Business owners and employees often need to contact other businesses, vendors, and customers. This can be done through email, text, phone calls, and more. However, some of these communications and check-ins are tedious and do not require a customized message every time. When this is the case, don’t waste your time typing everything out. Automate!
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Live Chat
When going on a website, there will sometimes be a little chat window that pops up so you can talk to an employee. A lot of the time, these will not automatically connect to an employee, but instead to a chatbot. These bots can usually answer basic questions or direct customers to the FAQ page where they can find the answer to their questions. This is a quick way to automate conversations that have one quick answer.
In cases where the chatbot doesn’t have all the answers, the chat system can connect the website user to a human employee. This connection will be automatic, but the communication from this point on will not be. The employee will take over the chat and be able to talk to the customer. The employee will still be able to redirect the customer to the FAQs page if need be. Otherwise, it’s best for employees to answer the questions that require a more personal/human touch.
Follow-up Emails
pipedrive.com
Some services and orders will require a follow-up email to be sent. This is usually to confirm that an order has been received, that a product has been shipped, or an appointment has been booked. These emails are mostly all the same, with names and product or appointment information changing. Updating customers about these things does not require any personalization. Instead, a business can use an email template to send the message.
There are plenty of websites that offer free email templates to be used for the purpose of similar/mass emails. Some of these websites can even send these emails out to businesses. However, this may come with an additional fee. Whenever possible, try to use free templates to save money.
Weekly Newsletters
Source: sendinblue.com
No website or business is required to make newsletters, but sending them out on a regular basis can help to boost both in-person and online sales. How much sending a newsletter will help your business will all depend on the newsletter itself. These should be customized to draw the customer’s attention.
The first step to any great email newsletter is to have a great subject line. After all, if a person never opens the email, then the newsletter doesn’t do any good. Mentioning sales or other promotions in the subject line is a great way to call attention to the email. In the same line of thinking, the sooner a sale or other promotion is mentioned in the email, the more likely the customer will be to keep reading.
Fill the newsletter with pictures of products and services to entice the customers. Remember to add links that lead to call to action pages, such as the items themselves or the website shop. If your website does not have a shop page, link to information about the services your business provides. If your services require an appointment, link to openings or instructions on how to make an appointment.
Automatic Invoices
Source: kinsta.com
Whether your business offers a service or sells goods, invoices are going to be crucial. The faster an invoice is sent out, the faster a client/customer is likely to pay it. There’s nothing faster than automatic!
There are a few ways to have automatic invoices set up. One way is to use a Point of Service software like Tudodesk. Tuodesk, and POS software like it, can serve many functions that will help out a business. As mentioned, one of these services is creating and sending invoices. Depending on which POS software you use, it can also keep track of which invoices have already been paid. Some can even be used for both in-person and online transactions.
Not all communications should be automated, but many of them can be. Follow these tips to improve automatic communication on your business website. Remember, the more features of your business that you can automate, the less time you need to focus on tedious tasks. This will leave more time for what really matters– running your business.
