Better Marketing in Less Time

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The integration of CRM and marketing automation tools has lead to increased sharing and visibility of marketing & sales information within those departments and the wider organisation. AI is now more than ever doing the heavy lifting to deliver sophisticated, data-driven insights to help organisations win and retain more customers.

 

CRM and marketing automation tools such as Salesforce, Hubspot and Prospect.io make it easy to use AI-based features where you need them and integrate them into your business over time.

 

AI FOR ALL BUSINESSES

Instead of hiring more data scientists and marketers, small and medium-sized businesses can use third-party tools with easy-to-use interfaces and efficient machine learning functions to connect their data and workflow to get a smarter picture of their customers.

 

THE POWER OF HUBSPOT

Marketing automation software automates marketing actions or tasks, streamlines marketing workflow and measures the results of marketing campaigns.

Hubspot is the world’s top inbound marketing platform, which integrates blogs, social media monitoring and publishing, contacts, SEO, email marketing, marketing automation and analytics in one user-friendly and powerful platform.

 

Hubspot’s 18, 000 customers worldwide use software and services to transform their outbound marketing ( cold calls, email spam, trade shows, TV ads, etc. ) into incoming lead generation, allowing them to leverage remarkable content and integrated experience to deliver leads and better sales  results – not to mention their great online training which helps you grow in your understanding of how best to target customers.

 

TALK TO YOUR IT DEPARTMENT

Humans and AI applications form a very complementary team when it comes to social media marketing.

For social media AI applications to really flourish they must interface with the business analytics and business intelligence applications used in their IT department.

 

If used strategically, the use of AI in a company’s social media and business intelligence efforts can go a long way toward putting (or keeping) the customer at the centre of their organisation.

 

POWER IN THE DATA

AI in marketing will undoubtedly continue its rapid expansion. Companies that track and store their historical and real-time sales and marketing data will be the first to benefit.

But as with other technological advances in marketing ( such as CRM or modern marketing automation software ), the market will naturally reduce the cost of integration and learning curves, and small and medium-sized businesses will be able to access AI’s capabilities almost as well as their larger competitors.

DON’T BUY EMAIL LISTS

With tools like Prospect.io you don’t need to buy email lists anymore. You simply need the name and company of the person you are trying to reach and Prospect.io can find the email for you. Using publicly accessible data and clever AI algorithms Prospect can match a name to an email to 100% accuracy and then you can send drip email campaigns to those customer to uncover the business opportunities. Always remember to provide the prospect with an optout message and respect the boundaries and then use Prospect.io as your very own target audience detective tool.

 

ECOMMERCE & AI

Advertisers and e-commerce companies have the most to gain from machine learning because of the ease of measurement and quick feedback needed to train and improve machine learning algorithms. Drip is the world’s first ECRM Ecommerce CRM designed to build personal and profitable relationships with customers on a scale. Ecommerce marketers all over the world are beginning to see their customers in full color with Drip features such as comprehensive tracking, hyper-segmentation and robust email marketing automation.

 

SMALL BUSINESS & AI

 

In order to achieve digital marketing success, thousands of small businesses use AI via Facebook and Google’s advertising platforms. With more options than ever before, small businesses are building powerful AI strategies without having to hire data scientists or expensive marketers.

 

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

If you are new to using artificial intelligence and automation in your sales and marketing approach then start with the basics:

  1. Start with the data – use what you know about your current customers to drive information gathering for your ideal customer. Store it in a place where it can be shared across different tools.
  2. Find a new tool – you know already what gets your customers attention and brings them to you. Find a tool that makes that process easier, faster and/or fills the gaps that you really wish you could do now.
  3. Use the data and the new tool together – trial a new marketing campaign with improved data and tools
  4. Go back to step 1 and repeat!

If you still have questions please give us a call to find out how we can support your newer, smarter approach to marketing your business.

Call Today 1300 796 771

Give Time Back with One Simple Tool

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Having watched a few scary TV shows I was pleasantly surprised with the dark sense of fear that passed over me when I finally saw the Upside Down in Stranger Things. The sense of stolen youth and the unknown were palpable, and I’m thrilled season two is finally here.

But placing a support request with my average service provider, I can always wait for that. As a consumer the sense of the unknown, foreboding and lost youth is the same as with the Upside Down, only it’s reality television.

As developers, marketers and support technicians we recognise the possibility that our clients might feel the same if we don’t constantly work on better ways to process help requests and manage the communication flow.

