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Tag: Customer Experience

  • How to Improve Customer Experience for SaaS Businesses? (Best Strategies)

    Interaction between a customer and a brand at different stages of the customer’s journey impacts the customer’s perception of the product and services. Positive interaction strengthens the connection and enriches the customer’s experience (CX) throughout all aspects of the product consumption journey, including browsing websites, enquiring about products, purchasing products, post-purchase communications, etc.  Hassle-free and convenient business transactions keep customers engaged and drive their loyalty to a brand.

    The personalized experience of the product enhances the credibility of a brand and brings out the brand from a shop for a shop. Let us see how SaaS companies can enhance customer’s experience and drive revenue growth:

    What is Customer Experience?
    Why do SaaS companies need to Improve Customer Experience?
    How to Improve Customer experience strategy for SaaS Business?

    What is Customer Experience?

    SaaS products and services work on subscription-based pricing and that can be altered anytime with the myriad number of SaaS products available in the digital market. Customer acquisition and customer engagement are their prime concerns and to get an edge in the market, they are dependent on customers’ responses about the SaaS products.

    Effective customer experience strategy is well-crafted planning of business goals and organizing the itinerary to reach that goal. Online customers relationship play a crucial role in keeping customers engaged with the SaaS product and a brand, in a highly competitive SaaS market.

    Advanced UX, easy interface, real-time chatbot conversations, engaging emails, customer feedback, review, YouTube videos, etc are various means to increase interaction between the brand and the customers. It also helps businesses to get data insights about the sensory and behavioural responses of different types of customers to further improve communication with the targeted customers.

    Why do SaaS companies need to Improve Customer Experience?

    SaaS businesses are undergoing many transformation phases due to the increased use of cloud computing, AI, advanced data management tools, remote working, agile infrastructure, on-demand resource availability, and many more local/global reasons. SaaS businesses run on subscription services so customer satisfaction at every consumption touchpoint delivers a stand-out result and ensures product-led growth.

    Maintaining customer retention for a long time is extra pressure apart from increasing new customer in-flow for a brand.  The end user’s experience is essential to maintaining a long-term relationship and improving business output.

    Why Should You Improve Customer Experience
    Why Should You Improve Customer Experience

    How to Improve Customer experience strategy for SaaS Business?

    Improve Customer Onboarding Experience

    User onboarding is the beginning stage of a customer’s interaction with a SaaS product. The customers should be well acquainted with the accessibility of website navigations, image representation, easy interface, purchasing convenience, and smooth check-out functions. Easy onboarding can include:

    • Free Sign-up and product trials to gain audiences’ trust for paving the way for long-term relationships.
    • Complete walkthrough, knowledge base, support, FAQs, and guidelines to provide comprehensive knowledge about the product and simplify the process.
    • Consistent customer support through support and knowledge base articles to help them to reach easy and quick solutions. Quick resolution of Help Desk queries enhances customer experiences and builds the product’s credibility.

    Increase UX Investment

    Your website is the face of your business and the main communication channel for showcasing your product and crafting your digital customer journey. Slow-running websites, abrupt navigation, poor image quality, and complicated language are all major pain points for customers and cause frustrations at every stage of the customer’s journey. Even a few seconds wait period for a website to upload causes 70% give up of visitors and the business loses its brand loyalty too.

    Poor digital customer experience can lead you to lose traffic to competitors and it can ultimately impact the company’s growth and revenue. 85% of buyers do online shopping because of the great customer experience they get through product pages.

    Focus on Customer Feedback and Reviews

    Unbiased and honest posts have more capability to drive traffic and then convert it into potential buyers. People adopt which is devoid of the banner and listen more to genuine comments. Customers’ feedback, reviews, surveys, and questionnaire are considered more trustworthy because they are coming directly from customers’ mouths.  

    According to a market survey, 85% of people trust customer reviews before online purchasing. This way a brand engages customers and promotes its product more efficiently and authentically. Approximately 75% of brands agree that their customers are their brand promoters.

    Customers’ feedbacks and ratings identify valuable insights about product quality, shortcomings, encountered issues, expectations, satisfaction, recommendations, and customers’ perception of the product.

    In a fiercely competitive market of SaaS businesses, lead generation and customer acquisition are substantial parts of product growth. The constant customer engagement leads to secure and long-term relationships, which eventually turned into customer loyalty.

    Get the opinion of customers through feedback, survey forms, emails, chats, and social media, and ask them to respond quickly. Positive feedbacks and recommendations promote your product through word-of-mouth marketing free of cost.

    Average people are more trustworthy because they are promoting your brand for the value they got in return and not for the marketing.

    Cross-Departmental Collaboration

    Effective customer experience strategy is the well-crafted planning of business goals and organizing the itinerary to reach that goal. Your business goal and marketing goal should be aligned and the marketing goal should work as a complementary to achieve the business goal. Less coordination between different teams hinders smooth business functioning and frustrates your customers due to time lagging in response to the request.

    Customer experience should be intelligent, personalized, relevant, and insightful across customers, marketing, communication, sales, and service teams. Develop a smooth business transition to bridge the gaps between customers and multiple departments to create better customer experiences.

    Track and Measure Customer’s Experiences

    Subscription-based product is highly volatile in nature and can be replaced anytime with alternates. Current customer trends, purchasing behaviours, expectations, and demands, are needed to be tracked and examined to focus on target customers.

    Map your customers’ journey; research customers’ profiles, and collect data from social media about their choices, interests, gender, age group, and preferences to track the latest trends. Identify whom you are talking with? Create a persona of your audience and then target them selectively.

    Introduce chatbots to get personalized with customers and to address accurately what they are looking for. Determine the common stage where you can connect with your customers. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest might be the best channels for connecting with target audiences for SaaS-based products.

    Personalized email marketing collects insights such as niche interest, buying intent, and behavioural patterns and helps in anticipating the future needs of the customers.

    Some SaaS companies personalized their websites for new or existing customers. Big data analytics and machine learning bring out the customers’ insights and their predictive behaviours which help to segment customers based on their preferences and needs. Delivering individualized content and targeted emails strengthens the relationship between businesses and consumers. It enriches customer experiences and increases brand credibility in a volatile SaaS market.

    Make a Mobile-friendly Interface

    Make your interface mobile-friendly as 90 out of 100 customers access web pages, social media, and emails on mobile. Customers can get weekend offers, festive offers, and timely coupon notifications anytime, anywhere with the portable mobile device.

    According to a recent survey, 82% of users are primarily engaged with smartphones, while 63% of users use computers. Effective customer experience is to meet customers where they are and mobile device is accessible almost everywhere.

    Incorporating the Latest Tools and Technologies

    Using the right tools and technologies is an integral part of an enhanced digital customer experience. Live chat, FAQ page, Chatbot, and Helpdesk enable customer support to automate resolution quickly and enhance customer experience. Big Data analytics, AI, and Machine Learning techniques collect valuable insights and create a customer-centric user experience for individual users.

    Promote Omni Channel marketing

    With constantly changing consumer habits, it is crucial for the business to connect with customers through multiple channels. However, maintaining consistency all along and seamless communication at various media channels (omnichannel support) is quite a tedious job.

    70% of consumers expect the same representative or same product copy in every channel. A mobile app, social media, chat, email, and web page are all part of omnichannel marketing. Create an omnichannel support strategy by optimizing user engagement across web, mobile, social media, and live chats.

    How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate: 5 Proven Strategies
    A churn is a user or revenue loss in a given period. If you don’t want to lose your customers, follow these strategies to reduce the churn rate.
    StartupTalkySunita Singh

    Conclusion

    A perfect customer-centric strategy comprises a well-thought-out plan to increase positive customer experiences at all stages of the customer’s journey and measures the customer’s perception of the company, product, and brand.

    To create an excellent SaaS customer experience, nurture your relationship with your customers by understanding their behaviours and expectation and provide a comprehensive customer experience platform from onboarding to feedback collection.

    An average user can be turned into a brand ambassador from his role as a fan or a contributor.

    FAQs

    What is the SaaS customer experience?

    SaaS customer experience is keeping your customer engaged with your SaaS product.

    What are customer experience strategies?

    Customer experience strategies are a strategy that you plan to provide the customer throughout the customer journey by providing the best experience at every stage.

  • How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate: 5 Proven Strategies

    A churn is a user or revenue loss in a given period. Customer churn is determined by the number of customers that end to use the product and service during a given period.

    In a more refined way, the number of customers you lost in the quarter in comparison to the number of customers you started with the sales quarter. Customer retention is the major factor in a company’s success. If you have a customer retention rate is 75%, it means you have a low churn rate of 25%.

    Most often SaaS companies face a high churn rate due to the falling demand for existing products and services. The SaaS business evolves constantly so they need to constantly upgrade their products and introduce new services to sustain old customers and engage new customers. If the product is not fulfilling customers’ expectations and marketing demand, the churn rate will increase. Losing customers means losing revenue. So, if you want to reduce customer churn rate follow these best strategies.

    How Customer Churning is Affecting Businesses?
    Customer Churn Vs Revenue Churn
    How to Reduce Customer Churn?

    How Customer Churning is Affecting Businesses?

    Customer churning is greatly affecting the business and if above than 10% of customers are cancelling the product, it is difficult for long-term growth. It also means that you are losing more customers than acquiring them and which is seriously impacting your revenue.

    According to a survey, companies lose $1.6 trillion per year due to customer churn. You need to permanently fix the root cause of churning to run your business for the long term. Every customer is different, you need to make strategies to make existing customers stay content and happy with the products and services.

    According to the Forrester analysis, acquiring new customers is 5 times cost more than maintaining the existing customers.

    Customer Churn Rate in United States in 2020
    Customer Churn Rate in United States in 2020

    Customer Churn Vs Revenue Churn

    Customer churn is the number of customers you are losing in a given time frame. Revenue churn is slightly different from customer churn. Revenue churn is the loss of revenue that is not necessarily happening because of customer churning.

    Revenue churning means that you are not making enough money from your existing customer base than you were making before. There could be several reasons for this such as, your customers might have shifted to lower subscriptions, declined a few paid features, got discounted features, and so on.

    Analyze all the business metrics, competitors’ graphs, target customers, and long-term customers and determine the most useful customers that stay long with you. Retain your loyal customers and try to compensate for your revenue loss with flexible customers.

    If you have a diverse customer base, most likely you cannot satisfy all customers. Hit the majority of your target customers and meet their requirements and expectations, instead.

    How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate?

    According to Gartner’s survey report, approximately 80% of a company’s future revenue come from just 20% of its existing customers. So, 60-70% of the marketing focus remains on selling products to old customers.

