17 Automated Touchpoints To Enhance Your Customer Experience

Posted by anthillsoftwareleeds in Insights - Last updated April 15th, 2021

Every customer touchpoint counts. In fact, your hard won reputation can be destroyed by a single errant communication.

So for any business concerned with their continued success, it is essential that time and thought are invested in ensuring the right messaging, reaches the right customers at the right time.

In our increasingly “always on” world, we’re bombarded by messaging from all angles so ensuring you cut through the noise is critical.

But the problem is, consistently crafting quality can be incredibly time consuming. And if left down to the individual, can lead to vastly different messaging reaching customers at the same point in their respective journeys.

So once the best communications have been drawn up, why waste precious resource replicating what could be automated?

Why Introduce Automated Customer Touchpoints?

Now it would be crazy to ignore the whole host of touchpoints that occur prior to that first human interaction with an organisation.

“50-90% of the (customer) journey is complete before a buyer interacts with a sales rep”.
Spotio

Whether through marketing campaigns, speaking with friends and family or passing by your retail outlets, consumers often know a great deal about a company before that organisation even knows they exist.

Here and now though, we’re focussing on those touchpoints residing within the customer journey proper, from the first direct engagement through to post sale success and beyond.

Before we dive in, we need to make one thing absolutely clear… no business can afford to lose the human connection.

“86% of consumers prefer to interact with a human agent and 71% said they would be less likely to use a brand if it didn’t have human customer service representatives available”.
Forbes

Automated customer touchpoints should support, rather than replace your direct, customer interactions.

The way in which automating communcations can be so effective relates directly to the finite nature of time and resources.

Rather than having your customer facing employees losing time on long winded admin tasks and manual communications, automating the appropriate touchpoints can have a dramatic impact upon productivity.

Throughout the sales cycle, there are countless opportunities for automated communications to elevate the customer experience.

Triggered at key stages within your customer journey, automation can ensure your team spend their time where they have maximum impact. Not stuck in a corner entering and re-entering the same information.

6 Automated Touchpoints During The Buying Cycle

Looking toward sales process itself, each business operates in a unique manner. However, there are certain core communications that are cornerstones of a comprehensive customer journey.

Throughout the customer journey, your touchpoints should serve a triple threat purpose.

To inform, excite and encourage.

Automating updates on an order status helps keep customers informed. Thank you messages encourage prospects to continue through the process and value adds help foster excitement regarding the purchase they are making.

Each one of these communications can be automated.

By using dynamic content based on customer information, you can still create a personalised experience without drawing your staff away from interacting with an even greater pool of prospects.

For your sales process, consider the impact of automating the following touchpoints:

Appointment Confirmations
Appointment Reminders
Post Appointment Thankyou Messages
Progress Updates e.g. designs are complete, production has commenced
Value Adds e.g. free resources, complementary product guides
Payment Reminders & Invoice Generation

7 Post Sale Touchpoints:

Beyond the sale is often where automation can have the biggest impact. For a number of reasons, interest from a sales side can often wane once the prospect becomes a customer.

However, just because the opportunity is “closed won” doesn’t mean the job is finished.

Abandoned carts, cross-sell opportunities and a loss of customer engagement are all things that can easily go unnoticed if left to be dealt with manually.

Businesses invest a great deal in winning clients, surely equivalent priority should be given to retention.

Equally, knowing why your customer purchased from you is great but knowing why a prospect didn’t is even better! Post sale touchpoints are just as valuable for identifying the reasons for “closed lost” as they are for “closed won”.

With this in mind, organisations can look to automate common FAQs to alleviate pressure on customer service teams as well as delve into the why of the purchase to enable future optimisation and improvement.

How could automating the touchpoints below improve your customer experience?

Purchase Thanks & New Customer Welcome
Delivery Confirmation
Delivery Reminders
Common FAQs
New Offers & Loyalty Schemes
Reconversion Emails e.g. those prospects that didn’t convert first time, could they be reengaged?
Company Newsletter

4 Automated Customer Service Touchpoints:

Finally, looking beyond the sale and the “transfer” of accountability to customer service and success.

Automating an email for something as simple as acknowledgment of a support query can go a long way in both ensuring the customer feels valued as well as allowing the service team to get on with finding a resolution.

Improving response times and provision of a solution can only have a positive impact upon the customer. Intermittent follow up communications also facilitate opportunities for tackling any issues head on, rather than waiting for negative sentiment to grow whilst you remain blissfully unaware.

Support Query Acknowledgement
Support Query Progress Notifications
Satisfaction & NPS Surveys
1, 3 or 6 Month Follow Ups

The Impact Of Automation

Behind every quality, automated communication is a saving. Whether that be time, money or avoiding a missed opportunity.

Automation facilitates a robust workflow for your unique customer journey. By supplementing your direct interactions with trigger based communications, you can ensure your offering adds value to prospects and customers alike.

Providing touchpoints at the optimum moment helps streamline and unify best practice communications, drives efficiency and delivers a higher quality service.

To learn how Anthill can help you automate all of these touchpoints and more, click here!