Why Business Automation Is Vital For The Future Of Business
With the progression of technology, businesses are embracing automation and innovating better ways of carrying out day-to-day activities.
It is turning into a catchphrase for the tech-driven business landscape for Large, Medium, Small companies, and Startups alike. Business giants are increasingly reaping the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Business Process Automation (BPA), and Marketing Automation. The small and medium scale companies and startups are quickly catching the bug.
In Small-scale companies and Startups, workflows and processes are flexible and a lot less complex. But the going gets tough when the company scales up. This makes automation necessary and viable. With the incorporation of automation in business processes, Startups can achieve improved efficiency, greater productivity, faster growth, competitive advantage, and subsequent increase in sales.
What makes Business Automation a Critical Necessity?
The business world is experiencing an unprecedented level of technological advancement and growth. According to experts, technology is advancing exponentially. AI and Chatbots are at the heart of this innovative technology advancement. They are enhancing businesses and taking them to a realm that was previously never thought of. This makes automation essential for the productive and profitable future of any business.
Transition From Manual To Automation
There is a noticeable shift in the way businesses are used to operating. Automation through chatbots is the secret behind their popularity and widespread integration in the market. Automation helps in carrying out recurring tasks quickly, efficiently, and consistently, saving many productive hours. Chatbots help companies scale up, increase profitability with effective solutions, and boost business efficiency.
In a classic case of RapidMiner, they employed chatbots in administering surveys and acquiring customer data. Where lead forms are the standard form for collecting user data, RapidMiner collected more data by replacing its lead forms with chatbots.
Making Customer Experience a Top Priority in 2021
Customer experience influences the conversion of website visitors into leads and boosts business revenue. But that's not it. The interaction shouldn't stop after a visitor becomes a customer. Existing customers are 67% more likely to purchase again if they know how you can address their pain points, concerns and help them. By employing chatbots, businesses are keeping in touch with the customers, addressing their pain points in real-time, and improving their experience. Chatbots respond to common queries, and augment customer care. They generate targeted responses based on customer data. As AI continues to advance, we can expect a higher emotional capacity included in chatbots.
Improving Operational Efficiency for Business Growth
Automating emails helps send the right message to the right customers at the right time. Email automation software such as Litmus, Mailchimp, Klenty, ActiveCampaign, etc., sends automated personalized messages to customers based on their preferences, behavior, and sales history.
After discovering the lackluster email conversations due to impersonal messages, Andrew Dolbin-MacNab leveraged chatbots. The number of visitors increased from zero to over 1,500 in just a month, with 92% click/open rates on Facebook and over 2000 subscribers. Andrew created personalized and engaging conversations using chatbots and improved operational efficiency.
In an interesting story, Perfecto mobile increased their website conversion by 230%. By employing chatbots and enabling warm conversations, they attracted customers that visited their website. Much like Perfecto, Baby Center employed an inexpensive channel such as Facebook Messenger to reach out to thousands of potential customers. They were able to increase the click-through rate by 53%. Chatbot engagement and creative conversations boosts customer interests.
Propelling Businesses in the Right Direction
Automation simplifies data and provides helpful insights into attracting new customers, retaining existing customers, and boosting business revenue. Through Predictive Analysis, it can predict the next move based on the past behavioral and demographic data. It helps businesses comprehend the concerns potential customers are likely to have and address them. It helps them understand who their potential customers are, what kind of offering should be made, and what channel should be used to connect with them.
Ushering New Job Creation
A World Economic Forum report estimated that the rise of automation would eliminate 85 million jobs and create 97 million new jobs by 2025, implying an overall addition of 12 million jobs. It emphasized the need for 'reskilling' and 'upskilling' from employers to ensure employees are sufficiently equipped for the future of work. Robotic Process Automation is said to assume more mundane jobs, leaving vast opportunities for more skilled roles and responsibilities.
In a study by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), it was found that manufacturers will benefit from the use of automation. It will enable SMBs that account for over 90% of businesses in most economies to compete and assume new roles in global supply chains.
Measuring the Success of Chatbots
But it does not suffice to implement chatbots into businesses without knowing the results. With so much complexity and dynamism, every investment must be thoroughly evaluated to ensure a progressive ROI. Metrics such as User Engagement, Functionality, Speed, Comprehension, Scalability, and Interoperability enable businesses to measure the success of chatbots.
User Engagement
An unimaginative chatbot provides preset, generic answers lacking a personalized approach. In contrast, a creative chatbot designed to provide targeted solutions using data from a user account, search and purchase history, personal surveys, drives user engagement.
Functionality
A chatbot equipped with relevant features makes it efficient in performing its functions. It provides visitors with engaging onboarding and seamless navigation, ensuring an unforgettable user experience.
Speed
The speed at which chatbots respond is significant and relevant to customer service, especially when customers are looking for quick responses. An exemplary case would be that of Amtrak. They were facing obstacles in attending to customer queries and requests, losing potential customers, and paying extra for manual labor. But leveraging chatbots enabled them to quickly provide over 5 million queries within the span of one year.
Comprehension
This metric determines how well a chatbot comprehends the messages sent by users. A chatbot must run targeted searches to decrypt the users’ intentions. Equipped with spellcheck and autocorrect features, the chatbot should provide answers in engaging formats.
Scalability & Interoperability
A well-structured chatbot must be easily upgradable with the required modules. So the users don’t have to build from scratch every time there is an upgrade. Interoperability is the scope of a program to be executed on different platforms without bugs and glitches. A streamlined chatbot can be deployed on multiple social media platforms and increase reach.
The use of Chatbots holds tremendous potential for any business and should help the customers understand their brand, vision, and products.
Current Scenario
The Covid-19 outbreak has ravaged the global economy. The International Monetary Fund estimated a 4.4% contraction in GDP last year due to the immobilizing impact of public health restrictions. The crisis has also put millions of jobs on the line, but it has also led businesses to speed up their digital transformation plans. They have realized that they need to get leaner and efficient to maintain growth and sustain themselves.
Automation, along with the pandemic recession, is causing a ‘double-disruption’ scenario for workers. Besides the current disruption due to the economic contraction and pandemic-induced lockdowns, technological adoption by companies is expected to transform tasks, jobs and skills by 2025.
