“Journeys are 30-40% more predictive of customer satisfaction and churn. Organizations that analyze the customer journey win in customer experience and growth.” McKinsey & Company Research Report

We live in an automated world. And it is altering how businesses communicate with and relate to their customers. Customer Journeys are the individual interactions that your customers have with your brand. It all starts the moment customers hear about your brand. It could be when they notice your ad in a local newspaper, an email, or a brochure. That is when their customer journey with your brand begins.

86.1% of marketing professionals are now familiar with marketing automation. Back in 2017, our survey revealed that nearly 20,3% of the respondents were not even familiar with the technology (LianaTech).

The onset of the pandemic has led to a shift in customers’ expectations from businesses. A study by Statistica shows that almost a third of customers in the United States expect a response to their questions or complaints on social media within 24 hours or less. The solution lies in automating part of your social media customer service to help improve response times. It is the process of automating some of your repetitive marketing tasks by utilizing a software platform. It can be used across multiple channels, including social media, email, and specific website actions. Some commonly used automation tools are Robotic Processing Automation [RPA] which is used commonly to complete repetitive tasks & big data and analytics to understand customers better.

The tools enable you to categorize users based on specific characteristics or behaviors and target them with messaging that is most relevant to them. For example, you could group people who live in the same geographic area together or people who have made multiple purchases from your company.

How does customer journey automation work?

A well-crafted customer journey map should help the business, especially the marketing team, understand customer personas, buying behavior, motivating factors, level of engagement with the organization, and expectations. Customer Journey mapping can also be used to improve the customer experience [CX] and address internal inefficiencies.

Marketing automation & customer journeys go together when it comes to identifying:

Content gaps: Create resources such as blog posts, articles, technical guides, eBooks, and others to help the customer achieve their goal faster.
Key challenges: Once the pain points have been clearly identified, take steps to avoid further hiccups – random cold calls, follow-up delays, or confusing customers with generic products/services that are of no use to them.
Tedious Manual processes: Incorporate automation to help speed up processes, complete repetitive tasks quickly and ensure messages and alerts are set to help ease customer journey.
When you automate marketing processes correctly, it frees you up to do more prospecting and lead nurturing work that only an actual human can do while offloading some of the more tedious and time-consuming aspects of the marketing process. Automation allows your company to systematize and scale its operations to keep up with growth. What is the result? Better informed customers, less friction in the purchasing process, and increased efficiency. This helps boost engagement and the overall customer experience as well.

Related article: What is Customer Journey Analytics? & Why is it Important?

Importance of customer journey automation

According to the most recent research, there are approximately 8000 tools, which is not even the most recent. And, given the market’s rapid expansion, there must be something in it for marketers, right? Of course, there are benefits such as time savings, increased productivity, increased ROI, more leads and customers, and so on.
Marketing automation assists in attracting new customers, nurturing and engaging them, and retaining them. Automation saves you time while also streamlining and improving the customer journey. If your marketing efforts aren’t yielding the desired results, it’s time to try something new.

(1) Connect and stay engaged throughout the customer journey:

Businesses must track customer profiles and behaviors through emails and social media channels.
Automation facilitates an omnichannel approach to ensure customers experience a seamless journey from start to finish.
Personalize and customize offerings through innovation.

(2) Automation-driven intelligence:

Real-time updates and automated responses to triggered alerts
Using predictive analysis, plan and send out messages to customers.
Set auto-notifications and signals for follow-ups or reviews, which helps boost the customer engagement
Send periodic messages and emails to customers using frequent platforms/ social media channels.

(3) Improve marketing efficiency:

Reassess and redefine the marketing strategies to suit new objectives
Identify the change in behaviors to customize marketing campaigns and target the right audiences.
Constantly improve your overall marketing performance
The transition from mass, untargeted campaigns to real-time life-cycle marketing
Deliver instant results and detailed reports

Related article: The Impact of Gen AI on the Future of BPO

Benefits of customer journey automation platforms

Consumers today expect more, and they want it now. Customers want to know that you appreciate them. Automation assists you in better understanding and meeting these needs, as well as improving the buyer experience. Here are the main advantages of customer journey automation:

Better lead management
Effective data management
Personalize customer service
Understand the customer & their journey
Enhance customer relationships
Omnichannel approach & connect
Optimize time
Less frauds and errors
Predictive analysis for personalization
Streamline the customer journey

Customer journey automation use cases

Issue Resolving

The average millennial consumer spends more than seven hours a day online, uses four or more devices per day, and prefers texting over other forms of communication in 52 percent of cases. It seems evident that millennials would value an automated customer support experience, given their need for quick response time and online accessibility.