    Many companies are understanding the importance of low churn and proactively implementing reduce churn strategy. They emphasize improving customer relationships and communications and removing all bottlenecks that come in between product and customer experience.

    According to HubSpot’s 2021 State of Inbound report, over 50% of companies are giving top priority to increasing customer satisfaction and generating leads. They are incorporating occasional rewards, free offers, and promotions to retain customers for a long time with the product.

    Implement a systematic retention process that brings you the actionable insights to generate new ideas to reduce churn. Break down your churn into its component parts (pricing, types of users, product features, support, etc) and experiment with different parts and resolve all aspects of churn.

    Here a few strategies are given to maximize customer satisfaction and reduce churn:

    Analyse the Cause

    Analyze why customers are leaving? There could be lots of reasons for customer churn such as pricing, product quality, customer experience, etc. To track the problem in the right direction, collect customers’ insights and their issues through email, feedback, and surveys, and build strategies proactively to prevent churn.

    The survey is useful and easy. You can get the survey through email, SMS, live chat, social media, etc. Analyze their response and work on the points which are causing you more revenue loss.

    Moreover, find out the specific reason for leaving the product after 30 or 60 days of using it. Talk to your customers and offer a discount or incentive to engage them with the product.

    If there is any technical issue regarding the improper functionality or lack of understanding about the product, communicate with them and provide all technical support to reduce customers’ dissatisfaction with the product. Ask cancellation reasons in the form of a survey to get valuable product insights.

    Spot the customers who have not been contacted for a while. They might be in the risk group and can impact the churn badly. Take preventive measures to include them in regular conversation. Start email conversations, feedback, and survey to foresee the problems.

    Engage with Customers

    Ensure quality customer service for successful onboarding and implementation. Guide them in every step so they get familiar with the product features. Provide a guided tour for all functionalities, and give value-added support and FAQs so they don’t feel clueless on handling basic issues.

    Offer free training, webinars, video tutorials, and product demos to make them comfortable with the product. Demonstrate the full potential of the product so customers can see the value of using the product.

    When customers feel the product/solution is helping them to achieve target expectations in business they are less likely to leave the product/solution. You need to constantly keep monitoring and communicating with them. Constant feedback keeps you aware of customers’ inclinations and expectations. Amazon has excellent customer service that gives it leverage over its competitors.

    Proactive Customer Services

    Sometimes customers struggle to navigate the website and didn’t get exactly what they are looking for. Confusion around a product or service and a lack of effective and timely support around for a particular issue increase their disappointments.

    Use Live chat to engage with them throughout their product journey and have your customer support system ready to address product-related issues. When customers get an immediate solution and it enhances their overall user experiences.

    Very likely, customers may overlook small glitches if they get timely support and stay with the product. You also get time to improve on technical things without losing your customer base.

    According to a Harvard Business School report, 65% of the company’s business comes from existing customers.

    Build a personalized relationship after onboarding the products and maintain a friendly rapport with your customers. The Starter Story and Pigeon had reduced their churn rate with personalized emails and customer support, only.

    Build Customer Loyalty

    Make your customers feel that they are a part of a brand community. Invite guest posts, question-answer discussions, and community forums where they can share their views and suggestions. It keeps them engaged with the product and if there is any issue or dissatisfaction, it can be solved within the community.

    You can also get insights into customers’ perspectives and get time to resolve them early. Offer discounts, promos, and loyalty programs to keep them stuck with the product. Occasional discounts and incentives are offered to show how much you value your customers for the business. If the customer is approaching to end of their subscription, you can offer discounts to elaborate the subscription and retain your customer.

    Be honest and transparent with your customers and share your revenue report and business metrics openly.

    Reeboks and Nike have huge customer loyalty bases. Smaller SaaS brands like Ahrefs and e-commerce software Shopify also have a big loyal customer base that contributes to their growth.

    According to research from Bain & Company, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits margin by 25% to 95%.

    Improve Customer Experience

    According to Forum Corporation’s research, 70% of churning is happening because of slow services and uncooperative support staff. Delight your customers with Thank You or Welcome Note after their subscriptions or purchasing the product. A Reddit uses a handwritten thank you message for its subscribed customers to give them value and importance.

    If your customers are happy, they may refer you to others and help your business to expand. Celebrate your long-time customers by rewarding them with badges or highlighting their success on social media and your website. For example, freelance marketplace Fiverr highlights its customers’ stories on its blog.

    Good customer service can reduce churn for a long time. Improve customer services to hook the customers with your brand. Attend every complaint seriously so the customers stay with the brand.

    Conclusion

    Nothing is going to change overnight! Follow the process and observe closely what areas in the company are causing churn problems. Retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. The KPMG survey revealed that customer retention drives 52% of the company’s revenue. You already have customers, engage with them and make sure they too stay with you.

    FAQs

    What is the churn rate?

    A churn rate is when your customers stop using your services within a certain period of time.

    Why is the churn rate important?

    Calculating the churn rate is important, as it shows how many customers you have lost and lost customers mean less revenue.

    What is a good average churn rate?

    A 5% – 7% churn rate annually is considered an acceptable churn rate.

  • 10 Tips To Communicate Effectively With Customers

    As we know, apart from earning a reasonable profit, corporates are obliged to satisfy customers’ needs and demands for timely services, which is another ultimate goal for any business.

    Providing customer services is very important in retaining existing as well as new leads to grow your business, which should be followed before, during, and after the purchase of your products, because in that way they would likely continue doing business with you.

    In simple terms, customer service is a support system offered by a business to its customers to bestow providential experiences. As a result, retaining existing and generating new leads can be easily done through effective customer services.

    For instance, when you are at a physical store, the staff or manager will come along with you till you make it to the billing counter. Yeah, that’s very much likely to customer services, where the staff or employers would leave your side and support you till the end and after the sales.

    Some businesses still lack in generating leads or sales, even though they topped every aspect of marketing strategies, but lack one thing and that is- Customer service.

    You will succeed in excellent communication abilities, only if the customer comes back to you and willing to make another purchase with your business. Customer service should be offered before, during, and after-sales to help customers and businesses form a trusting connection. As the expression goes, “communication is key,” thus it is critical in business to develop your customer network as well as enable potential customers’ trust in your company.

    Communication tips are essential for maintaining a bond. Irrespective of the relation, the bond can break or make depending on the method of communication. The same is applied in the business too. A few of the customer communication tips are explained below.

    1. Learn About Your Customers
    2. Use a Friendly and Positive Tone
    3. Make Your Customer Comfortable
    4. Become an Active Listener
    5. Adopt Chatbot and Tech Tools for Convenient Communications
    6. Avoid Interruptions
    7. Create the Conversation Interesting
    8. Be Patient While Talking to Customers
    9. Become a Problem Solver
    10. Collect Your Customer’s Feedback

    1. Learn About Your Customers

    Before commencing the sales process, the agent or business manager should know the whereabouts of the customers. Customers’ demands and wishes are satisfied by businesses based on their interests. Thereof, you should have a comprehensive list of your potential leads’ information, including their background, account credentials, creditworthiness, and so on.

    2. Use a Friendly and Positive Tone

    As the proverb goes, “politeness costs nothing but gains everything,” so converse in a kind tone and invite the other person to listen to you. Keep the conversation consistent, positive, participatory, and credible so that the listener (consumer) feels comfortable communicating with you.

    3. Make Your Customer Comfortable

    Your customer service is nothing more than a void conversation unless the customer is willing to leave their comfort zone. Start with inquiring about anything that interests them, such as “what is your favourite part of the day?” or “What do you do for a living?” Notably, do not interpret while your consumer is speaking or saying something; instead, let some time and space for the discomfort to subside.

    4. Become an Active Listener

    Listening and paying attention to the customers is one of the most important parts involved in customer service. Listen attentively during conversations to ensure you don’t miss anything they’re interested in.

    Make sure you comprehend everything in the customer’s communication by reading it attentively. Reiterate the problem as you see it now, and provide the consumer with the opportunity to contribute their thoughts. When your employees see that you are listening and engaging with them, they will feel cared for.

    Predicted uses of Chatbots for increasing customer experiences
    Predicted uses of Chatbots for increasing customer experiences

    5. Adopt Chatbot and Tech Tools for Convenient Communications

    One of the leading causes of customer support dissatisfaction is delayed response. Every month, some new technology is introduced to the world that makes it even easier to assist the consumers such as the use of ChatBots.

    Co-browsing and live chat debugging tools might make it much easier for your customers to communicate their issues. It also expedites the resolution. If your customer can simply show you the problem instead of explaining, that makes it easy on both your team and the person who is reaching out.

    6. Avoid Interruptions

    According to McKinsey, a customer’s emotional state influences 70% of their journey. As a result, ensure there are no interruptions in the middle of the talk. Avert bombarding clients with numerous inquiries before enabling them to react.

    Casting massive pre-written saved responses faster than your clients can skim is not a promising impression. When you rely too heavily on your saved responses, you end up ludicrous. AI help needs to write and communicate at the same speed as a human would.

    7. Create the Conversation Interesting

    Ask your customers how they are feeling. If the customer gives you the insights, make sure of listening attentively to them. Insights can provide a general idea of what a customer is looking for currently.

    Sometimes, customer insights can also show the working of the product and its success rate. Always be prepared to ask customers their personal insights in basic communication.

    8. Be Patient While Talking to Customers

    Customers contact you because they are unsure of what they are doing. When clients encounter a technological issue, they may believe they are less skilled than the person who can solve it.

    Even if they are needlessly contentious, be patient with your consumers and endeavour to discern where they are coming from. If it’s the assistance they want, no one likes to be nudged into something. Empower them with all the data they expect, be helpful, and give them authority over their conclusions for improved customer service.

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    9. Become a Problem Solver

    Always speak slowly and deliberately, both you and your employees. This step will help you evade dilemmas and reply to client questions before they originate. Use upbeat language to show that you care about their concerns and are capable and eager to help them solve challenges. Pessimistic words stifle growth and jeopardize customer confidence. Customers should feel like they’re a facet of the expedition relatively more than just another phone call, email, or chat session.

    10. Collect Your Customer’s Feedback

    Take advantage of any chance to collect reviews from your clients during customer support conversations. This information can help you figure out how to best serve them. Using surveys to gain the customer’s feedback is the most trusted and highly used tactic.

    Allow your customers to complete a brief survey after each customer support contact or chat so you can obtain fast feedback on how you’re performing. This information can assist you in improving your tactics and providing better service to your clients.

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    Conclusion

    If you want your business to prosper, you must develop brand wealth with your clients. Customer Service can consider an important triggering factor for customer review and sales. You can try to deliver the best customer service by just being deliberate. We have provided some directions to assist you in constructing it.

