Knowledge
Customer loyalty, customer management, customer journeys - they all aim to ensure that your customers have the best possible shopping experience with you, remain loyal and become regular customers. All the better if they tell others about it. Word-of-mouth is a powerful marketing tool that costs you nothing.
But there is a long way to go, customer loyalty is decreasing and competition is increasing in many sectors. To increase customer loyalty, it takes a lot of time, a targeted strategy and properly chosen marketing measures. Surely you have already thought about this. But have you also included the possibility of automation in your considerations?
It is cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. Moreover, long-term customer loyalty offers growth potential and decisive competitive advantages. The success story of our customer shows what can be implemented quickly and efficiently with the simplest of means. However, the possibilities to increase customer loyalty through automation go much further - we show what else is possible with three examples.
Our client - a fitness studio chain with several thousand members - faced a growing challenge: A complex voucher system coupled with memberships, 10-packages and separately bookable fitness courses. At the end of each month, customers whose 10-pack or subscription would expire in the coming period were systematically reminded. This activity tied up enormous human resources every month.
Together with the client, we developed an automated reminder process. The e-mail notifications to several thousand customers who had expiring subscriptions or seminar vouchers are now sent automatically at the end of the month. This has sustainably increased customer loyalty and at the same time reduced personnel costs.
This example shows which simple automations can have an immediate, significant effect. Existing processes in your company can thus be made more efficient and profitable. However, the possibilities and potential for increasing customer loyalty through automation are just beginning at this point.
One of the most obvious automations to increase customer loyalty are automated response emails. When customers register online or make a purchase, a generated email is immediately sent to the specified email address.
This email can be individualised in the next step and thus create a connection right from the first interaction. The triggers of such an email can be individually determined and shape the customer relationship positively from the start. The entire process does not require any human resources. The chances of success of such emails are also considerably high. Higher click rates, increased turnover and also larger purchase volumes of such customers can be achieved through automated emails.
Another special feature is the possibility to individually adapt automated emails to the different phases of the customer journey. This means that customers only receive relevant emails that match the respective status of the customer relationship. After all, customers have different needs and wishes during the different phases of the customer journey. This can be addressed individually.
One promising way to use automation to strengthen customer loyalty is customer support. Constant accessibility via all relevant channels, including social media, can be guaranteed. Customers receive answers in real time and enjoy customer support at exactly the right time - at the time of purchase.
If the right forms are provided online, a stronger commitment can also be created. Automatically generated offers can then be implemented immediately.
By automating your online shop, customers are shown individual products that are relevant to you. Buyer enquiries, such as the current order status, refunds or cancellations, can also be set up automatically. If customers register on your website, you can use social media to segment the target group and show personalised offers to similar customers. Product recommendations can thus be personalised based on interests and needs.
These three examples only scratch the surface of what is possible. We believe that all digital interaction between your customers and your company can be automated. We would be happy to discuss with you the individual possibilities of your processes to increase customer loyalty. We will analyse your internal processes, uncover potentials and follow your wishes for the implementation of selected automation processes to increase customer loyalty. Make a free appointment for automation & IT consulting today and lead your company successfully into the future.
Cloud Integration, iPaaS, SaaS, BPA… Ough, hard to keep track of all these terms. They are currently used frequently (and increasingly) in the context of automation, and it is sometimes difficult to make a clear distinction and distinction. We have already written blog posts on the terms iPaaS, SaaS and BPA, but we’ll take them up again here to make the difference.
But let’s start with cloud integration, because that’s the central umbrella term in which we embed all the other technologies in this blog post.
Arrange a free cloud integration consultation now
Arrange a free cloud integration consultation now
To illustrate these advantages, an example is suitable that we know well from our everyday work as an automation agency:
The central data to be used here is the data of a major customer. This can be the simplest information, such as the address. This address is required in numerous but completely different processes in the company: on the one hand, for correct invoicing in accounting. On the other hand, in the CRM system, where all the data of the large customer is also stored. But the address is also important in sales, for example, when employees go to the sales meeting on site.
Now the customer announces that the address of the company has changed after a move. This information will reach you by e-mail. There are now two options:
01. The e-mail is forwarded to all affected departments, accounting, sales, customer service, marketing… All persons open their corresponding program, CRM, accounting software, marketing tools (such as newsletter marketing) and change the data already stored there of the customer. This means that in multiple applications, different people do exactly the same thing: change one address.
02. But there is also an alternative: By connecting your applications, thus by integrizing them, the customer’s e-mail, or rather the information it contains about the address change, is automatically passed on to all affected applications: CRM, accounting, marketing, ERP. This does not require any clicks, because the cloud integration detects a trigger, i.e. address change, and thus automatically starts the process.
What sounds unimpressive in a single process becomes more effective when such a process occurs several times a day or weekly. Because there is a lot of data that is available in different applications and should always be correct. If these applications are cloud applications they are suitable for cloud integration.
But cloud integration doesn’t just happen. There are now a variety of applications that enable and implement this. Such tools usually allow us to link the relevant cloud applications on a central platform and define clear rules on when, how, where, how much data should be passed on and what happens to them.
To realize cloud integration, there are various applications and technologies that are sometimes used interchangeably.
We have made a first distinction between iPaaS and BPA here.
We explain the term SaaS in more detail here.
Cloud integration is rather an umbrella term that includes numerous technologies, such as SaaS, iPaaS and BPA, and this is also absolutely necessary. Cloud integration is a concept that is made possible by appropriate technologies.
However, all terms share the commonality that they are cloud-based and thus offer enormous potential for growth and scaling. In addition, they are often cheaper to implement and maintain because changed requirements are easy to implement.
As an independent automation agency, we implement cloud integration according to your requirements. We use a variety of SaaS tools and iPaas (strictly speaking BPA) software. Together we find individual solutions that are flexible and scalable.