Customers may instantly resolve their issues with options like live chat assistance or artificial intelligence automation tools, such as chatbots, which will enhance their overall customer experience. Examine the possibility of utilizing a chatbot to respond to frequent questions or to offer current shipping estimates. Customer satisfaction will increase with quicker response times, fewer misunderstandings, and streamlined user-friendly service. Such pleasant brand encounters will promote repeat purchases and boost the possibility of recommendations, increasing sales.

Personalized services & support

Automation can help you target your consumers’ specific interests and customize their e-commerce customer journey. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, bulk email services, and automated email platforms can all be used to send customers targeted offers based on their online interactions with your business.

As an alternative, you can use these tools to tailor recommendations, recall customers who have abandoned their carts, and get in touch with them after they’ve completed purchases. By enhancing the consumer experience, all these strategies can help your company stand out from the competition.

Consistency in Sales

Automation techniques like AI in customer care can revolutionize the client experience by ensuring consistency in service. Providing customers with the same experience during every engagement helps promote retention and brand trust.

Analytics-based tools like artificial intelligence (AI) can track customer emotions throughout the sales interaction process and modify your website’s performance to reflect user behavior. Automation techniques can give your consumers more self-service alternatives, enabling them to find answers to their problems. As a result, customers will have a better experience.

How to choose the right customer journey automation platform for your business?

Here we have listed the top five factors to consider when evaluating a customer journey automation platform. These will help you gain clarity, assess the platform’s capabilities, and pick the one that best suits your business.

The User interface

Customers connect with automation platforms for the first time through their user interface. It should deliver precise information, be simple to use, intuitive to browse, and yield results in a few clicks. Before choosing a platform, always request a sample or free trial to ensure the product meets your needs.

Features

An automation platform’s characteristics vary depending on the product. It’s advisable to conduct preliminary research and list desirable features depending on your particular needs. Take into account whatever current platform you are using. You could require an addition to the already available capabilities, in which case you can search for specific integrations.

Customer Service Options

Customer assistance is a marketing automation platform’s most important—yet frequently disregarded feature. Each MAP provides some form of customer service. Choose the best quality of customer service available around-the-clock and where you can speak with specialists to fix your issue swiftly via phone, mail, or live chat.

Analytics & Reporting

The finest solutions provide your team access to the most recent data, providing you with insightful analysis and a clearer picture of your current marketing initiatives and what your team can do to make them more effective.

Cost & Scalability

The marketing automation tool must be economical and should provide free trials so you can test it out. Always examine the characteristics of several platforms to avoid purchasing a subpar tool while saving money. Before buying anything, be informed of any additional fees or charges.

There must be no restriction on how many people you can connect with, emails you can send, etc., within a single package should be provided by marketing automation solutions. Additionally, it should be possible to upgrade its capabilities and satisfy customers’ constantly changing communication requirements.

Customer journey automation platform trial – Autonom8

Customer journey mapping and automation can help your business and customer relationships at the same time. It can also be intimidating, mainly if your company has been slow to adopt new technologies. Don’t try to do too many things simultaneously as you develop your automation strategy. Remember that any incremental improvement will result in a net gain for your customers and team. At Autonom8, we have a team of experts handling automation and related capabilities, integrating it into the existing system and transforming the customer journey for years. Our A8Chat, A8Flow, and A8iQ are some platforms that will help you redefine the customer experience and grow. Contact us if you have questions or need professional assistance with mapping and customer journey automation.

FAQ’s on customer journey automation

What is customer journey automation?

The individual interactions your customers have had with your brand are referred to as customer journeys. It begins when they learn about your brand for the first time. It might be when they first encounter your advertisement, whether it's in a brochure, an email, or a local newspaper. At that point, their relationship with your brand officially begins.

What is an example of customer journey automation?

Offering bespoke solutions - Customized marketing strategies are a further method to enhance client experience. Based on demographic factors like age, geography, and gender, RPA-based marketing systems can employ data analytics to choose which demographic groups to target with adverts. As a consequence, your campaigns will only target the most pertinent customers, enhancing the buyer's experience and increasing the possibility that your advertisements will result in sales.

Why do you need to automate the customer journey?

Marketing automation helps acquire new clients, nurture and engage them, and retain them. You can streamline and improve the client journey through automation, which also saves you time. It's important to understand how potential buyers are connecting with your brand. Knowing who is accessing your website, reading your emails, and viewing your content gives you valuable information into what your customers are thinking.

How to automate customer workflows?

The basic steps involved in automating customer workflows are:
(a) Identify the processes that involve repetitive tasks and need human intervention and can be automated.
(b) Create the workflow and create a process map.
( c ) Establish the company's objectives.
(d) Research, pick, and put workflow automation tools into use.

What is a customer journey platform?

The customer journey platform from Autonom8 will discover each client's own story and react to behavior rapidly to increase engagement and retention across the business. The platform is basically to determine how users engage with your website, marketing efforts, and product, combining any set of activities or qualities.

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