Category: Technology

The first technological requirement for optimal customer service is the CRM, since this platform will be the repository of all the information on the customer’s profile (age, gender, profession, tastes and preferences), their behavior (purchase frequency, type of products you purchase , among others), and your attitude (complaints, suggestions, requests) and therefore, there the information required for the generation of algorithms will be obtained, an essential requirement of any technological aid supported by Artificial Intelligence.

For the preparation of this article, we were accompanied by Luis Fernando Botero Carrasquilla, Business Administrator, with more than 10 years of experience in business, management and marketing consulting; postgraduate professor at the Javeriana University and former columnist in the magazines Dinero and Portafolio. Currently, he is the manager at BJ Consultores and CEO of Csmart SAS

As technological support for all information, the CRM is the champion. “There is no advance in artificial intelligence, be it  chatbots  or any automation, that does not require the support of information in real time of all the interactions between the client and the company, to guarantee an excellent service.

“The  different contact channels  that an organization may need to be  articulated . All responses and contacts must be integrated into the CRM so that there is consistency in the response: what is spoken to the same customer by email and social networks must always be aligned; because the client is not willing to tell the same story every time the brand communicates with him”, confirms Luis Fernando Botero.

Many companies make the mistake of opening accounts through all channels, be it: email, website, social networks,  chatbots , customer service line and others; but within these accounts, there is no integrator that consolidates the issues in each contact and allows the agent to respond to the client; have the information to prevent the customer from having to repeat it and also be sure that he or she is not  a single customer for the entire company, but a different person for each contact channel. On average, consumers use three contact channels and 60% expect not to have to repeat their problems to other agents.

Multichannel means that the brand offers multiple  contact channels; but, in addition, it has very clear requirements: quick responses (within minutes for any channel), effective solutions, recognition, among others. Offering multiple contact channels requires effective management of each one.

Omni  -channel  means that customer management for each contact channel is consistent, that is, regardless of the contact channel, the customer feels recognized, he does not have to repeat what he already said to the first agent with whom he spoke and the answers, Regardless of the channel, they generate satisfaction and are an express manifestation of its importance for the brand as a whole.

Currently, technology allows various options, with technological devices in customer service:

• Face recognition.
• Speech recognition.
• Fingerprint.

These technological devices  build customer loyalty and recognize them , allowing them to place them in the context of how much they have bought and what they have bought; in order to be able to follow up and offer you possible maintenance or renewal of the product or service at a certain time. In short, it is like a potential observer of customer behavior when buying, and keeps track of their history, their tastes, preferences, important dates, and more.

The best communication days to have with the client depend on the sector and the industry: they are circumstances that must have special consideration. There are times when the peaks skyrocket, so the days depend on the seasons. For example, educational institutions have their peaks in the weeks prior to enrollment; beginning and middle of the year. Hotels and resorts have their peaks in the weeks or months prior to vacations and holidays and thus, each company has its seasons: the type of business provides the information.

“When that moment arrives, the brand must be prepared to enable all available contact channels and ready to generate immediate information. And of course, being in total synchrony with all the means of communication”, complements Botero.

Customer service is a strategic responsibility and cuts across the entire organization. At all times, the leader of the customer service area must attract all areas of the company to be aware and provide immediate support to the needs of any employee who requires it or client who needs it. This is a model that must be permanent, all employees of the organization must feel and understand the client. Regardless of the area, there must be a  guarantee of support  when it is needed, be it in human resources, the financial area, the legal area and all the others.

The CRM must have a user in each employee of the company and through him, all the agents will communicate to guarantee that the answers have the “tracking” so that any agent facing the client, knows the characteristics of the client and the urgency of their requests. requests.

Being the telephone the preferred channel for users,  chat ,  social networks  and all  digital channels  are growing rapidly. The reason is the speed in the responses. People who have grown tired of hotlines have chosen to make their problems public through social networks, with the consequent risk for brands, and given this reaction, companies see the need to act more quickly.

When there is a breach in a service or a failure in a product, that is when technology must emerge and companies must take advantage of it. Activating an alert system, whether by SMS, chat, mail and others, will be essential to send response messages to customers who were breached or received a defective product. Always apologize for the inconvenience and say that the company is working to fix it as soon as possible. This is proactive customer service .

Companies with excellent customer service behaviors, such as Amazon, Nordstrom, Apple, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Uber, Airbnb, Sura, Bancolombia, among many others, have worked tirelessly to build loyalty and create the best experiences for their customers. And of course, they have had excellent CRM and other technologies as allies.

