Tag: Customer service reporting

10 Best Business Travel and Expense Management Software
Did you know, as per the report of Emburse Certify, an average US business traveler spends approximately $949 on their business trip including all accommodation, airfare and other business expenses? This means that spending on business travel is an integral part of the business.

The return on investment in business travel is approximately $2.90 for every dollar spent on travel, so businesses should plan for business travel for their employees. So keeping track of travel expenses is an important aspect to organize everything and run the business efficiently.

Travel Expense Tracking Software is dedicated to serving you in this regard and helping you to manage your travel expenses. Here we have provided a list of the best travel expense-tracking software so that you do not need to search for software.

What Is Travel Expense Tracking Software?
List of Top Travel Expense Tracking Software
TripActions
TravelBank
TravelPerk
Zoho expense
Egencia
Coupa
SAP Concur
Expensify
Chromeriver
Emburse Certify

What Is Travel Expense Tracking Software?

Companies spend heavily on business travel, so in order to keep a track record of every penny spent on travel, businesses use travel expense tracking software. The software is well-equipped with features that help in organizing, monitoring and analyzing travel expenses.

Businesses of all types can track their expenses and align employee travel with their corporate travel policy to ensure compliance. You get a detailed idea of how much you have spent on which employee and plan appropriately for future travel taking the past travel experience into perspective.

So without further delay, let’s dive into the list of top travel expense tracking software.

List of Top Travel Expense Tracking Software

The followings are the best Travel and Expense Management Software

TripActions

Rating 4.7/5

Best For Traveler Planer for Each Employee

TripActions is a powerful and robust travel and expense management software that is trusted by more than 8000 companies worldwide. Launched in the year 2015, TripActions is dedicated to providing the best user experience when it comes to managing business trips.

It’s the only platform you need to manage physical and virtual cards for corporate travel expenses, and hotel and flight bookings with exclusive deals, cashback and rewards. Corporate travel policy plays a vital role in a business, this software provides real-time reports to ensure best-in-class business and policy decisions.

TripActions

The next-generation online booking tool of TripActions can save a lot of time in manual booking here and there, it integrates everything in an organized manner, and you can also access it through their mobile app. The enhanced user experience to book tickets and manage expenses in one place is incredible. It also rewards your employee in the form of Amazon Rewards if they save the company money on hotel bookings.

Features of TripActions
- Customizable and preset travel policies
- Robust travel reporting
- Travel booking and management with ease
- Physical and virtual corporate cards
- Expense management in automation
- Next Generation online booking tool
- Rewards and cashback while booking
- 24/7 travel agent support
Pros:
- Ease of use
- Great support
- Rewards while booking flights and hotels
- Competitive flight and hotel rates
Cons:
- Not connected with all airlines and hotels
- Android app stucks sometimes
- Not immediate rebooking when the flight gets cancelled
Pricing:
- Contact the sales team for pricing
TravelBank

Rating 4.4/5

Best For Tracking and Expense Management

Improve the visibility of travel expenses and manage them efficiently with TravelBank. It is an all-in-one solution for managing your expenses, booking, and cards. More than 50,000 companies are already using TravelBank to effectively manage their travel affairs.

Business travel becomes seamless and hassle-free with features like expense reports, multi-level approval, online booking for lodging and flights, integration, and much more. For early-stage companies and individuals, it offers an expense-free plan in which features like unlimited receipt scans and unlimited expense reports are included for free.

TravelBank

The mobile-centric approach of this software provides the best-in-class mobile app to manage everything from the convenience of your smartphone. The advanced UI acts as a cherry on the cake that makes the app easy to use. It also offers a powerful desktop app to use in the office and improve efficiency.

Features of TravelBank
- Brex cardholders will get an exclusive of 4x Brex points on travel spend
- Discounted corporate rates on flights and hotel booking
- Real-time reporting
- Customizable travel policy
- Incentives in the form of rewards
- Travel tracker duty-of-care dashboard
Pros:
- Rewards employees for saving the company’s money
- Easy-to-use interface
- Travel budgeting
Cons:
- A free trial is not available
- Confusing reports and expense tab
- The report scanning tool is not up to the mark
Pricing
- Travel: $15 /user/month
- Expense: $8 /user/month
- All-in-one: Custom pricing
TravelPerk

Rating 4.6/5

Best For Medium sizes Businesses

TravelPerk is an all-in-one software solution to track the expenses of business trips along with all the necessary features like booking hotels and flights, reporting, compliance, and much more. Over 5000 companies worldwide are using TravelPerk to manage their business trips and increase their productivity with robust reporting and analytics.