    FAQs

    What is meant by customer service?

    Customer service stands for the additional help provided by the company to its customers.

    AI Chatbots that can help in customer service are?

    Some of the most commonly used AI Chatbots in customer service are ChatBot, Clare.AI, NanoRep, Twyla, etc.

    Which tools are best to use for customer service?

    Some of the helpful customer service tools are Messagely, Intercom, Help Scout, Hubspot Servicehub, etc.

  • How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas? – A Stepwise Guide

    You probably had a companion in your head when you were a youngster. They are known as buyer personas or audience personas in the context of social media marketing, although social media marketers also have them.

    However, in contrast to your imaginary buddy, these fictitious individuals are not created only to frighten your parents. They are a very beneficial tool for identifying your ideal consumer and pursuing them as clients. Buyer personas serve two purposes: first, they remind you to prioritize the desires and requirements of your audience above your own; second, they assist you in developing content that is more directed toward your ideal client.

    What is a Buyer Persona?
    Why use a Buyer or Audience Persona?
    Step-by-step instructions for creating a Buyer Persona
    Step 1. Do thorough audience research
    Step 2. Identify customer goals and pain points
    Step 3. Understand how you can help
    Step 4. Create your buyer personas

    What is a Buyer Persona?

    A buyer persona is an in-depth depiction of a hypothetical individual who is meant to stand in for your ideal customer. This character is made up, but it’s based on an extensive study of your actual audience or the audience you want to attract.

    You could also hear this concept referred to as marketing, audience, or consumer persona. It is impossible to develop a personal relationship with each client or prospect. On the other hand, you may construct a consumer persona to stand in for your actual clientele. Because various sorts of clients may purchase your items for various reasons, you may need the creation of more than one buyer persona.

    You will give this buyer persona a name, along with facts about their demographics, hobbies, and personality features. You will understand their objectives, problematic areas, and purchasing habits. If you like, you may even give them a face by utilizing stock photos or art since it could be vital for your staff to be able to match a face with a name.

    You should consider and talk about this hypothetical model consumer as if they were a real person. This will enable you to design marketing messages individually targeted to them as an individual audience. This will help you better serve actual customers.

    When you keep your buyer persona (or personas) in mind, you can ensure that the voice and direction of everything remain consistent. This includes product development, your brand’s voice, and the social platforms that you utilize.

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    Why use a Buyer or Audience Persona?

    Buyer personas ensure that your attention is directed on meeting the target audience’s needs rather than your own. Every time you choose your social marketing approach, keep your buyer personas front and center in your mind.

    Does an upcoming campaign consider at least one of your buyer personas’ unique requirements and objectives? If this is not the case, you have valid reasons to rethink your idea, even though it may be exciting.

    Once you have developed your buyer personas, you will be able to generate organic posts and social advertisements that speak directly to the target consumers you have identified. Particularly applicable to social advertising is the provision of very specific social targeting options, which make it possible to position your advertisement in front of precisely the audience you have in mind.

    Suppose you construct your social strategy around the idea of assisting your personas in achieving the objectives they have set for themselves. In that case, you will develop a connection with the actual consumers that the personas represent. It all comes down to cultivating customer trust and brand loyalty to simplify your sales process.

    WIDGET: leadform | CAMPAIGN: undefined

    Step-by-step instructions for creating a Buyer Persona

    Your buyer persona shouldn’t simply be someone you’d want to spend time with; rather, it should be founded on facts from the actual world and strategic objectives. Here is how to create a fictitious client that is the ideal representation of your existing real-world clientele.

    Step 1. Do thorough audience research

    It is time to do some serious digging. Who makes up the majority of your social audience? Who are your current regulars and patrons? Who are your rivals aiming to attract as customers? Check out our comprehensive guide to audience research for a more in-depth look at these ideas in the meanwhile.

    Collect information about your audience from Google Analytics, your customer database, and social media analytics (particularly Facebook Audience Insights), and use this information to zero down on specifics such as:

    • Age
    • Location
    • Language
    • Spending power and patterns
    • Interests
    • Challenges
    • Stage of life
    • For B2B: The size of businesses and who makes purchasing decisions

    It is also a good idea to make sure that you have a solid understanding of the social platforms that are used by your audience. Utilizing technologies such as Keyhole. Co and Google Analytics, you may investigate where they currently spend their time online.

    Using technologies such as Buzzsumo search streams, you can also investigate the customers that your rivals are trying to attract.

    Check out our comprehensive piece for additional in-depth techniques, which explains how to do research on competitors by making use of social media technologies.

    Step 2. Identify customer goals and pain points

    What are the things that drive your customers? What is their ultimate goal? Depending on the sorts of goods and services that you provide, the objectives of your target audience might be either personal or professional.

    On the other hand, this highlights some of their weak spots. Which issues or challenges are your prospective consumers hoping to get assistance with? What is it that is preventing them from being successful? Which obstacles stand in the way of achieving their objectives?

    Engaging in some social listening and social media sentiment research is a vital alternative that can be used in addition to your sales staff and customer care department, which are both excellent options for finding answers to these issues.

    You may get a real-time glimpse into what people are saying about your company and your rivals online by establishing search streams to monitor mentions of your brand, goods, and competitors. You may find out why they like your items or whether aspects of the consumer experience are falling short of expectations completely.

    Step 3. Understand how you can help

    Now that you understand the objectives and challenges faced by your clients, it is time to consider how you may be of assistance to them. This requires thinking about more than simply the characteristics of your product or service and assessing the actual advantages that they provide.

    Your product or what it can perform is an example of a feature. A benefit is how your product or service makes the lives of your consumer simpler or more enjoyable.

    Take into consideration the primary obstacles to purchase faced by your audience and where your followers now are in the purchasing process. And then you should ask: how can we be of assistance? Put the response into a single, understandable statement.

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    Step 4. Create your buyer personas

    Collect all of your findings and then search for patterns shared among them. As you begin to organize these qualities into groups, you will have the foundation for the individual client personas you need.

    Provide your buyer persona with identifying details such as a name, a working title, a residence, and other aspects. You want to give the impression that your character is a genuine person.

    For instance, let’s imagine you’ve determined that your most valuable customers are ladies over the age of 40 who live in the city, have established careers, don’t have any children, and have a strong preference for excellent eateries. Your buyer persona may be “High-Achiever Haley.”

    • She is 41 years old.
    • She attends three spin classes every week.
    • She lives in Toronto and is the founder of her PR firm.
    • She owns a Tesla.
    • She and her partner take two overseas holidays every year, preferring boutique hotels.
    • She’s a member of a wine club.

    You get the essence of this now: this is not just a list of attributes. This is a comprehensive description of a possible client or consumer. It enables you to see your potential buyer as a human being rather than a collection of data points, which is an important distinction. These characteristics may or may not be shared by all of the buyers in your audience. Still, they are useful for representing a buyer archetype because they can be expressed concretely.

    Aim for around the same amount of material you would anticipate finding on a dating site (although, don’t forget to mention pain issues, which would not always fly on Bumble).

    Be careful to highlight who each consumer persona is right now and who they have aspirations to become as you develop your customer personas. This allows you to begin considering how your goods and services might assist customers in achieving their goals.

    Conclusion

    When making decisions about the content of your social media platforms and your overarching marketing plan, you should always keep your buyer personas in mind. If you treat these personas with respect, you will foster a connection with the actual customers they stand for, resulting in increased revenue and commitment to the brand.

    Use the procedures outlined here to get a head start on developing your personas to get a more in-depth understanding of your ideal clients. Also, make sure that your staff knows the best ways to target, assist, and collaborate with the clients and prospects you have. You will see an improvement in reach due to this and an increase in customer loyalty, and an increase in conversions.

    FAQs

    What is a buyer persona?

    A buyer persona is a detailed description of your target audience.

    Why is buyer persona important?

    Buyer personas are incredibly important to segment your customers into different groups.

    How many buyer personas should you create?

    There should be One buyer persona for one industry niche.

  • 7 Tips for Crushing Your First Design Startup by Ink n Bliss Founder – Pooja Bhagwat

    The article is contributed by Pooja Bhagwat, Founder of Ink n Bliss.

    Starting a new business is so overwhelming. You need to have a solid plan to build a reputation & to take your company to the next level. Here are 7 tips to help you become an effective start up right from the beginning.

    Tips for Setting Effective Startup

    1. Being Passionate
    2. Setting Goals
    3. Creating Content
    4. Creating Great Customer Experience
    5. Networking Skills
    6. Community Over Competition
    7. Taking Care of Yourself

    Tips for Setting Effective Startup

    Being Passionate

    “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excite you” – Oprah Winfrey

    If you really are willing to start & sustain your start up, being passionate about what you do is the key. You are more likely to sustain if you love what you do. You will face sacrifices, failures & low moments along the way but your zeal & your passion will keep you going. You will have the motivation & you will work tirelessly to make it happen. Without passion success in impossible.

    Setting Goals

    Goals help you create a clear path & it will make or break your business success. Of course people with goals are more likely to succeed. So setting goals & achieving them is a must.

    Spend more time visualizing your goals so that you will be more specific about what you want to accomplish. Try to define each step of your roadmap & remember it’s not just about a big picture but having some short term, small goals are also important. Commit to your goals, track them & don’t forget to reward yourself after completing the goals. Stay motivated throughout the process.

    Creating Content

    Creating new content frequently is necessary for any business industry. It reflects your areas of expertise & makes you look like an expert. It will help establish your brand & will also attract new viewers necessary for business growth.

    Though its overwhelming to choose from many different social media channels available today from Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. It’s best to start with just one that you like the most & then slowly going over other social platforms. Also, planning your monthly content helps more than planning a single post. You can quickly overview all the important dates, festivals & events happening in a particular month & can plan your content accordingly. Once your plan is ready, you will be able to create creative content that will delight your audience & hence will help you grow.

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    Creating Great Customer Experience

    How customers feel about you & your brand is extremely important. Attracting new customers & retaining the old ones is essential for a brand’s success & that is possible only through effective customer experience.

    How do you interact with your customers? How well you behave with them? What do you do if something goes wrong? How do you handle crisis? How do you manage to give your best work within deadline? How do you implement your skills effectively? Every step of the communication is a key to creating a good customer experience.

    Always go extra mile while delivering your products or services to your clients. Stay in touch with them right from the beginning conversations till the final delivery. Your logo, packaging, professional email ID, your language, your appearance everything matters & it silently reflects on the minds of your customers & helps build brand loyalty.

