It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, or how small your business is, good service has always been the number one priority for SMEs, and it always will be. But in a world that keeps getting faster and more digitalized, customer expectations are certainly changing. The question is, can your small business keep up?

  • According to HubSpot, a whopping $1.6 trillion is lost yearly due to poor customer service, and 17% of customers will actually be willing to spend more for good customer service.

The problem is that, today, the ball is in the customer's court, and they want VIP personalized treatment. Customers want companies to remember their name, as well as their likes and dislikes. This is difficult for small businesses to accomplish because they can only hire a limited number of employees who, in turn, can only provide personalized treatment to a limited number of customers each day. Something's gotta give, right?

Enter automated customer communications.

That’s right, automation. It’s not just for large enterprises, small businesses can benefit too!

Did you know that fully satisfied customers generate 14 times more revenue compared to dissatisfied customers, and HubSpot reports that customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that aren’t. Ka-ching!

Benefits of an automated customer experience for small businesses

We’re not just talking about chatbots and emails. Thanks to the power of APIs, automation has skyrocketed. In fact, with today’s cloud-native technology, automation offers a lot more promise—especially in the communications space.

Communication APIs are designed to help you build omnichannel communications and create personalised and consistent customer interactions—all without costing an arm and a leg. The ultimate goal is help you to engage your customers in a personalized way, at scale.

Human interaction aside, communication APIs allow small businesses to serve customers faster, even when no human employees are available. In turn, your teams will have more time and capacity to handle higher level requests and focus on sales instead of firefighting.

Moreover, APIs make it possible to perform tasks outside of typical business hours, thereby giving your employees more of the work-life-balance they deserve. By integrating LinkedIn automation tools, small businesses can also enhance their outreach and engagement strategies on professional networks.

The API advantage part one: human interaction

Keeping the human element in customer communications is particularly important for small businesses. Tapping buttons might be faster and more convenient at times, but in our increasingly digitized world, human contact is becoming the X-factor. When it comes to small businesses, your customers still expect to be able to reach out to a human for assistance, especially on complex matters. They expect to feel heard, seen, and comforted that someone on the other end of the line has their back.  This is where real-time communication APIs can help.

Live support with the click of a link is probably the most ideal solution for small businesses who want to save money on “wasted” service trips. With video interaction, you can build trust face-to-face, solve a customer's problems, and guide them, so that you’re both seeing the same thing no matter where you are. It’s completely web-based and designed for mobiles, which means your customers don’t have the hassle of downloads. Once they click on your link, you’re connected.

The next best thing to video is voice. With call masking, for instance, you can make it possible for your teams to contact your customers without having to disclose their personal number. On the other hand, with app-to-app calling, your customer doesn't have to leave your app to contact you or use their own personal call minutes.

Voice messaging is another great way to create a stronger human connection. This text-to-speech technology allows you to create and tailor unique human-like voices instead of using robotic AI ones. You won’t be restricted by call length limits, and it’s even possible to reach landlines and thereby improve the odds that passwords, notifications, and other sensitive data will be received. More than just an accessory feature, voice messaging also has practical applications in reaching out to the visually impaired.

The API advantage part two: more channels

Human connection aside, the other challenge for small businesses is that one channel of communication is simply not enough. Today’s customers zig zag between online and offline tools, and it’s difficult for small businesses, especially the smaller ones, to keep track. Small businesses need an internal dashboard that is omnipresent.

That’s why we created 8x8 Connect. This platform helps ease your customer engagement and internal communications woes. In short, it’s ideal for small businesses who want to work smarter, not harder. Not only does it allow you to have more productive conversations with your customers across multiple channels, it helps small businesses to automate those often forgotten and tedious tasks, such as setting out-of-office messages and appointment confirmation messages.

8x8 Inc.

Take chat apps for instance. There are so many out there and it’s difficult to choose the right one.  But with 8x8 Connect, you can use them all. Whether your customer prefers WhatsApp or Viber, you can manage them all from one place on 8x8 Connect. When integrated with your CRM system (including Zendesk and Salesforce), chat apps are a great way to drive conversions thanks to their rich content options, allowing you to provide product recommendations and personalize special offers.

And last, but certainly not least: don’t overlook the value of automating SMS. Rather than responding to email and chat requests manually, APIs allow small businesses to send personalized responses and schedule automated FAQs and notifications. Keep in mind that SMS provides a whopping high 98% open rate, so you can be assured your message is going to get read faster. By using SMS on 8x8 Connect, you can simplify your messaging workflows, keep customers in the loop, and send thousands—or even millions—of messages at once. In fact, the Automation Builder on 8x8 Connect allows users to build and automate workflows in a visual and effortless way by simply dragging and dropping widgets, or choosing a pre-built template. No coding is needed - automation has never been easier!

Scale your business, even with a small team

With APIs, automation need not be expensive or difficult to implement. In fact, APIs can save you money by increasing your existing team’s capacity, thereby allowing your team more time to chase down leads and generate greater revenue. Secured by encryption, and designed to be easy to use and implement, 8x8 Communication APIs, paired with 8x8 Connect, will help your company move from good to great.

Give your customers multiple options to reach you—on the communication platforms that make the most sense for them—while streamlining workflows and managing growth. Scale your business today by learning more about the 8x8 Connect Automation Builder here.