At Cadena we tell our entrepreneurs: these days #StayAtHome and use digital channels.

The information that the new generations consume is different. Today, the media are generators of extensive and baseless content, which is why  the challenge proposes total innovation and calls on brands to be more creative and concrete when it comes to communicating.

Understanding what customers have at home and understanding that they are changing are very important aspects for companies that have entered the path of technological evolution. The conjunction of these two aspects allows us to make a plan that can be adapted and show them the possibilities they have, since the vast majority do not know what they have inside the house.

According to Bruno Neves,  a company that wants to innovate must understand the young people  who are entering the market and the new professionals who, without a doubt, come with a 100% digital chip. To achieve this, companies must adapt to the mentality of these new generations of  millennials  and  centennials,  through an internal innovation culture plan.

The approach to this challenge in organizations is basically what is called  digital transformation.  Regardless of the business or work, all brands must assume it, improving their information systems and delivering services with the mobility and security characteristics that this challenge brings with it in terms of organizational architecture, processes and training for employees.

Marketing communicates and has very relevant data about customers. However, by itself it would be useless:  it needs technology. This mix generates benefits such as better customer perception and the ability to evolve and grow that it demonstrates.

Marketing companies have invaluable wealth: the data they collect from customers. If used appropriately, this data can be used to  segment and create messages with special characteristics for different interest groups.

What today’s customers value most is the reliability of the information and that it is truly useful and easily accessible.

To learn more about the practices that have managed to position themselves strongly in the market, innovating through educational content,  read this article about  Inbound marketing ,  the trend that has become a fundamental key to digital transformation.

The fourth industrial revolution brought with it trends such as sharing goods, services and information through digital platforms and it is in this context where  the collaborative economy allows the consolidation of new business models , which usually combine old ways of operating with technology.

Being able to choose a transportation service with a click, shopping for second-hand clothes or objects, and getting information before making a decision, demonstrate the importance of this  economic model capable of interconnecting the world and breaking down geographical barriers.

Collaborative consumption eliminates the costs and time involved in making transactions through intermediaries. For example, finding an academic advisory or consultancy on a web page, or renting a room in another city directly with the owner, negates the step of looking for an organization that charges for offering this service.

In addition to saving money,  the collaborative economy is a benchmark for sustainability due to the positive impacts it generates on the environment:  sharing a vehicle, as proposed by carpooling applications  ,  or buying second-hand objects reduces the generation of waste and the emission of polluting gases.

Rollin , for example, is an application created in Colombia to encourage the use of shared vehicles; this venture has achieved close to 30,000 downloads and has approximately 22,000 registered users. Try my ride  is another sustainable mobility system that works from a mobile application, in Medellín it has avoided the emission of 21,274 tons of CO ₂  and its users have saved close to 114 billion pesos.

One of the axes of this collaborative model is the  collaborative finance of which  crowdfunding is a part,  which seeks the creation and support of social and cultural initiatives. Its success depends on the diffusion and visibility that it is given through social networks and websites.

Verkami  is a successful example of crowdfunding models  ; Since 2010, nearly 7,830 cultural projects have been financed through this platform, with a success rate of 73%. Vermaki, born in Barcelona, ​​has meant a revolution in cultural demand and supply with close to 39.5 million euros raised by more than a million people.

Vaki is a sample of the incorporation of these collaborative economy models in Colombia , it was created in 2015 to finance social and artistic projects, citizen movements and personal initiatives that contribute to social change, without the need for intermediaries and only with community support.

One of the potentials of the collaborative economy is its  ability to foster the exchange of knowledge.  At this point, according to Carlos Jaramillo, CEO of  Distilled Innovation ,  companies that emerged in traditional economic models are called upon to link up with those ventures that are characterized by innovation , despite having fewer resources, since they occur in contexts of flexibility. and dynamism.

“The tendency is to learn to co-create. Large and small companies can work together, contributing their knowledge and skills to create new ecosystems”, says Jaramillo.

With the arrival of this new business model, today companies are obliged to  rethink their nature and transform themselves not only by acquiring new technologies, but also by opening up to new thoughts, perspectives and ways of doing things , in In other words, evolution must be constant, because in this way it is possible to be sustainable over time and compete with these emerging businesses.