    Networking Skills

    The importance of networking is obvious. A strong professional network is definitely needed for any business success. The more you network, the more you will grow & you will build long lasting connections. Networking gives you access to more people & hence more opportunities. The referrals & resources you get through networking works like magic.

    Even if you are an introvert & you don’t like to go out & talk with others, you need to do this somehow. Begin with going to small networking events happening in your area. Try starting a few conversations or just listen to others. Put yourself out there & eventually you will feel more comfortable meeting new people & staying longer at the networking event.

    Community Over Competition

    It’s easy to get caught up in the fear of ‘losing’ customers over competition but life is not a competition. In fact it’s all about relationships. Our lives are enriched by strong bonds & friendships & so does our businesses. Businesses are built on how to best serve your customers & not on how to steal your competitor’s customers. If you are not skilled enough in a particular area, pass on that work to someone else. The more you give the more will come back to you in different forms.

    I firmly believe in community over competition. Coming together & collaborating within your industry is tremendously helpful. Together we feel protected, we understand each other better & when we help each other & cheer each other on, we accomplish things on a different level. After all no one can take away your ‘YOU’ factor & that’s what sets your business apart.

    Taking Care of Yourself

    Though your business is like your baby & you want to work on new ideas 24×7, nothing is as precious as your health. It’s non-negotiable. Eating unhealthy, losing sleeps, working extra hours every day will drain you & you won’t feel energized enough to work on your goals.

    So invest good amount of time in yourself & ultimately in your business. Sleep more, eat healthy & exercise regularly.

  • Story of Locobuzz: Unified Digital Customer Experience Management Platform

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Locobuzz.

    Locobuzz leverages technology to help brands strengthen their relationships with consumers and increase the lifetime value of a customer!

    It is a unified customer experience platform that uses various technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Analytics to enable brands to effectively engage with their customers and in turn form strong and long-lasting relationships. Founded in 2016, the startup aims to democratize access to technology and envisions empowering companies to foster lasting relations with their consumers.

    StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Vishal Agarwal (Co-founder & CEO, Locobuzz) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this artcile, you’ll discover how Locobuzz was started, its funding details, services offered, competitors, future plans and more.

    Locobuzz – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Locobuzz
    Founders Vishal Agarwal (CEO)
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Founded 2016
    Industry Consumer Experience, SaaS
    Website locobuzz.com

    Locobuzz – About and Vision
    Locobuzz – Industry Details
    Locobuzz – Startup Idea and Inspiration
    Locobuzz – Product/Service and USP
    Locobuzz – Founders and Team
    Locobuzz – Launch and Marketing Strategies
    Locobuzz – Challenges Faced
    Locobuzz – Growth
    Locobuzz – Funding and Investors
    Locobuzz – Competitors
    Locobuzz – Future Plans
    Locobuzz – FAQs

    Locobuzz – About and Vision

    Locobuzz is a unified customer experience platform that uses various technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Analytics to enable brands to effectively engage with their customers and in turn form strong and long-lasting relationships. The startup likes to think of itself as a technology bridge connecting brands with its consumers.

    Its mission statement is: “By democratizing access to technology, we envision empowering companies to foster lasting relations with their consumers.” ‘Empowering’ is a plethora of things – insights, analytics, engagement, and automation.

    In the near future, the team wants to ensure that Locobuzz has all the bells and whistles needed along with important data sources to be the perfect consumer experience platform and in the long term, the startup also wants to venture into enabling brands to reach out and identify new customers and manage their marketing campaigns via its platform.

    Locobuzz – Industry Details

    In 2019, the entire total CX management market is sized at around 16 billion dollars but post the pandemic, data reveals that by 2023, it is expected to grow to about 25 billion dollars by 2023. It is evident that the pandemic has been a catalyst for the increased growth rate in demand and supply of digital customer experience management. Businesses have moved online and become digital, users are becoming more attuned to the concept of “self-serve” and are becoming digitally-centric when it comes to their interactions with brands while setting new expectations about customer engagement standards.

    If you look at it, the CX market is vastly broken into three major services – web analytics, content management, and text analytics – this is where the majority of the market share goes and these are the areas Locobuzz operates in. With the events surrounding the pandemic in the past two years, it believes that the market will grow upwards to a CAGR of 20%. Locobuzz has always witnessed significant growth in its monthly revenues and a 100% growth in its monthly recurring revenue – which to the team, is both a sign of positivity and a remarkable opportunity to add value with their work and more.

    Locobuzz – Startup Idea and Inspiration

    Locobuzz was founded in Mumbai in 2015. The founders had a strong belief that unstructured social media data if analyzed and understood right and combined with the right use of technology is a powerful tool. Hence the idea of combining powerful analytics, driven by data from various social media channels gave rise to the creation of “Locobuzz – Location-based buzz”.

    The founding members carried out simple but effective data analytics on unstructured data focusing on processing large volumes of real-time data and further augmenting it with sentiment analysis, location, priority, influencer, viral, etc. As the team engaged with customers soon they realized that analytics is great but communication/engagement is equally important if not more. Brands needed tools to bring their CX game to social media. Looking at this, the team realized the need to have a platform for smart team workflows, tickets management, intelligent routing, and even AI-led auto-responses and other features around customer engagement to have a better product-market fit.

    Thus, Locobuzz evolved into a fully integrated, unified Customer Experience Platform. Locobuzz builds software to smartly connect brands and customers to each other!

    • Listen, Analyze and Engage with their customers
    • Automated customer interactions using AI
    • Realtime Data Analytics Hub, Research and Insights
    • Marketing and Advertising intelligence

    Locobuzz currently works with close to 150 reputed clients across geographies.

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    Locobuzz – Product/Service and USP

    Customer satisfaction can be optimally achieved with two critical factors: The use of powerful AI-led technologies that aid omnichannel digital presence, and secondly, deep customer and market insights drawn from social listening and big data analytics that propel brand growth. The most essential differentiator between good technologies and great technologies is their ability to process large volumes of data intelligently, and in real-time to propel brand growth. Locobuzz does exactly that. Without a doubt, social listening, big data analytics, and well-developed AI automation are the need of the hour for brands across sectors, with no exceptions.

    In addition to which response management as a key function helps brands bridge the gaps between themselves and customers through smart workflows, rich insights, and engagement at scale. Through the right technological advancements, Locobuzz ensures brands have the capacity to serve their customers and cut past their competitors through future-ready innovation and the ability to adapt to changing demands of the market. A platform like Locobuzz works to ensure that a brand’s digital health is strong, that they remain well informed, and their digital engagement approach is effective and strategic. Mostly, Locobuzz ensures that a brand knows who their customers are, and exactly how to retain them. All efforts eventually help ensure that the brand’s outreach efforts stand out to their customers impactfully.

    Therefore, to summarize what Locobuzz does is: It leverages technology to help brands strengthen their relationships with consumers and increase the lifetime value of a customer!

    Locobuzz
    Locobuzz – Products/Services

    USP

    At Locobuzz, the team focuses on building technology that facilitates brand growth through social intelligence and AI-led automation. Locobuzz uses NLP and NLU capabilities which are developed in-house which enrich customers’ data to include a variety of customer data attributes such as age, gender, opinion, location, and 18 other such attributes with 90% or more accuracy and F1-Score. Using this Locobuzz automatically recommends what response should be sent out to the customer as well.

    For enterprises, data security and data isolation are some of the biggest challenges when dealing with 3rd party platforms. Locobuzz follows a multi-tenant architecture that enables it to keep each client’s data separate from other clients. Locobuzz undergoes a vulnerability assessment and penetration tests every 6 months through a leading 3rd party security firm in India to harden the security and proactively plug any vulnerabilities if found.

    Locobuzz’s scalable architecture automatically caters to higher data volume and adjusts/self-corrects in case of any anomalies. The Locobuzz dashboards present data in real-time without any unnecessary overheads and reduce server costs. Its command center leverages this technology and presents insightful data for brands to act upon.

    Locobuzz recognizes the role of machine learning and is investing heavily in it. In its product roadmap, many features such as, content recommendation engines, virality alerts, productivity, and workforce optimizations, etc are based on machine learning which is currently non-existent in this domain. It also has VOIP integrations to deliver a complete omnichannel experience.

    “As we evolve in our capabilities, we always ensure that the simplicity of our software is maintained and never compromised” – Says Vishal Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Locobuzz.

    Locobuzz – Founders and Team

    Vishal Agarwal, Nitin Agarwal, and Shubhi Agarwal are the founders of Locobuzz.

    Shubhi Agarwal | Co-founder & COO, Locobuzz

    In her current role, Shubhi oversees product development and envisioning long-term productivity of incremental changes, upgrades, and innovations. Shubhi is responsible for creating visibility of the product and curating beneficial associations between businesses and opportunities in Artificial intelligence and digital customer experience.

    Prior to co-founding Locobuzz, Shubhi has worked with Tata Motors, Integriti planners, YEN Management consultants, UTV Software Communications Ltd, Bigflix, Hungama, BoxTV- Times Internet, and Spatial Ideas. She has a degree in BE in Electronics and Telecommunications from Amravati University, Shubhi is an MBA graduate in Finance from California State University, USA.  

    Vishal Agarwal | Co-Founder & CEO, Locobuzz

    As the Co-Founder and CEO of Locobuzz, he spearheads the strategic goals of the company and is instrumental in constructing the company’s future roadmap. Prior to laying the foundation of Locobuzz, Vishal has worked across the US, India, and the Middle East on GeoSpatial Analytics. Vishal also worked with Nitin on a tech startup before Locobuzz to ensure transparency and accountability in governance using technology. A graduate from Amravati University in BE – Electronics and Telecommunications, Vishal did his Masters in Electronic Engineering and Geography Information Systems from Penn State University, the USA in 2003.

    Nitin Agarwal | Co-Founder & CTO, Locobuzz

    Nitin, in his current role, is responsible for building winning teams and delivering innovative and secure technological solutions leveraging AI, Analytics, big data, and automation to streamline Digital Customer Experience. Nitin holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has 14 years of experience in designing and developing B2B and enterprise applications. Nitin was one of the leading professionals in the industry to identify the early advantages of using artificial intelligence and machine learning in customer experience and analytics, thus placing Locobuzz at the forefront and leader of innovation in this domain. Nitin has been responsible for enabling the seamless integration of the platform with various business demands and processes. His innovation mantra is that technology should be reliable, stable, and easy to use.

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    Locobuzz – Launch and Marketing Strategies

    The journey of Locobuzz began a few years earlier to its launch in 2015 when the idea of utilizing big data analytics for customer insights and brand upliftment was something that the market was yet to truly discover. Upon deciding to create a product and an opportunity in a market like that, it had to really sell its value to its buyers.