FlexiPerk is the most unique feature of TravelPerk that empowers you to book flights, hotel, car, and train anytime and you can cancel your booking in a single click, no question asked. You’ll get your refund in a single click. This service is currently available in the US, UK, Switzerland, and EU.

TravelPerk

Easy to create and customizable Simple Travel Policy ensures you stay within spending limits. This policy will help travelers to stay within their budget and enable them to manage their travel.

Features of TravelPerk
- Group booking facility for 9 or more people
- Vast Inventory
- Flexible travel policy
- Easy VAT recovery
- GreenPerk feature to offset spending
Pros:
- Centralized invoicing
- Instant set up
- A free trial is available
Cons:
- Comparatively High pricing
- Don’t have the option to view flights based on your budget
- Inefficient customer support
Pricing:
- Starter: First 5 booking free then 5%/booking
- Premium: $99/month + 3%/booking
- Pro: $299/month + 3%/booking
- Custom: Contact sales for price
Zoho expense

Rating 4.5/5

Best For Automated Expense Reporting

Zoho is a well-known and trusted Saas provider that offers varieties of cloud-based services to help businesses run their business smoothly and efficiently. Zoho expense is another great software of Zoho that provides travel and expense management features. Trusted by thousands of companies like Zomato, Makemytrip, and PUMA, it is available in more than 150 countries worldwide.

Zoho Expense

Empower your employee to add receipts and convert them into expenses seamlessly. You can set up approval for ticket costs and trips to manage your corporate travel more effectively. All the reports are stored in the cloud so that you do need not to worry about any paper in the future.

Apart from all the basic features of travel management software, you can create a user and assign roles to them. You can also restrict access to employees and set daily, monthly and annual spending limits.

Features of Zoho expense
- Corporate card reconciliation
- Expense report management and automation
- Mileage tracking
- Simplified and custom approval
- Advanced customization option
Pros:
- Seamless integration with Zoho suite
- Mobile app to manage travel on the go
- Interactive UI
- Multi-factor authentication and single sign-on
Cons:
- The mobile app crash sometime
- Timely response from support is missing
Pricing
- Free trial
- Standard: Rs 99/user/month
- Premium: Rs 199/user/month
- Enterprise: Rs 299/user/month
Click here to get Zoho

Egencia

Rating 4.4/5

Best For Enterprise and Corporate Business

Egencia has served more than 9000 companies across 60 countries and was launched in 2002. Having a great experience in the field, Egencia is committed to modernizing travel and expense management. End-to-end corporate travel planning becomes seamless and effortless with the powerful and robust software of Egencia.

Simplifying the task of corporate travel planning is the priority of Egencia, and ensuring that it provides an easy-to-use user interface for booking, approving travel requests and modifying travel. Your employee’s well-being and safety are a priority, and Egencia Travel Advisor ensures this with travel alerts and advice.

Egencia

It optimizes the travel experience of your employees through the program like Egencia top 100 corporate hotels. This program shortlists the hotels that are committed to putting the customer experience first.

Features of Egencia
- Travel management consulting
- Egencia analytics studio
- Benchmarking dashboard to compare peers
- Travel policy management tool
- Geographic risk level indicators
Pros:
- Automated reporting
- Robust mobile app
- Meeting and event planning experts
Cons:
- customer support is average
- Not intuitive interface
- A free trial is not available
Pricing:
- Request custom price quotes
Coupa

Rating 4.1/5

Best For Procurement Modules

Coupa launched its end-to-end travel and expense management software in 2022 to help businesses take care of their Corporate travel more efficiently. It is new to the field of corporate planning but has significant experience in providing similar services like contract management, supplier management, invoicing, treasury management, and similar services.

From planning a business trip to booking flights and hotels to providing traveler support, expense reports and compliance, it caters for everything you want in a travel tracking software.

Coupa

Enhanced visibility in expense insights gives you a clear picture of all your travel spending in one place, using this you become capable to gauge your spending. The advanced trip price prediction of the Coupa is capable enough to predict the spending that may occur during a future trip so that you can prepare for it and stay within your budget.