If the organization considers it appropriate to adopt a collaborative economy model, it is key in this process to create awareness about the importance of protecting data, providing relevant information and being transparent.

Users are transformed, the ecosystem is changing, the competition is relentless, and the technology giant has no limits. This is the scenario today for companies,  start ups  and ventures.

For this reason,  the technology teams of any organization in the world must have the capacity to respond to different areas : they have heterogeneous knowledge, they are increasingly specializing and they need to have collaborators who have information and experience in all kinds of skills.

For example, a company that wants to launch an  e-commerce  will have to consider a multidisciplinary team, in which there is at least one content expert, one or more experts in interface experience and user experience, who also support the exercise of test, additionally, you must have a developer, a digital designer, staff dedicated to the marketing strategies of the online store, an SEO expert and an analytics expert.

Although each step in the chain is important, there is an invaluable task in this exercise and that is testing.

Testing is nothing more than making  tests that allow users to interact intuitively , that is, they can express themselves and naturally take ownership of the functions without telling them if their answers are good or bad: everything is valid.

After the interaction, the different answers are analyzed and reviewed by the team of experts and evaluated with some  journeys  to find out if the users who participated in the test behaved as expected by the technology or functionality that was being tested. With this information, the teams make adjustments and then go productive.

Erika Santa Correa, user experience expert, shares here some ideas about the importance of carrying out a testing process prior to presenting a functionality in production:

• • In the customer-focused design process, it is vital to understand the user very well and make an empathetic observation of him; his place cannot be exactly assumed because one can fall into traps such as assuming behaviors that may be natural for companies, but for the user can be confusing. Testing is a moment of truth, it is the moment of the user or audience for whom a function is being developed.
  • Testing in the product development process is one of the moments that allows the user-centered design theory to materialize. Additionally,  the creation of the User/persona (a general descriptive personification of the user to whom the product is directed), the previous investigations, the field work with the user and the interviews that allow us to understand who will use the product are important . However, after having followed the previous steps with special care, the test is the moment of truth because that audience for whom the product has been designed will have the opportunity to interact, evaluate and test everything that has been designed. designed.

“With my knowledge working with teams to design website experiences, these moments have been crucial. For example, once we had a simple and revealing situation when we were designing a  premium catalog  of items, the design was aesthetically amazing, it had the biggest role in the display of the product. And although the test yielded positive results, there was one point that we did not expect:  e-commerce I didn’t have an explicit path to return to the previous menu. Our hypothesis based on previous experiences was that the user would use the basic browsing patterns of the browser, however, users were stuck in a part of the purchase process because they couldn’t find how to get out of the current point; a critical finding for conversion and purchase flows. This finding led us to make some design tweaks by explicitly incorporating the way to continue shopping.”

From this case, the importance of applying testing to users is demonstrated, since functions that may seem obvious to the developer team are not really obvious to the user and with this tool you can check and know in detail what should be done  . adjust to meet audience expectation.  Undoubtedly, a fundamental tool for the marketing strategies of organizations.

There are different types of tests: functional, non-functional, structural, regression, among others. To find out which one is best for your strategy, the first thing you must be clear about is the objective and with this, choose the methodology that helps you solve it.

What used to be resolved with a call to say “it takes me a while”, today is resolved with a short and quick message via WhatsApp or, it is no longer “I want to work in your company” but “I want you to be in my company ” thanks to the approximation that Linkedin has of a person’s professional profile.

These are just two specific cases of how technology impacts day-to-day communication, breaks down geographical barriers and  offers different possibilities in terms of personal and corporate communications, for networking, advertising and educational purposes, among many others.

Email, without a doubt, is one of the most powerful communication tools and this was demonstrated in the 2019 report presented by the Socialbakers digital knowledge platform, which shows that every sixty seconds 188 million messages are sent by email  . , a fact that will grow more and more, since it is not only the emails sent from one person to another but all those that companies send to be in contact with their audiences, which is what is known today as email marketing  or  permission  marketing , messages that add to this figure and demonstrate the importance of developing  mailing strategies .

Just as email marketing is becoming more relevant  , there are other aspects that have also changed in organizations. One of these is the way of storing information, which went from being in large physical folders in an exclusive room to being in a clip or a tap in the cloud, regardless of place or time.

According to Sister María Castaño, an expert in digital transformation and Technology leader in Postobón,  today the greatest asset of companies is information, for this reason, “the way of issuing it, receiving it, consulting it, storing it, keeping it, securing it, has changed, share it and rule it ”.

