When doing business, high volume, repetitive tasks are a given at almost all operational level of a company. Making calculations, keeping maintenance records or creating reports using various databases can be extremely time-consuming and may take time and energy from value-adding activities. Furthermore, many companies need to face and handle all sorts of customer inquiries in a timely manner. Nowadays, as customers can share their experiences of a company using different online platforms, companies should put even more emphasis on providing quick and satisfactory customer service. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is already implemented by many business players to stay connected to customers and streamline processes, however, using CRM alone might not eliminate repetitive tasks and obsolete database. This is where Robotic Process Automation can really help.

How could automation boost customer experience?

Robotic Process Automation technology automates repetitive tasks that are rule-based, allowing a more adaptable and up-to-date database. As a result, customer service centers can keep track of every part of the customer interaction in one place. Companies can automate communications between disparate systems by automatically keeping everyone in the loop throughout the customer lifecycle. Automation also makes case management, like customer ticket tracking, easy and seamless in the existing CRM systems. In parallel, RPA allows employees to spend more time in valuable and logical work. So, in what aspects of customer service can RPA support your company?

1. Personalization

Quality customer experience is becoming a vital factor in strengthening loyalty and reaching out to new customers. But in order to know and to react to your customers’ desires, you need up-to-date knowledge and CRM systems alone fall short of this task. Retailers familiar with data analysis and AI are increasingly resorting to real-time analytics based on user profiling by habits, interests, social and professional affiliations and so on. RPA technologies are a powerful data collection tool for this purpose. Indeed, robots can search for information not only in CRM and other internal systems, but also automatically import data from publicly available external sources into the customer database, making it even more valuable for subsequent analysis and the generation of targeted offers.

2. Lookalike audiences

With the ever-growing competition, reaching your target audience becomes more challenging. Through creating lookalike audiences, you can target the potential of new customers whose interests and behavior are similar to those of your target audience. The more data is available from almost any source, the greater are the chances to find the lookalike audience. RPA not only helps to compile the customer database but also enrich it with information from a variety of external sources. Moreover, the robot can interact with several previously unrelated information silos to make the search of a target audience way more efficient. New sources may have new data formats, but with RPA, your system can read information like a human, and import data in any original format after converting it to the system's native format, making your company’s processes flexible and fast.

3. Fast interaction

To efficiently support the handling of customer inquiries, companies need to provide smooth and fast data exchange between their systems. With RPA, businesses no longer need to spend hours on transferring information from CRM systems manually. Key business processes that require prompt responses and define customer loyalty can now be lightning-fast. RPA works on top of the current infrastructure without changing it, and allows you to access the database without disrupting its operations. Incidentally, RPA solutions are also indispensable when it comes to retrieving data from an obsolete system that is still in use because of problems with its replacement.

4. Omnichannel approach

Today, fast response to user requests should be provided via all possible channels such as the web, the physical point of sale, phone, email, social networks, and chat programs. As the history of contacts with the client is stored across all the communications platforms, you can eliminate the need of repeatedly identify customers and their requests. Omnichannel systems may be difficult to set up if a company operates several disparate communications platforms that rely on different data sources. However, transferring customer data between systems to close the ‘information gap’ without complicated end-to-end solutions can perfectly be tackled by RPA.

Naturally, RPA applications are not limited to specific areas. Modern solutions based on RPA and integrated with CRM systems complement other scenarios of routine task automation that help businesses improve customer experience and gain a competitive edge for years to come.

Where to start the automation?

As every new technology introduced in a company, RPA requires assessment, planning and defined adoption process to make the transition seamless. At Softline, we identify the best solution for your business, and support the usage of the new technology with tailor-made adoption and change management. Schedule a meeting with our experts and start forming your company’s long-term vision with us.