    In a country like India, sales like these were preferred to be done in person, rather than online. The common consensus was that customers wanted to meet in person to understand the product. So, when Locobuzz had 0 customers, all it was equipped with was an idea and a product at its prototype stage. It had fitted the prototype with the public data of one potential customer and took the results with it when the team went to meet them. When Locobuzz showed them the value of their data, they loved it, and signed up immediately – gradually even increasing the scope of work over the years.

    The initial formation of Locobuzz’s product and its road map was very heavily governed by its client and close partners when it started out, but as Locobuzz grew to become a unified SaaS product, it was slowly able to transform from customized solutions for every challenge and embody a certain branded uniformity which could house the sector-agnostic challenges on a single dashboard.  

    Having said so, Locobuzz still caters to needs for the integration of diverse CRMs that are now handled easily in a plug-and-play model. After it  was successful in impressing a few clients with the work it had done for other businesses, it was able to build a lot of trust and confidence in the kind of work it was doing.

    The problem that Locobuzz is solving is very real – and people needed something like Locobuzz. So, initially, the startup had to put more effort into explaining the severity of the problem it was solving, however, today, the need for the world of customer experience management is much more well defined, thus the interactions Locobuzz has with people are more about pricing, timing and being there in a meeting more than anything else! Now that the need is more well-defined, what is interesting to see is that there is more uptake of products like Locobuzz in India and across the world.

    “We as a startup have been able to compete with some of the market leaders in our direct space and hold our ground really well. So, now when we reach out to customers it’s quite different – we focus a lot on making sure that our inbound engine is much stronger than our outbound engine” – Vishal added.

    What has worked consistently in keeping the faith of customers in its services is the support system Locobuzz offers them. The startup is more than efficient at identifying the critical needs of customers and delivering assistance whenever they need it. In terms of innovation and strategy, it has been vehemently ahead of its competitors and have never taken the short path to research and execution. They have done right by tech adoption and integration while maintaining the speed and consistency. Most importantly, Locobuzz continues to think ahead to discover and create opportunities to innovate and never forget to be there for its customers.

    The overall branding and marketing of Locobuzz is a collection of efforts. Currently, Locobuzz is focused on elevating its brand image to make sure it is always relevant in the minds of people whenever they think of “Unified Digital Customer Experience Management”. It has steadily expanded its presence on all major social media platforms and other digital mediums. Through blog posts and published articles, it constantly touches upon the many topics in its domain from a thought-leadership perspective ensuring the content reaches the right audience.

    Locobuzz’s marketing strategies are appropriately adjusted to reach out to the overseas market. For example, e-mail marketing is a crucial part of its overall strategy of touching base with potential customers in the US and India, on the other hand, its dedicated Pre-Sales team connects with those expressing interest in this space.

    For Locobuzz, participating in events – in both India and overseas – has proved to be lucrative. It has had the opportunity to share interesting learnings about its work with the clients while highlighting Locobuzz’s successes and the way in which Locobuzz can improve the overall Customer Experience of other brands as well.

    It has focused its marketing efforts on gaining a trustworthy and steady association with “Unified Digital Customer Experience Management” to drive innovation as thought-leaders from the space of CX.

    Locobuzz – Challenges Faced

    The biggest challenge that Locobuzz faces is that it will be compared to the global players in the same industry. In the initial phases of the firm’s establishment, the team were asked (all the time!) if such a small company would exist in a few years.  There were times where they had to disclose its financials to close some deals and prove that they were indeed a profit-making company.

    Eventually, as a matter of practice, Locobuzz focused on building its website and building the thought-leadership content, to ensure that it continues to remain in the mind space of people searching for products like Locobuzz. In that sense, the founders do believe that this mindset has changed because India is being recognized as a country that can build tech solutions for the world.

    “We think this challenge is still very prevalent” Vishal continues, “There are still people who prefer to pay for expensive services with foreign companies when the same can be leveraged here in India. We at Locobuzz overcome these challenges by building trust, providing continued support, sharing our VNL, or giving free trials for months at a stretch sometimes. In a way, we believe that the confidence in the product is what is reciprocated in the experience it provides consumers”

    Locobuzz – Growth

    The future looks promising as the company is doing well, the team at Locobuzz is constantly building new products, acquiring new customers, achieving targets as per the expectations of the monthly recurring revenue. Locobuzz has already registered 60% of the growth over last year in just 6 months, and it is on track to a great year and push for significant growth in revenues and presence in some new key markets.

    Locobuzz – Funding and Investors

    In April’21, Locobuzz raised pre-series A for INR 9 Crores from SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd.

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    Locobuzz – Competitors

    Locobuzz’s top competitors are – Konnect Insights, One Direct, Simplify 360, Meltwater, Salesforce, Sprinklr, Yellow Messenger, Talkwalker and Khoros.

    Locobuzz – Future Plans

    Locobuzz recently received its first round of funding. Through the funds raised, it is looking at expanding its technology teams, business development team, client services team with critical hires as well as focused marketing efforts. From a product perspective, the startup believes that analytics and automation for messaging channels are going to be a big deal, so the team is focusing on creating products to increase the value and adoption of these tech solutions, eventually garnering the future potential of revenue.

    Locobuzz is looking at expanding to newer geographies such as the US and southeast Asia. It has already begun to create brand visibility and engagement – Locobuzz was recently a part of a US-based Omnichannel CX event and participated as silver sponsors to the event.

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    Locobuzz – FAQs

    What is Locobuzz?

    Locobuzz is a unified customer experience platform that uses various technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Analytics to enable brands to effectively engage with their customers and in turn form strong and long-lasting relationships.

    Who founded Locobuzz?

    Vishal Agarwal, Nitin Agarwal, and Shubhi Agarwal are the founders of Locobuzz.

    Is Locobuzz an Indian company?

    Yes. Locobuzz is an Indian company headquartered in Mumbai.

    How much funding has Locobuzz raised?

    In April’21, Locobuzz raised pre-series A for INR 9 Crores from SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd.

  • Entrepreneurs’ View & Action Plan on Providing the Best Customer Service

    The opinions & views in this article are contributed by various industry experts & entreprenuers in the startup ecosystem.

    The first priority of a business or a company is to meet the demands of the customers. Though the demands of the customers are growing, the impressive customer service is attending these demands only too well. Extending the best customer service is the rule of thumb for every business, young and old. No doubt it brings a wide range of benefits for the businesses, which is why more and more enterprises are lining up to empower their customer service.

    If you are now curious to learn about the companies that are prominently prioritizing their customer service, then here we bring you a list of startups that are keeping their customers ahead! Read about how these entrepreneurs deliver commitment and gain trust from their customers with actionable insights, tools, and strategies.

    Vinayak Shrivastav | Co-founder and CEO, Toch AI

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Vinayak Shrivastav – Co-founder and CEO, Toch AI

    “Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident, it happens by design.” – Clare Muscutt. At Toch AI we take our customers’ specific requirements seriously and deliver with commitment.

    Every new inquiry is guided by a complete demonstration of our platform and product. With diverse clients across the globe, it is imperative to process the definite and precise needs of each client. It is then assessed over face-to-face virtual meetings. With technology bridging distance, a personalized solution delivered across geographies needs to be seamlessly integrated; such that demand meets the expected workflow efficiency. The next step is an effortless onboarding process that is comprehensible in the form of flowcharts and direction for unobstructed services that eradicates remote chances of disruption. A Slack channel is created with the client for fast and direct communication with a quick turnaround time, in case of any queries, suggestions, or problem-shooting. The success team steers smooth adaptation of the new work profile with precise timelines. A step-by-step discernable communication is chalked between the client and the concerned team.

    At Toch providing solutions to every customer’s unique needs is our best business plan. Our work has been the best branding we have ever done through the life of our company, where each team member is involved in ensuring delivery exceeds expectations. The patrons might forget our faces, but they seldom forget the work we do. It is an intangible feeling of pride, being associated as a dependable company that never backs down.

    Also Read: List of Top Customer Experience Management Software in 2021 | Free Tools

    Prashant Radhakrishnan | VP of Sales & Marketing (India), SemaConnect

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Prashant Radhakrishnan – VP of Sales & Marketing (India), SemaConnect

    Companies need to wire all design thought – whether it be products or services ground up from a customer-centric viewpoint & usage, instead of spending a lot of time and effort in getting the policies, processes & people approach around customer service. Now, providing effective customer service is important – however, the overall goal of an organization’s need to revolve around eliminating said customer contacts (typically negative or catering to issues).

    While this is easier said than done – it involves crafting organization structure, processes & culture across all functions from a customer at the center viewpoint.

    At SemaConnect, the endeavor is to build the relevant products and services after extensive understanding of the “Voice of Customer” – each iteration of a new product or service is user-centric – this user-centricity in design is not restricted to external customers but to internal customer groups as well. For small startup companies, this is always a challenge – hence a “Guiding Principle” on user-centricity in building new products or services can only be done when the clarity of thought on Customer-Centric design is part of the DNA of the organization.”

    SemaConnect, established in 2008 is a leading provider of Electric Vehicle Amenities to North American and Indian Commercial & Residential Market. For over a decade, SemaConnect has installed over 14,000 charging stations in North America, while its IT development, R&D, and manufacturing are based out of India.

    Harsh Shah | Co-Founder, Fynd

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Harsh Shah – Co-founder, Fynd

    Fynd is a one-stop omnichannel retail platform, with customer service at its core. Our key focus while serving our brands is to offer hassle-free coordination between all points of service, be the expert solution providers, and engage in our brands’ growth with regular checks and market insights.

    We offer business insights and monitor a brand’s performance over periodic weekly/monthly calls. Going a step beyond the basic technology platform-based omnichannel solutions, this demarcates us from our peers and attracts most brands to sign up with us. Our clients look to us as solution providers and place their trust in us for a resolution in times of crisis. Brands like Sportstation & Ruosh have appreciated that even if something gets stuck at 11 PM, it will be taken care of to ensure a smooth running for the brand.

    Brands often run tight on schedules around the mega sales time (both, in-store and eCommerce). That’s where our customer support has been a great relief for brands like Mothercare, Hamleys, Red Chief, allowing them to focus on core sales, while we take care of the rest. Another highlight in our service offering is our user-friendly Fynd Order Management System (OMS) that allows a brand’s store and warehouse staff to adapt to technology with an appealing UI and UX. Our collaboration and experience with logistic partners ensure a speedy delivery for our clients giving them an edge. There have been instances where the product manager himself went out to deliver so that the brand’s customers do not suffer.