Features of Coupa
- Automated expense reporting
- Intelligent audit algorithm
- Coupa’s trip price predictions
- Valuable Insights from Community.ai
- Smart itineraries
Pros:
- AI fraud detection
- Real-time travel insights
- IOS and Android mobile app
Cons:
- Price is not disclosed
- Lack of customization
- Not interactive and modern dashboard
Pricing:
- Contact sales
SAP Concur

Rating 4/5

Best For Travel, Expense and Invoice Management

SAP Concur is another great software to consider for your business travel and expense management. It is declared as a leader in the IDC market scape report for travel and expense management. Through this, you take control of all your spending that happens on a business trip. Duty of care is a legal obligation for every business to ensure the safety of their employees, so this software ensures a safe travel experience and helps you stay compliant with the laws.

SAP Concur

A well-drafted travel policy can save a huge chunk of your money by giving clear information on which expense is reimbursable and which is not. SAP Concur will help you to prepare the best travel policy that you can customize at any time.
Even when you book your ticket through a channel other than SAP Concur, it captures the details and helps you manage each and every expense. It also provides you with consolidated reports of each and every expense in a single dashboard.

Features of SAP Concur
- Triplink to capture the booking made outside of SAP Concur
- Easy travel compliance for employees
- Employees are empowered to book their ticket
- Speed up the request and approval process with Concur request
- ExpenseIT to simplify expense reporting
Pros:
- Availability of iOS and Android app
- Easy reimbursement
- Slack integration
Cons:
- Old and messy interface
- Price is not disclosed
- Cumbersome to audit expenses
Pricing:
- Contact sales
Expensify

Rating 4.4/5

Best For Expense Tracking

Expensify is the deserving candidate in our list of top travel tracking software because of its amazing features and huge customer base. Launched in the year 2008, it has served more than 12 million people worldwide. It is one of the companies in the world that has the highest revenue per employee.

Advanced features like Smart Scan have the ability to scan all receipts, streamlining the approval process and speeding up the reimbursement process. Since everything is in one streamlined process, it can integrate all of your business travel expenses into your favorite accounting software.

Expensify

Apart from all the basic features like expense management, bill payments, invoicing and travel management, it also offers the Expensify card which earns you up to 4% rewards on every purchase. 10% of the revenue earned on each Expensify card will be donated to Expensify’s charitable organization known as Expensify.org.

Features of Expensify
- Expensify Card
- Smart scan
- Notification alert and rebooking of other flights when the flight got cancelled
- Easy booking through chat with concierge
- Streamlined travel compliance
- Corporate card reconciliation
- Multiple approvers
- Advanced tax tracking
Pros:
- PCI-compliant security
- Delegated access
- Reasonable pricing
- User-friendly mobile app
Cons:
- No option to filter the expense list
- Difficult to add approves
- Smart scan fails sometimes
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Collect: $5/user/month
- Control: $9/user/month
Chromeriver

Rating 3.7/5

Best For Document-related Processes

Chomeriver is an end-to-end travel and expense management software that mitigates the hassle of managing corporate travel. It helps organizations automate and streamline their document-related processes, such as document creation, review, and approval. The platform also includes features for collaboration, document storage and management, and integration with other business systems and tools.

Chomeriver

The ACFE survey estimates that businesses lose 5% of revenue each year due to fraud and out-of-policy spending. Chromeriver automates compliance and expense management to save time and detect such frauds.

Features of Chromeriver
- Improved budgeting and forecasting
- Easy integration with any travel management company
- Real-time reporting of expenses
- Prioritized safety and awareness
- Seamless payment data tracking
- Availability of reimbursement card
Pros:
- Show progress of reimbursement
- Mileage tracking
- OCR capability
- Duty of care compliance
Cons:
- Pricing is not disclosed
- Not wholly dedicated to travel management
- Difficult to navigate UI
Pricing:
- Contact the support team for pricing
Emburse Certify

Rating 4.5/5

Best For Quick Approvals and Expense Reports

Emburse Certify is a software solution that makes travel and expense management, report and analytics, and reimbursement easy and efficient. Having a user base of more than 12 million and a presence in more than 120 countries, this software is trusted and offers all the necessary features to track travel expenses.

Empower your employee to travel without the headache of thinking much about trip planning because this software handles everything from start to end with full flexibility. You’ll find the best corporate rates for travel booking for flights, rail, hotel, and car rental.