So we asked ourselves, how specifically could AI help us expedite the workflow, especially when the request is first initiated?

Fast and Furious?

Most clients get it, technical issues come up and the fastest way to get resolution is to put the issue on your plate, after all that’s what they pay you for.

But sometimes fast means you just have to call them back to get more detail, which does not mean faster resolution, just greater expectation on the client’s part.

More Hunter, Less Gatherer

Using an automated 1st level support agent can help customers log tickets faster while still retrieving the necessary detail you need to initiate an investigation.

Your own decision tree and existing support process, especially at initiation, is ripe for automation. Contact details, issue description, follow up questions (have you restarted your computer?) and other common questions don’t need a hands on approach to gather, only to solve.

Making your support team 10-20% more productive by removing the gathering exercise for simple requests puts profitability back into your service and makes a happier team.

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Using artificial intelligence to gather and process customer request data demonstrates:

1. Your clients have a problem solving partner, not a time waster
2. You would like your staff to have less interruptions providing more time for thoughtful and efficient solutions
3. Your growing business can scale intelligently and iteratively
4. You respect everyone’s time because you’re thinking about ways to give it back

Your AI automated agent will not solve every problem but it will resolve 10-20% of the noise in your support-based business, giving everyone more time to binge watch Stranger Things.

You’re welcome. wink emoji

How to Close the Abandoned Cart Loop Every Time

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“Excuse me, is there anything I can help with?” Says the perfectly polished sales person at your favourite store. They aren’t pushy, they are available, knowledgeable and helpful.

 

And on the back wall of the staff room their sales numbers are off the chart. They capture every possible sale with efficiency, courtesy and a subtle tenacity.

 

It’s too bad that same in-person experience can’t be replicated in your eCommerce store…or can it?

 

While we can’t read a person’s body language online we certainly have the data to predict their interests and intent. Combining that data with artificial intelligence allows every online store to convert potential abandoned cart scenarios or translate them into wish lists for a later purchase.

 

Abandoned Cart Detection

 

With extensive experience in developing eCommerce stores we know there are certain types of browsing activity that precede an abandoned cart. This data, combined with demographics and browsing behaviour deliver an informed assistant approach.

 

Abandoned Cart Conversation

 

On detection of the pre-abandonment activity your AI sales agent pulls on various data sources to inform their offer of assistance.

 

Brand New Visitors

 

Making a first impression counts as much online as in-person so polished offers of help are an important way to start. Why not offer them a discount too for their first purchase? The clever assistant can even apply the discount to an existing cart, removing some of the checkout friction.

 

Returning Visitors

 

Having contact details provides the best opportunity to start a conversation and ultimately convert into a sale. So if a return visitor is browsing and even adding to cart incentivise them to that next step by suggesting compatible products, supporting articles or videos, or a review that might just sway their behaviour.
Validating their journey based on the journey of others is a great way to open dialogue and get to the point where you can formalise your communication on other channels such as email, chat apps or even SMS.

 

Existing Customers

 

They’ve likely already made a purchase and invested some trust in your store, so the conversation is slightly different here. You’ve got the contact details, consider the best way engender loyalty providing unique discounts. If you’ve noticed they abandon carts regularly ask them why and then deliver follow up specific to how they answer.

 

Abandoned Cart Conversion

 

The above strategies are tailored to the customer type but ultimately all serve to personalise their shopping experience and convert them to paying customers on each shopping trip.
If they are not ready now, let them save the cart for later and use your AI sales agent to manage the wish list reminder process.
Using AI to solve the abandoned cart problem is about putting all of the pieces of shopper data together into one insightful puzzle.

3 Reasons A.I. Customer Service Makes Financial Sense

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As customers, we will never go backwards. We will keep demanding more and better and faster. If we don’t get it, we will vote with our feet and our social media voices.

As businesses, if we don’t invest in continuously improving customer service we can only compete on price, that joyless race to the bottom.

If you’re serious about a great customer experience then it’s time to get real about artificial intelligence (AI) because the return on investment is measurable and significant.

Businesses implementing AI in their customer experience are not replacing their existing model, they are augmenting the model where it makes financial sense. So where does it make sense?

Customer Support Cost Reduction

As organisations add new customers or new products and services their customer support request volumes increase. Using an automated agent as a first responder resolves the simple, repetitive requests that don’t require human intervention.

