer experience. And at the end, we’ll leave you with some actionable tips and advice we’ve learned through providing our customers with industry leading customer engagement and unparalleled results.
What is customer experience?
Customer experience, also known as CX, is your customers’ holistic perception of their experience with your business or brand.
CX is the result of every interaction a customer has with your business, from navigating your website and talking to support, to receiving and using the product or service they purchased from you. Everything you do or don’t do, impacts your customers’ perception and their decision to keep coming back – or not.
This means that creating a customer experience that delights your customers is your ticket to sustained business success.
Focusing on improving the customer experience is a must whether you’re a small, medium, or enterprise business. The good news is, the customer experience can be improved without a large technical, time, and budget investment.
Why is managing customer experience important for your business?
To keep your business growing, you want to delight your existing customers. Delighted customers are more likely to become repeat buyers and refer others to your business. Delighted customers can be a powerful asset to your business, allowing you to reach your target audience authentically.
According to Twilio's global study on engagement best practices, 75% of consumers have rewarded businesses that communicate in the way that they prefer:
All businesses can benefit from improving the customer experience. I challenge you to come up with a type of business that doesn't benefit from providing a great customer experience. Here at SPLICE, we believe that putting customers first is always good for business.
Capture your customers’ consent AND channel preferences at the same time with our ROCC integration.
How to delight your customers
1. Use automation and personalization to create workflows that delight
Combining your customer data with automation and personalization means that your workflows can be endlessly customized. We’ll focus on three high-value use cases to get you up and running as fast as possible.
There are many tools out there that can help you build out your workflows. Here at SPLICE, we help businesses in all industries create amazing customer experiences by combining automated and personalized communications with custom workflows to suit your business needs. At the same time, we can also collect and confirm your customers' communication preferences to increase engagement, brand reputation, and purchases.
2. Clarify your goals
Before you jump in, make sure you have a clear understanding of what business activity you're trying to improve. It might be helpful to map out your desired customer journey.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What part of the customer journey contains the most friction?
- What do customers complain about the most?
- How are we making our customers feel special?
- What is the goal of this workflow?
- What action do I want the customer to take?
If you're not sure where to start, feel free to reach out to us. We have over a decade of experience crafting custom workflows for our customers. Alternatively, we've laid out three easy workflow recipes for you below.
3. Removing friction in the customer onboarding process
If your product or service is technical or contains a lot of legalese, it's probably a good idea to think about automating your customer onboarding. Providing your customers the self-serve tools they need sets them up for success, and reduces the number of inbound inquiries to your support team.
Building this workflow is quite simple:
- The enrollment criteria should be new customers
- When a new customer enters the workflow, they should receive a communication in their channel of choice with a welcome message containing answers to FAQs, self-serve tools, their purchase details, or any other relevant information
- A scheduled follow-up communication in their channel of choice to clear up any confusion
4. Automating customer anniversary messages
Your customers deserve to feel special. Having a workflow that automatically congratulates customers on their anniversary is a great way to make them feel special and is also a great opportunity to give them a special offer.
Here's how to build it:
- The enrollment criteria should be all contacts
- The workflow should be centered on a specific property, like the date the contact became a customer
- If you want to send an automated communication in their channel of choice on their anniversary, simply set a delay of 365 days from the date that the contact became a customer
Tip: Make sure to include a special offer for these customers or use it as an opportunity to schedule a feedback session. Use it to show your customers how appreciative you are of their business.
5. Putting customer feedback on autopilot
This workflow is great for making your customers feel their opinion is valued, and for getting data that allows you to make better business decisions.
Let's build it:
- The enrollment trigger should be context specific. For example, if you recently released a new product or service, the first group of customers to purchase it should be enrolled. If you hosted an online or offline event, the attendees could be enrolled.
- Send an automated communication in their channel of choice thanking the contact for being a loyal customer and asking for their experience using your product or service.
- Create a delayed follow-up communication asking for feedback once more or offer a 10 minute call with a customer success manager.
Ready to improve your customer experience using automation and personalization?
Improving your customer experience can help you improve customer retention rates, increase customer lifetime value, improve your business reputation, and garner more word of mouth marketing.
Tip #1: Make sure you’re not only capturing email consent. Any time a customer is required to submit their communication consent, you should be giving them the opportunity to choose which channels they prefer.
Tip #2: Send the messages triggered by your automated workflows in your customer’s channel of choice. This is one of the easiest ways to add value and ensure you aren’t disrupting your customers.
Follow the steps and tips we covered above to begin using workflows to enhance your customer experience today.
If you want help designing bespoke solutions for your business, reach out to us. We're always happy to talk shop.