Emburse Certify

Contact the support team anytime via chat, phone, or email and get your query solved immediately. With Certify, your employees are always in the compliance area of your corporate policy. You have full flexibility to modify the policy at any time and change will reflect in real-time.

Features of Emburse Certify
- Data autofill and report scanning
- Automated policy enforcement
- Full reporting suite with analytics
- Multiple user roles
- Control of approval routing‌‌
Pros:
- Available in 140+ currencies
- Credit card integration
- IOS and Android mobile app
Cons:
- A free trial is not available
- A lot of back and forth creates inconvenience
Pricing:
- Certify now: $12 /user/month
- Professional and Enterprise: Contact support
Conclusion

From planning a corporate trip to completing the entire trip, everything needs to be reported perfectly without missing anything. The above list of software helps in everything from travel booking to managing expenses easily, so choose the best one from the list and save a lot of time and resources in tracking travel expenses.

FAQs

What is Travel and Expense management software?

Travel and expense management or tracking software allows and provides users with a platform for planning, purchasing, and recording travel expenses. It also ensures employee work-related travel adheres to company policy.

How do you manage travel expenses?

Avoiding business class is one best practice that goes without saying, but here are some other ways you can reduce your air travel expenses:
- Book tickets in advance
- Don’t stick to one favourite booking website
- Partnering with airlines
- Reduce costs by scheduling meetings well
- Use Travel Expense Management software for tracking expenses
How to choose the best Travel Expense Tracking Software?

You should consider several factors before choosing the best travel expense tracking software for your business such as whether your employee is traveling more on roads or they travel more by air, for this make a list of priorities and features that you need in your software.

What are the best Travel Expense Tracking Software?

The following are the best travel and expense management software
- TripActions
- TravelBank
- TravelPerk
- Zoho expense
- Zoho expense
- Coupa
- SAP Concur
- Expensify
- Chromeriver
- Emburse Certify
January 4, 2023
A Complete Guide for Using Restaurant POS System

Are you planning to buy a restaurant POS or you’ve already bought one but want to know more about how to use it efficiently? Then you are at the right place. Here you will get an insightful overview of using the restaurant POS effectively.

POS has become an essential need of every restaurant business to perform its operation efficiently. Restaurateurs are heavily investing in this system. Since there are a lot of POS providers available in the market, you have the flexibility to choose the desired provider which best suits your needs.

How Does POS Help Restaurant Owners?
Ultimate Guide to Use Restaurant POS
Software and Hardware Requirements
Countertop POS Terminal
Handheld Device
KDS(Kitchen Display System)
Printer
Payment Terminal
Self-Service Kiosk
Menu Management
Creating a Floor Plan
Employee Management
Configuring POS Devices
Configuring KDS (Kitchen Display System)
Billing and Payment
Overview of Analytics and Reports
Loyalty and Marketing

How Does POS Help Restaurant Owners?

Restaurants have to go through some repetitive tasks, like taking orders from customers and sending them to the kitchen, then serving the prepared meal to customers, and finally billing and payments. You can easily manage this activity if you have a decent amount of customers, but the same situation becomes hectic and confusing when suddenly a restaurant becomes crowded.

No matter how efficient employees you have, the whole process of taking orders billing and pay becomes cumbersome when there is a crowd in your restaurant. So you need a system that simplifies the whole process and manages every situation seamlessly. Here comes the role of restaurant POS.

POS empowers your employee to take orders using handheld devices, and that order is directly sent to the kitchen and displayed on the kitchen display system(KDS). Once the customer is done with their meal and ready to pay, then they can easily make payment at the counter or at the table.

If a customer asks for the bill at the table, you can use your handheld POS device to generate the bill and take payment using cash or a card. Also, customers can pay the same bill at the counter because everything is interconnected. Apart from these basic services, restaurant POS also helps to manage your employees, run a loyalty program, look into the insight of your business via reports and analytics, online delivery, and much more.

So restaurant POS removes the burden of managing the customers and helps owners to focus on the different important things like business growth, inventory fulfilment, etc.

Ultimate Guide to Use Restaurant POS

There are so many POS providers that provide their software and hardware to manage restaurant operations. Some popular POS providers are Toast, Upserve, Square, Lavu, Micros, Harbortouch, Cake, Revel, Clover, and Touchbistro. You can consider any of the following to boost your restaurant business. Now let’s proceed further with our guide to using restaurant POS. This guide is more familiar to square POS but it is quite common in all POS providers.

