.png)
Time may have evolved with all the latest technology, but one thing that has not changed is the fact that customers run the business. These customers expect timely, personalised and seamless interaction and response from the business at every stage of their journey. That’s where CRM comes into the picture. CRM automates the customer journey, including collecting, storing and organising a large amount of customer data and regularly analysing it and reporting. Read further in the blog to understand more about customer journey automation, stages of customer journey, how to automate it and the benefits of such automation.
Customer journey automation typically includes using technology to manage a business’s customers’ interactions with the business. This process starts before the customer purchases your product or service and goes beyond even sales. The major tasks involved in the customer journey automation are:
A customer journey typically consists of five stages that a customer goes through when interacting with your business. These stages of the customer journey are explained as follows:
Now that you understand what a customer journey is, let’s understand how to automate your customer journey using a CRM using the following steps:
This step includes understanding how your customers interact with your business and includes 5 stages explained above- awareness, consideration, conversion, onboarding and retention. It is important to understand these stages to identify opportunities to engage with customers and improve their overall experience.
For real-time customer journey automation, it is important to collect and integrate customer data from multiple sources, such as website analytics, social media platforms, CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, email marketing campaigns, customer feedback forms, etc.
It is essential to define triggers and actions at each stage of the customer journey. Triggers are specific actions or occurrences that initiate automated workflows and include abandoned card, website visits, email opens, purchasing, leaving a review, etc. Actions include sending an email, assigning a task, moving to a new pipeline stage, etc.
Every automation is not customer-focused. CRM automation also includes automating internal workflows like automatically assigning new leads to specific and designated team members, setting up follow-up reminders, notifying staff when a high-priority customer reaches out, etc.
Personalising experience for your customers is the key to retaining them for a long time with your business. It includes customising communications, automated actions, content, and recommendations to each customer based on their preferences, behaviour, and past data
Once workflows and communication are automated, it is also important to regularly review the performance using certain key metrics, such as conversion rates, engagement rates, open and click rates of emails, customer satisfaction, customer lifetime value, etc.
Customer journey automation is not a one-time task. It is a continuous and ongoing process essential to enhancing your real-time customer journey. Automated workflows and communications should be constantly improved so that they adapt to remain effective.
There are multiple benefits for businesses when they implement a robust CRM in their business, such as:
Many businesses, regardless of their size, have opted for CRM considering its benefits. These businesses regularly use CRM for streamlining and automating customer interactions, improving data management and reporting, boosting collaboration and insights, and driving sales and revenue. There are still ongoing advancements in the field, which are anticipated to make CRM even more efficient and effective. If you have not considered implementing CRM in your business, now is the time. It is recommended that you partner with a reliable CRM service provider like Gluu that can understand and analyse your business, its requirements and implement a customised CRM solution for your business. Contact Gluu today!