    Shubhi Agarwal | COO & Co-Founder, Locobuzz

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Shubhi Agarwal – COO & Co-Founder, Locobuzz

    When it comes to customer service, the secret to success lies in personalization, consistency, and timeliness. In the post-pandemic era, we witnessed a voluminous spike in digital customer interactions that have coerced even the most traditional businesses to innovate their service scope and digital engagement methods. Today, brands across sectors constantly deal with delivering timely customer experience at scale. Through AI-led automation solutions, we aim to give customer service the human touch and personalization it needs for a brand to succeed in volatile markets. To us, ‘personalization’ is the result of rich, real-time, actionable insights that help eliminate the chance of a neglected customer.

    Social listening and response management, therefore, is not just about AI-technology at its ‘always-evolving’ best; but about a brand’s utilization of AI-tech to deliver the best customer service. With simple things like faster responses and interactive social media engagement, one such BFSI brand celebrated 40% sentiment score uplifts and extended to nearly 700 new leads every month. One of the services we often suggest to clients is CRM integrations (Customer Relationship Management) – A Retail brand that leveraged CRM in its response management was able to garner organized intelligence about its customers and converted those insights into a consistent engagement strategy wherein; they captured 16,000 unique visits over WhatsApp Business alone, and measured 264.6k brand replies from customers within a year on social platforms.

    Essentially, it is a fact that people appreciate being heard and cared for by the brands they are loyal to. With AI-powered Listening and Response mechanisms, advanced automation lets brands deliver tender and attentive customer service to their clients. For all thought leaders of the new age, it will be interesting to see how fast-paced tech advancements in the future will be employed, while keeping customer simplicity and service at its optimum.

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    Chaitali Das | Associate VP of Marketing, Sprink.online

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Chaitali Das – Associate VP of Marketing, Sprink.online

    Customer services have changed a lot in the last decade. Providing better customer service in today’s world goes beyond “professionalism” and “positive attitude”. It has become more than just solving problems but about how creatively the problem can be solved. It is about understanding the customer’s psyche and helping them provide solutions for not only what they might need for the moment but also about how the interaction can add value to their experience. Customer services now demand to be more personalized, where the customer wants to feel more than just a ticket number. Today, companies are developing more full-proof customer service strategies than just deploying just call centers. Many food businesses are utilizing technology to a great extent and as a part of customer service offer online forums, detailed & self-sufficient FAQ pages, and automated chatbots along with human help that gives customers the chance to help themselves in cases where queries are taking more time to resolve.

    At Sprink, our customer care strategy revolves around building human-centric customer service through great customer care representatives and the utilization of technology where it is needed. A lot of our menu and services have actually evolved into what our customers are actually looking for rather than just providing them with one-dimensional services. Our customers are living testimony of how they feel about us. We feel confident and lucky when customers residing in a foreign country or in a different city wants to book meal subscriptions for their elderly parents in Bangalore due to their trust in us or when a happy customer recommends us to their loved ones because we delivered food to their door-step beyond our predefined delivery slots when they were sick with corona. All in such cases and more, our focus is and will always remain working towards making a better customer experience.

    Mahmud Kotebagil | CEO & Co-Founder, Beyond Garage

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Mahmud Kotebagil – CEO & Co-Founder, Beyond Garage

    Providing good customer service is not an accident rather it’s a design that involves people from all the level of an organization. We at Beyond Garage believe that will never have a product or price advantage eventually, as they can be too easily duplicated. But a strong customer service culture cannot be copied and excelling the customer service every time builds a huge gap between a successful company and a normal company. Also, a brand is no longer what we tell the customer or other people but it is what customers tell each other in the market hence we collect reviews in an open forum from all our customers. And it’s easy to understand that, people will soon forget what we said. They will NEVER forget how we made them feel and that’s our effort all the time.

    Naman Shah | Co-Founder & CEO, NowPurchase

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Naman Shah – Co-Founder & CEO, NowPurchase

    Customers enjoy customized experiences from B2C brands on a daily basis. Companies like Amazon Prime, Voot are known to provide personalized suggestions, similarly, eCommerce platforms like Flipkart provide excellent customer service, but it’s a different scenario when it comes to B2B enterprises.

    The average customer experience score for B2B companies is less than 50%, compared to 65 percent to 85 percent for B2C companies.

    Customer experience is a top focus for many B2B organizations, but their actions don’t always match their statements. However, the trend is gradually shifting. B2B organizations are beginning to see the significance of investing in customer experience and the competitive advantage it can provide, especially in light of the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 and its influence on global industries.

    NowPurchase strives to give the finest customer experience to all of its stakeholders, including purchasers, production managers, and business owners. Some of our clients, for example, requested a live tracking system to keep track of their delivery progress. As a result, we created a WhatsApp notification system that alleviated their worries. We also discovered that clients preferred to receive information via WhatsApp notifications, so we developed a WhatsApp bot that allows them to receive daily pricing updates depending on market trends.

    Priyanka Salot | Co-founder, The Sleep Company

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Priyanka Salot – Co-founder, The Sleep Company

    In today’s highly competitive business world, how you handle client complaints can either help you thrive or consign you to failure. Customer journeys are evolving based on specific customer personas, which is helping D2C firms improve their final mile. Customer attitude has evolved dramatically in some areas, to the point where there is no longer a blueprint.

    So, we see innovation in the digital environment as a strategic opportunity. It benefited us in communicating with our customers and responding to their feedback and suggestions. Taking into account customer feedback has been one of the biggest advantages for The Sleep Company. We try to initiate one-on-one conversations with customers in order to have a deeper knowledge of their requirements.

    Tech is at the forefront of our customer experience. We are using a website chat feature through which customers are addressed as per their inquiries. We also listen to our customers via social media and apps like Whatsapp. We have integrated the latest CRM tools to enhance the after-sales service. When it comes to human intervention, we also have dedicated teams for sales and support.

    Customers have also expressed gratitude for taking their complaints seriously by providing speedy responses.  It has also helped us to determine what needs to be improved. Listening to their complaints has helped us identify issue areas that we can improve on in the future, to create a positive customer experience.

    Customers have evolved, and they now prioritize a brand relationship over a brand product. Customers want to have meaningful conversations. Brands should take the lead in identifying answers to issues that directly affect their target audience, as well as societal and cultural concerns that their customers care about.

    Sandeep Aggarwal | Co-Founder, Candes

    Providing Best Customer Service
    Sandeep Aggarwal – Co-Founder, Candes

    We are a Delhi-based D2C brand of home appliances that aims at offering the best to its consumers. Be it technology, innovation, style, convenience, or after-product services. One should trust our company especially when it comes to your home appliances because we give a minimum warranty of 2 years in most of our product range. Also, we provide free door service to keep you tension-free, having over 1 million trusted users. We make sure to keep your electricity bill to a minimum and we have the highest ratings all across the marketplace. At Candes we make sure you get the best service and live a comfortable life with the help of our product lines. If there are any problems that you face, then you don’t have to worry as our customer service is always available to assist you. You can call us anytime between 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM from Monday to Saturday. We have a very convenient interface to register your complaint and resolve the same on a priority basis.

    Also Read: Challenges faced by Entrepreneurs while Operating in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities

    Conclusion

    Customer service ought to be a strong point of every business and most companies now are strengthening the services offered to their customers like anything. This is also resulting in a growth that is longstanding and built on the pillars of trust.

    We hope you liked our article on the best customer service providers. Feel free to share your feedback about the article and also subscribe to StartupTalky for more articles of interest!

  • Ozonetel: Disrupting The Cloud Telephony Market Through AI

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Ozonetel.

    The internet has showered us with myriad useful tools, cloud communication being one of them. Cloud telephony is all about internet-based voice and data communication where telecommunication applications, switching, and storage are hosted by a third party that falls outside the organization using these. Cloud telephony is among the latest tech that moves your business phone system to the cloud, allowing you to manage your business calls without compromising on quality and cost.

    An emerging player in this domain is Ozonetel Communications—a cloud software solution that replaces your conventional business telephone setup with their VoIP services and widgets. Get an insight on Ozonetel Communications Success Story, Revenue Model, Growth, How it began?, Acquisition and Future Plans.

    Transform Customer Experience with Ozonetel Communications

    Ozonetel – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Ozonetel
    Headquarters Hyderabad
    Founders Murthy Chintipalati
    Sector Cloud Telephony
    Founded 2007
    Website Ozonetel.com
    Parent Organization Ozonetel Communications Pvt. Ltd.

    Ozonetel Communications – About
    Ozonetel Communications- Solutions/Services
    Ozonetel Communications – Teams
    Ozonetel Communications – Vision and Mission
    Ozonetel Communications – How It Began?
    Ozonetel Communications – Name And Logo
    Ozonetel Communications – Startup Launch
    Ozonetel Communications – Revenue Model
    Ozonetel Communications – Funding
    Ozonetel Communications – User Acquisition and Growth
    Ozonetel Communications – Startup Challenges
    Ozonetel Communications – Competitors
    Ozonetel Communications – Mergers and Acquisitions
    Ozonetel Communications – Future Plans
    Ozonetel Communications – FAQs

    Ozonetel Communications – About

    Ozonetel is a pioneer in providing on-demand cloud communication services in India. The full-stack customer experience software was built from the ground up to solve the practical problems that keep call centers worldwide from making the most of their communications platform. It is mainly known for developing and launching the first cloud-based customer experience platform in the Indian marketplace.

    Ozonetel Cloud Communication
    Ozonetel Cloud Communication 

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    Ozonetel Communications – Solutions/Services

    The solutions offered by Ozonetel are KooKoo CloudAgent and KooKoo Interactive Assistant.

    KOOKOO CloudAgent

    It is a call center software solution functioning as an inbound and outbound call center. CloudAgent shifts a company’s entire contact center and related setup into a single browser, making it easier for the workforce to monitor, track and make critical decisions. Equipped with business intelligence, the KOOKOO CloudAgent ensures that businesses provide a world-class experience to their customers. It provides a platform for them to engage with their customers through multiple channels such as voice, email, chat, SMS, and social media.

    Ozonetel’s inbound call center solution is bundled with the following features:

    • CRM Integration.
    • IVR flexibility: The KOOKOO speech API lets users speak to the IVR instead of punching numbers.
    • ACD software distributes calls, SMS, emails and social media messages based on customer needs and agent skill set.
    • Improves agent productivity time and cost per ticket.
    • Improves speed of resolution.
    • Exceed SLA’s, boost CSAT.
    • Reduces call queues by live monitoring.