When the requests are more complex or require escalation the automated agent delivers a warmed up customer where the live support agent is briefed on the customer need and the customer does not have to repeat the basics of their issue.

Real Savings

Reduction in support requests requiring a live agent and/or a phone call.
Live agents maximise productivity in dealing with a smaller volume of more complex tasks that only a human being can solve and reducing the brain drain of answering repetitive questions.
Machine learning from automated agent conversations is more rapidly mobilised into website FAQ and support documentation.

Expansion of Customer Self-Service

Companies with developed customer portals already allow customers to manage their own accounts, but customers still want and need a helping hand even if they are logged into a portal.

Once authenticated, automated agents can better support the customer based on their personal history within the portal. Transactions, previously logged support requests and access to rebates and discounts are just a sample of what an automated agent can serve up all in one place and in one conversation.

Real Savings

Reducing customer churn. Providing an adaptable, personalised experience and delivering information in a timely and useful way is critical for customer retention.
For organisations it provides real time feedback on how well the customer portal is functioning. Easily gauge and improve on the customer experience by understanding what is used and/or confused.

Improved Sales Conversions

For eCommerce sites reducing any point of purchase friction is a critical, but sometimes frustrating pursuit. In the case of some businesses the retail experience is only online, and overheads are already stretched across multiple areas of the business and staffing a phone or live chat 24/7 isn’t financially viable.

Using a combination of automated support and personalised data retrieval, customers receive timely advice, supported by previous purchase data and available loyalty rewards.

Improved Bottom Line

  1. More sales conversions per site visitors and/or unique sessions
  2. Less abandoned carts
  3. Improved sales through remarketing efforts

Using AI to enhance the customer experience has clear financial benefits, but it also helps improve the person to person experience too.

As customers we want to know our money and our time is valued and adding AI to the customer support experience doesn’t just say that, it SHOWS it.

Women ARE Bad Drivers And Robots ARE Evil

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Traitor…that is likely the nicest thing my female colleagues, team members, friends and family are thinking right now. Shame on me really, because I’m here to tell you why we should throw those antiquated ideas out the (car) window.

 

Women, on average, are are looking after more than one person at any given time, requiring more patience and thought in getting from here to there.  So if we take a bit more time or allow more than one car to merge remember the literal and metaphorical band-aid at the back of our mind.

 

The Light Bulb Moment

 

As a managing director I think a lot about our customers and the service experience we deliver. The best win we get is the light bulb moment on a client’s face telling us we nailed it and frankly I got into this business because of those damn light bulb moments. Helping people can be addictive and (spoiler alert) the IT industry is actually full of people like me.

 

So we love these “nailed it” moments but in reality we now have to nail it each time customers need our help, not just when we are face to face.

 

As our client base grows we have to be more strategic about that “nailed it” service delivery. How do we keep the service personal and effective, but expand it in a smart way?

 

The statistics around our customer service expectations are that at least 50% of us expect it to be 24/7. We also don’t want our time to be in vain, spending precious time on the phone, only to not get the answer or solve the problem.

 

Over time technology has rushed to fill the gap, sometimes quite effectively. Live Chat, as an example, is a personal and convenient conversation that can help us get the answer we seek or progress it to a point where we know what we need to do next.

 

What live chat does not fully solve, and it is a big gap for companies, is true scalability. As you grow your client base you need more team members to staff the chat. You train them on the same content, the same procedures and sit them in the same desk solving the same problems. Formulaic but not cost-effective in the long run.

 

Our own light bulb moment came last year when we saw how far artificial intelligence had come. Google, Apple and Facebook have been at this for years, but for the rest of us the technology has evolved from esoteric movie fodder to something far more practical and democratic.

 

Artificial Intelligence For Business

 

Companies of all sizes and industries can now have their own personalised service agent using artificial intelligence. Think of it as a harmonic merge of Siri and live chat, tailored for your business objectives.

 

Front line chat agents are expediters to the end game, allowing companies to be “on” all the time cost-effectively. They free up people on your team to excel at solving the complex issues, allowing you to hire for unique skills rather than repetitive tasks that scream low ROI.

 

While this opportunity may sound scary to some make no mistake, your competitors, your board, the CEO is already thinking about this. It is time for all of us to join the conversation and make technology work for us, improving the service experience while still preserving our fundamental humanity and those beautiful light bulb moments.