Although sharing information is now much easier, if proper precautions and controls are not taken, this plus point can pose risks for companies. To avoid this,  it is essential to have the information centralized and to define clear procedures and protocols  that guarantee the proper use of the stored data.

Beyond the changes in the ways of doing things, technology has also had an impact on the behavior of employees.

For Andrés Rozo, a psychologist who is an expert in organizational culture, although this favors business development and enables the sustainability of companies over time, the inclusion of robots and the automation of different processes “creates a scenario that can generate anxiety and threat to employees.” professionals or that represents ambitious challenges for them, since no profession is spared from this reinvention:  it is a change that compromises openness, the responsibility of constantly being informed and opening up to new functions, some more strategic that each time add more value to the  core  of every business ”.

On the other hand, Rozo points out that technology also generates variations in empathy between work teams, for example, the fact of looking less into each other’s eyes, having more contact with the cell phone than with people, creates distances and so that this does not become a problem,  companies must permeate among their collaborators a culture of assertive, direct, clear communication and work to strengthen relationships.

It is important to take into account the different generations that are part of organizations today, because in the case of millennials, they see technology as an ally and the centennials, who come after them, cannot imagine life without technology, therefore, it is key that, in addition to promoting the search for trends, co-creation and standardization of knowledge among its employees, fostering spaces for socialization and connection with what is fundamental.

The Internet has changed the way we perceive the world, move around and consume, so much so that the business models known as franchises have effectively gone virtual and in recent years have become popular, offering the possibility of investing  more safe,  with lower costs and good growth opportunities.

Digital franchises are brand licensing that works the same as a physical franchise but on the Internet; in these the franchisee buys the rights to certain geographic areas and obtains profits from mobile and web e-commerce within its marked territory. You also  have the rights to leverage the brand and have the  back-end systems , as well as training and customer support from the parent or franchisor company.

This type of entrepreneurship  has become one of the most profitable investment businesses in the last year, especially in Europe,  although in Colombia it is a relatively new concept. If you are thinking of entering the world of digital franchises, it is essential to know a little more about them to ensure that the brand fits your profile, expectations and needs.

Different types of industries can benefit from taking the approach of a digital franchise. This model is ideal for:

• International representation allows accelerating the growth of the franchise, improving the competitiveness and positioning of the brand.
• The training provided by the franchise allows continuous learning, as well as the certification of the quality of the work delivered under the name of a brand with recognition and presence in other parts of the world.
• By not requiring a physical establishment for its operation, investment costs are usually lower than with other types of franchises.
• Possibility of undertaking without having to start from scratch.
• It is a good option for companies looking to expand their market and reduce financial risks.

Different types of industries can benefit from taking the approach of a digital franchise. This model is ideal for:

1. 1. Businesses trying to connect with local consumers like restaurants, mechanics, dry cleaners, and  spas ,  businesses where the people who work don’t have the time or knowledge to focus on connecting with their consumers online  or maintaining a digital presence with up-to-date content.
   2. Secondary and tertiary markets that lack a digital connection with their consumers.  This happens in intermediate or small cities that are not usually a main focus for large national competitors and that hire remote sales teams in remote offices.
   3. Entrepreneurs who understand their local market, where content management and oversight is crucial to user acquisition and retention . A local franchisee has a vested interest in the accuracy and completeness of web and mobile content to deliver relevant and up-to-date information to end users.

The relationship strategies of each franchise vary according to their nature and location. It is essential that the franchisee knows the local and hyperlocal market to identify potential customers who are within their target audiences,  in this way they can reach them with the appropriate language and techniques of the franchisor business.

It is a  digital services franchise and is the world’s largest Internet consulting firm.  It offers thousands of solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and through the use of the patent-pending Lifecycle™ system for Internet Marketing, its franchisees can assess the business needs of their clients in order to deliver marketing strategies focused on generating income. 

Entrepreneurs can acquire the license of this brand and start providing digital marketing services to companies and professionals around the world. The company is in charge of giving them the training and the material for the development of the tasks.

It is a network of low-cost franchises that allows you to have your own app, website and social networks positioned to deliver information and value offers on each city for which it is created. It has a presence in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama, which makes it one of the most successful today.

It has many opportunities for continuous growth since it is focused on specific developments according to geographic location, there can be as many franchises as there are cities in the world.