    Ozonetel’s outbound call center solution comes with interesting features:

    • Clients can choose from multiple power dialers as per their business needs. Ozonetel offers both progressive and predictive dialing modes. These dialers can double agent productivity.
    • Remote dialing.
    • Improves agent productivity.
    • Reduces unproductive work.
    • Burns through the call list.
    • Easy integration with third-party solutions.
    • Data to be dialed can be prioritized based on various parameters.
    • Supervisors can monitor the agents on a real-time basis.
    • Outbound IVR lets send personalized automated messages to a large database.
    • Number Masking to protect consumer privacy.

    Ozonetel provides more than 70 reports that give a detailed picture of the call center operations. Currently, Ozonetel has ready-made implications for the major CRM solutions as well as social media integration with Facebook, Whatsapp and Shopify.

    KOOKOO Interactive Assistant (KIA)

    A first-of-its-kind widget enables customer service help desks to run voice calls and chat sessions in parallel. The KIA widget integrates with Zendesk, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and all other CRM solutions to automatically capture lead details.

    By integrating the Kookoo interactive assistant with its website, a company gets the following benefits:

    • Customers browsing the company’s site can instantly contact agents through a click.
    • On-call agents can send critical details to the customer through the live chat window.
    • Visual IVR lets customers connect to agents in the right department.
    • It automatically captures customers’ details in the CRM.

    Best Telephony Software for SaaS
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    Ozonetel Communications – Teams

    Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan are the people behind the technology of Ozonetel Communications.

    Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan
    Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan

    Murthy Chintipalati is the Founder and CEO of Ozonetel. He started Ozonetel along with his co-founders by leveraging the core strengths of his team to solve the most pressing enterprise communication challenges. Even after a decade leading Ozonetel, he ensures being available in real-time to address his clients’ needs. He has been a serial entrepreneur for 25 years and is vested in starting his own initiatives in the software, hardware, semiconductor, systems spanning networking, security, telecom, embedded systems, and applications segments.

    Atul Sharma is the Chief Technology Officer of Ozonetel. He is responsible for identifying the right technology for the platform, making it future-proof and highly scalable while keeping the overall cost affordable for the clients. He is also responsible for managing and driving the technology team for network, telecom, application, security, operations, delivery, pre-sales. He brings deep domain knowledge of self-service applications & Customer Interaction Management to bear on the solutions Ozonetel delivers.

    Chaitanya Chokkareddy is the Chief Innovation Officer of Ozonetel. He works with the latest technological breakthroughs and sees what innovative products can be built on top of them. This includes grid computing, cloud computing, cloud telephony, WebRTC, No SQL databases, and now AI. He makes sure that the right technology can be used in the Ozonetel stack at the right time. He has more than 15 years of experience working with the latest tools and loves bringing the latest research to life and applying it to this industry.

    Rajiv Bharathan is the Sr. VP of Sales at Ozonetel. He collaborates closely with clients to find the best solutions to their call center challenges. Since 1980, He has worked in sales across IT and Telecom with major companies like HCL, HP, Wipro, and Reliance Communications. He has been with Ozonetel since 2012. He is passionate about being in the thick of the action from landing new accounts to helping existing customers get more out of their platform.

    Ozonetel Communications – Vision and Mission

    Ozonetel Communications provides a cloud communication software suite as a service to their customers. The company envisions making business communication seamless, intelligent, cost-efficient and easily available. Its mission is to provide a scalable multi-channel communication platform on the cloud to enterprises & entrepreneurs on the OPEX/ transaction model, enabling them to provide value-added communication services to their customers.

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    Ozonetel Communications – How It Began?

    Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy had come back from the US and wanted to get their hands in entrepreneurship. They recognized that when businesses were in the initial stages of setup, they’d been extremely serious about the company website but would rarely focus on setting up the right business phone system. In fact, many businesses did not even have a proper business phone system. The trio realized that it was happening because setting up a business phone system wasn’t as easy as ABC. They then decided to make the process of “setting up a business phone system” as convenient as “setting up a business website”. With that in mind, Ozonetel Communications first launched the KOOKOO cloud telephony platform followed by CloudAgent, the world’s first cloud contact center solution.

    Ozonetel Communications – Name and Logo

    Ozonetel wanted to be a layer around telephony, thus come out as the amalgamation of Ozone (layer) and Tel (telephony). The name KOOKOO was conjured in a jiffy (the team wanted a name with lots of vowels, like Yahoo!).

    Ozonetel Logo
    Ozonetel Logo

    Ozonetel Communications – Startup Launch

    Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy launched their product at the Unplugged Conference. Their marketing strategy at the time revolved around blogging and networking at startup events. Word-of-mouth feedback from satisfied customers played a major role.

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    Ozonetel Communications – Revenue Model

    Ozonetel Communications is a SaaS company and has a “per agent/per month” revenue model.

    Ozonetel Communications – Funding

    Ozonetel has not raised any funding to date. It is a Bootstrapped Company. Bootstrapping means building a company from scratch with no outside funding. All the fundings are invested by the owner itself.

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    Ozonetel Communications – User Acquisition and Growth

    Ozonetel’s only hack has been customer happiness. Interestingly, the company does not spend anything on marketing. Most of its leads are generated through blogs and word-of-mouth publicity.

    With over 1500+ enterprise clients across 20+ verticals, Ozonetel’s KOOKOO platform supports over 50,000 live agents and has handled over 3 billion calls.

    Ozonetel Communications currently serves in India, the USA, UAE and South East Asia. Reputed brands like Food Panda, Practo, Big Basket, Uber, WeWork, Medlife, HUL, Healthcare at home, and Zomato are some of its top clientele.

    Ozonetel Communications – Startup Challenges

    The major challenge Ozonetel faced early on its journey was technical in nature. It couldn’t guarantee on-call quality with the store-bought PRI cards; it overcomes this obstacle by designing custom PRI card hardware.

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    Ozonetel Communications – Competitors

    Some of the Top Competitors of Ozonetel are:-

    • Knowlarity
    • ZipDial
    • Sytel
    • Sunoray
    • Ameyo
    • Capzest
    • BigV Telecom
    • Fonebell
    • Spark TG Info

    Ozonetel considers US-based Twilio as a source of inspiration aside from the competition. The venture tries to stay ahead in its segment through innovation. Ozonetel launched the world’s first cloud contact center product and is now bolstering its existing solutions by incorporating AI.

    Ozonetel Communications – Mergers and Acquisitions

    Ozonetel acquired Yantrasoft, a speech recognition company, in 2014.

    Ozonetel Communications – Future Plans

    Ozonetel is looking forward to disrupting the contact center industry through AI-based techniques.

    Ozonetel Communications – FAQs

    What is Ozonetel?

    Ozonetel is India’s No. 1 contact solution provider. It is a cloud-based telephony service provider that enables businesses to communicate with their clients effectively and efficiently via all the channels, i.e. chat, email, social media, call, SMS, on one platform with no capital investment. The solutions offered by Ozonetel are KooKoo CloudAgent and KooKoo Interactive Assistant.

    How does Ozonetel make money?

    Ozonetel Communications is a SaaS company and has a “per agent/per month” revenue model.

    What is cloud communication?

    Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. It is a totally fresh approach to building, deploying and scaling enterprise communication systems. Cloud communications have the potential to reduce expenses and provide higher quality services.

    How are customers finding value in Ozonetel’s products?

    Ozonetel helps contact centers go live in a day with a reliable platform that improves customer experience and agent productivity at a lower total cost.

    How does Ozonetel see the road ahead in cloud telephony technologies?

    Ozonetel is going to be about omnichannel and AI in the coming future. Customers can reach out to businesses on multiple channels like Whatsapp, email, chat, SMS, video, etc. and will expect a quick resolution.

  • [Expert’s View] How BNPL is Transforming Customer Purchasing Behavior

    In this new Startup Insight series we connect with industry professionals to know ‘How did they do it’ – features startup experience and learning from professionals who have done a particular thing in a startup!

    Let’s see what Mr. Nityanand Sharma, Founder & CEO of Simpl has got to say on ‘How BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) is Transforming Customer Purchasing Behavior‘

    Simpl provides the convenience of an online khata connected to 5000+ merchants. Simpl works on BNPL mechanism – ‘Buy anything on the internet with 1 tap. Pay later.’

    BNPL, with its convenient credit purchases and interest-free credit period, is playing a pivotal role in transforming consumer buying patterns. This stands reflected in the surging popularity of BNPL as a payment mode. According to a 2021 Global Payments Report by FIS, BNPL outpaced other payment modes in the high-growth e-commerce and online shopping space in India and is expected to command a 9% market share by 2024, with a 53% CAGR, up from the 3% share in 2020. India’s consumerism-oriented middle class, driven by purchasing power and aspirational purchases are fueling the growth of BNPL, which aims to deliver a digital credit experience to 400 Mn Indians who fall outside the net of the organized credit card financial system.

    How BNPL is Revamping India’s traditional Khata system?
    How BNPL is driving a data to value transformation?
    What are the advantages of BNPL?
    What is the need of BNPL?
    Is BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) safe?

    How BNPL is Revamping India’s traditional Khata system?

    BNPL has brought to the fore an age-old tradition often practiced informally by retail shops in India i.e. taking nagad payment from relatively new customers and allowing udhaar purchases for creditworthy customers. All of the transactions were rooted in trust with the shopkeeper sharing strong relationships with a close-knit circle of customers, often residing in nearby locations.

    BNPL has resulted in the reimagining of an existing concept that Indians are already familiar with. Further, with merchants less inclined to offer cash on delivery given the thrust on the cashless digital economy, there is a perceptible mindset shift in the buyers. Seeing the growing buyer interest, BNPL is now available across merchant categories- essentials, staples, groceries, medicines, apparel and clothing, electronics, and beyond. The diversification has further encouraged higher usage levels and reinforced BNPL as a viable alternative to other mainstream payment modes.

    Simpl Founder
    Nityanand Sharma – Founder & CEO, Simpl

    How BNPL is driving a data to value transformation?

    As a product, owing to its ease of use and easy to integrate functionality, BNPL is inherently customer-centric and merchant-friendly. By leveraging cutting-edge tools like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML-based credit decisioning, BNPL is enabling faster transactions with almost instantaneous credit-line approval for purchases at the time of checkout. Through better information about customer credit history and purchase patterns based on predictive models, the BNPL model has accelerated the trust-building process between merchants and buyers. With the pandemic throwing a spanner in the budget of many households, the option to split the purchases bill across time in a convenient manner has eased the financial burden for many. Buyers are able to avail improved liquidity towards purchases without the need to worry about upfront funds outlay.

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    What are the advantages of BNPL?

    A key factor that works to the advantage of BNPL is the relatively small ticket size of the credit limit available. Thus, the repayment amount is affordable and does not feel like an ‘EMI’ with an attached high-value tag. While EMIs are based on the principle of breaking up a large-sized payment into smaller monthly payments with interest, BNPL is a convenience offered to loyal and trusted buyers of merchants with an interest-free credit period. The low amount size relatively reduces the credit risk and default uncertainty compared to a credit card with a higher credit limit. It has been observed that the buyer propensity to spend is enhanced with BNPL owing to the mere 2 clicks transaction completion process. A study reveals that with BNPL, the basket size has grown in most transactions:

    What is the need of BNPL?

    India’s young demographic profile, comprising millennials, prefer a prompt and seamless purchase experience. Further, most of these buyers are inclined towards buying on online platforms and making payments through digital modes that are completed within a few seconds. Another notable trend is the moving away from traditional credit facilities that involve a long-drawn and cumbersome approval process. A credit card is often positioned as an alternative to BNPL. However, out of 900 Mn banking customers, it is estimated that only about 3% use credit cards attributable to the high charges and exorbitant interest rates associated with plastic money. It is expected that a high percent of the bank customer pool would be open to using BNPL, given its almost instantaneous credit approval and zero-friction payment experience.

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    Is BNPL safe?

    The payment happens via a 1-click checkout option – No OTP, no CVV, No net banking. The final Bill can be cleared via any mode of payment, but BNPL purchases don’t require OTPs. This is one of Simpl’s USPs

    Concluding thoughts of Mr. Nityanand Sharma

    The universal goals of every digital payment mode are to ensure prompt transaction completion for merchants and deliver superior payment experiences for customers. BNPL achieves all of this and much more. Armed with a comprehensive database of customer purchases, buying patterns and payment records, BNPL can aid merchants with actionable customer insights for business strategies, give a fillip to digital-led purchase volumes and reduce overall payments fraud risk in the digital payments ecosystem.

  • Froogal – Bridging The Gap Between Brands And Consumers

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Froogal.

    In a time when rising customer expectations have forced businesses to think on their feet and expand their services beyond the traditional shopping experience, a platform that can drive loyalty programs for consumers is a must for every business. To exploit this idea into a successful startup, Jeevan Chowdary and Harshit Harchani launched Froogal in 2017.

    Froogal mainly operates in SaaS, more specifically – Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Marketing automation, Customer Experience, CRM & Data Analytics, Automation, Marketing, Digital Transformation, Feedback Management, Business Intelligence tools.  

    StartupTalky interviewed Froogal CEO Jeevan Chowdary to get a better understanding of this Hyderabad based startup.

    Froogal – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Froogal
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Industry Customer Loyalty, SaaS
    Founders Jeevan Chowdary (CEO),Harshit Harchani (CTO)
    Founded 2017
    Parent Organization Froogal Innovations INC
    Website froogal.ai

    Froogal – About and How it Works
    Froogal – USP
    Froogal – Founders and Team
    How was Froogal Started?
    Froogal – Name and Logo
    Froogal – Startup Launch
    Froogal – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Froogal – Startup Challenges
    Froogal – Funding and Investors
    Froogal – Growth
    Froogal – Conclusion
    Froogal – FAQs

    Froogal – About and How it Works

    Froogal is a Omni-channel cloud based Customer Loyalty & Engagement Platform and has been a pioneer in delivering multiple consumer oriented Industries to build Customer Centricity by modernized and personalized interactions with Consumers to drive incremental Revenues.

    Froogal.ai is a customer loyalty programmed management platform, which provides customers with aspirational rewards that are customized and goes beyond traditional cash rewards.

    Froogal’s main range of products include:

    • Customer Loyalty & Management.
    • Customer Experience Management.
    • Customer Analytics with predictive and data-driven Insights.
    • Engagement Marketing with advanced automation techniques via SMS / Email / Push
    • Notification and Social Media etc.
    • Offer Engine with Mobile Marketing tools, Referral Marketing tools.

    There are also a few more flagship products in the stream:

    • Froogal Seamless– It helps businesses adapt to omni channel marketing strategy i.e. Creating an ecosystem for business to enhance their sales channels across web, mobile, etc.
    • Froogal Consumer App– Froogal Consumer App is “World’s #1 Digital Loyalty Wallet”. It helps consumers digitize all their reward cards at one place, while it allows consumers to go cashless and with much other value

    All in all, Froogal helps companies develop loyalty programs that can drive repeat business as well as build a community of loyal brand advocates by building the bridge between brands and customers at every stage of the customer lifecycle. It drives revenue for brick and mortar businesses by collecting critical customer data, then using it to deliver automated, personalized marketing campaigns that drive real ROI. Froogal acts as an intelligent tool for a CXO business, automating most of the marketing needs.

    Froogal focuses on knowing, retaining every customer and ensuring customer loyalty. The company offers a SaaS-based product in different packages like (Starter, Growth, Professional, and Enterprise) targeting the different sizes of customers across SMEs and Large Enterprises both.

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    Froogal – USP

    Froogal works with the aim to help businesses and customers build a relation for life because it is very important to understand the target audience in business and if a company does that right, it is on track for success. The basic idea is to address the pain points faced by millions of Brick-and-Mortar businesses across the globe and turn them successful. In other words, the motive is to help clients grow into an affluent firm with distinctive & considerable improvement in performance by retaining their customers.

    Some major USP of Froogal are –

    1. Most Loyalty Programs target only mom-and-pop stores, but Froogal targets successfully both Mom-and-Pop and big Chains.
    2. Froogal has got More Advanced Loyalty Systems overcoming the traditional ways where the Strategy plays a key role in making it more contextual & emotional for the customer to retain and engage. It is one of its kind built with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
    3. Froogal took over the Omnichannel way at every module where Customers engage with Business and makes it seamless for customers to redeem rewards, complain and engage through any channel.
    4. Deeper Analysis & More Intelligent in Personalized Marketing- Froogal Consumer App (App that Digitizes One’s Reward Cards at One Place).
    5. Froogal offers cost-effective packages for various businesses and helps businesses achieve higher ROI.

    Froogal- Founders and Team

    Jeevan Chowdary and Harshit Harchani are the Founders of Froogal.

    Jeevan Chowdary and Harshit Harchani | Founders, Froogal

    Froogal founders Jeevan Chowdary and Harshit Harchani are alumni of IIIT Hyderabad, and the idea to start their own business was there in their minds while they were still in college.

    “We were working on a project for a while and when we graduated we decided to kick off our own product. My co-founder has been very supportive and the belief we have in each other and the same morale we share and our product has got us here today.” Jeevan quotes.

    As regards division of responsibilities between the founders, Jeevan Chowdary is currently operating as the CEO of Froogal and takes care of the entire business operations, sales, and marketing.

    Froogal CTO, Harshit Harchani takes care of the entire Technical development of the product.

    Froogal currently has 50+ employees.

    Froogal Team

    How was Froogal Started?

    Customers are the inspiration here. While working on the very first project, during their college days, Jeevan and Harshit got a chance to work with a variety of stakeholders across many industries, especially small businesses. Both of them quickly realized that while different sectors of the market have different needs, no one, in particular, had focused on what would help small businesses flourish keeping in mind their limited operation management, lack of familiarity with technology, lack of access to expertise and marketing and most importantly budget. After talking to more than 500 such businesses they realized that they were not happy with the value of existing products and then at Froogal, they set upon this journey to provide the best value to businesses of various sizes, while working hand in hand with them at every point.

    “From ideation to prototyping to customer endpoints we brainstormed solutions with our customers to enhance the value proposition, dig into real problems and develop a product which solved the real day to day problems they face with a minimal cost, along with which the rejection of dejection, and with perseverance, we showed in making it perfect and frugal for the business owners.” said Jeevan on the ideating stage of the venture.

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    Froogal Logo

    Any businesses share the same end objective i.e., to generate greater revenues in a cost-effective way and delivering good customer experience and service. So is the name Froogal which is obtained from the word Frugal.

    Froogal – Startup Launch

    The first launch of the Froogal product happened with a customer. Once the team had the first Pilot deployment, they worked closely with them, wearing all hats to iron out all issues and proactively providing solutions to streamline the process. Since the revenue stream is generated through subscriptions and no other strategy, experience for the customers is paramount and the team leaves no efforts in that end. They realize that the product and the experience they provide speaks for itself and are happy to rely just on word of mouth for their promotions.

    Froogal – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The Froogal business model follows a SaaS business model. It works on a monthly subscription model, and its pricing ranges from 2500 per month – 15000 per month per location. Subscription charges varies based on the size and the business requirements along with other managed services for brick and mortar businesses, and also depending on the different models and segments.

    Froogal – Startup Challenges

    “Technology has been a passion for us. And necessity is the mother of Innovation.” Jeevan

    While running their very first project, Jeevan and Harshit got a chance to meet a lot of different business owners from different industries especially in the SME segment. Every business certainly has problems in managing their operations or marketing due to lack of either technology, expertise or budgets. What intrigued this duo was that every business owner wants to excel in their own business at the low-cost model and they took that as a challenge and explored how technology can help drive revenues by simplifying and automating most of their needs at an affordable cost.

    Froogal – Funding and Investors

    Froogal has raised funding worth $ 1 million in pre-series A in December 2019. The information about the angel investors remains confidential.

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    Froogal – Growth

    • Besides having offices in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai in India, Froogal  also has an office in the USA.
    • Froogal is currently serving 350+ clients, including brands like ‘Cream stone’, ‘Thickshake Factory’,  ‘BIG C’, ‘LOT’, ‘Over the moon’, ‘Pista house’ and ‘Biryanis and more’

    Froogal – Conclusion

    Froogal offers a one stop solution platform that provides end to end technology to understand, retain and engage your customers through omni channel digital strategy, leading to deeper and data driven relationship with your customers. They have an expertise team focusing strongly on unique mix of Strategic Consulting, Creative, Operations support services driving you with actionable intelligence that can help drive incremental revenues and optimum profitability.

    Froogal – FAQs

    What is Froogal?

    Froogal is a customer loyalty programmed management platform, which provides customers with aspirational rewards that are customized and goes beyond traditional cash rewards.

    Who are the Founders of Froogal?

    Jeevan Chowdary and Harshit Harchani are the Founders of Froogal.

    How does Froogal make money?

    Froogal follows a SaaS business model- It works on a monthly based subscription model, and its pricing ranges from INR 2500 per month – INR 15000 per month per location.

    How much Funding is raised by Froogal?

    Froogal has raised funding worth $ 1 million in pre-series A in December 2019. The information about the angel investors remains confidential.