Software and Hardware Requirements

Restaurant POS is a combination of software and hardware that smoothen the process of running a business. So before proceeding further to understand the software part, let’s have a quick overview of essential hardware components in the restaurant POS.

Countertop POS Terminal

You can put this POS terminal at your counter to monitor and manage everything regarding your POS system. Some POS providers provide their terminal hardware while some use iPads to work as a terminal. POS Software works perfectly fine on this terminal and you can easily manage the devices in your restaurants, payments, billing, and everything.

Handheld Device

The handheld device is used to serve the customers at their tables, this device is equipped with features like taking orders, billing and payments. You can also split the bill as per the customer’s request based on the item ordered. Since everything is interconnected with each other all the orders are sent to KDS in no time.

KDS(Kitchen Display System)

A kitchen display system (KDS) is a digital screen that is placed in the kitchen which gives order information to the chef. Every order that is created, whether through a handheld device, self-service kiosk, or at the counter, is seamlessly synced with the KDS in real-time. It replaces the traditional paper order ticket which was difficult to modify.

Printer

I’m sure you are aware of the functionality of a printer. In the POS system, it is used to print the receipt of the bill. It is directly connected to the POS terminal or through the wifi, for printing.

Payment Terminal

A payment terminal is a device used to receive payment via debit or credit card. It is mostly used at the counter. The handheld device comes with an integrated payment mechanism to collect payments at the table.

Self-Service Kiosk

Self-service Kiosk is a great tool to reduce the workload of your employees. This is a kind of machine attached to the restaurant that empowers the customers to make orders and payments. Since this is also connected to your POS, every device is synced with the order and payment details in real time.

Menu Management

Once you have your software and hardware from your POS provider, now it’s time to configure your menu. After logging into your account, you need to add the food items after clicking on the tab “menu”. There are a lot of options and modifiers available to configure the menu effectively. You can also customize your menu based on how it will look in the POS layout.

Modifiers in the menu help you to add extra information like item size and preferences. Customers can easily order any food item based on what size and elements they need in the dish.

Creating a Floor Plan

The floor plan is basically a layout of the tables in your restaurants. You can create a floor plan for your restaurant and assign the table number to each table. Tables may be of different sizes, shapes, and dimensions, you can create your table layout easily with drag and drop. This floor plan helps you identify which table is booked, which is vacant, what is the order and bill amount, and whether the bill is paid or not.

Employee Management

Now you need to add the team member to the POS software. You can assign their roles and permissions, which can be administrator, bartender, cashier, accountant, etc. While adding the team member to your POS, you also need to assign the passcode for each employee. This passcode will be used while assigning the device to the employees.

Configuring POS Devices

Setting up the POS device is very easy, you only need to click on devices and then click on add a POS device. It will provide you with the device code which is used to connect the device with software. The app of the POS provider should be installed on your device to configure it. In Square POS, you can use your iPad to connect with software by installing the Square app and then entering the device code.

If you want to connect the handheld device, then simply add this device code to your device. After adding the device code, you might need to configure some basic device settings, and then you need to enter your employee passcode which you’ve created while adding an employee to the POS. Once you log in to your handheld device you can see your floor plan and menus, which you’ve created. Now your device is ready to take orders.

Configuring KDS (Kitchen Display System)

Just like you’ve added a POS device, you can also add KDS to your software. You need a KDS device code to access the KDS, the device code is generated once you add a new KDS device to your software.

Use your device code to log in to the KDS and view the orders. Manage each order from your kitchen and mark the order based on its status. If the food item is ready, then click the food item, and if the whole order is ready then click the order to change the status to completed.

You can play with other settings and gauge the appropriate setting that suits your needs. Configure the KDS to show the urgent order in red color and similarly other orders in different colors. Whenever an order is placed it will automatically pop-ups on the KDS.

Billing and Payment

Once the customer is done with their meal and asks for the bill, create a bill in a single click with your handheld device and take payment at the table. Customers can also visit the counter for billing and payments because everything is interconnected with POS software.

The handheld device comes with an integrated payment mechanism to collect payments, this device may differ from provider to provider. Since billing and payment is the most important aspect of POS, it is found in every POS, no matter which provider you choose.

Overview of Analytics and Reports

Within the dashboard of your POS software, you’ll find Analytics and reports. This report provides insights and figures on sales, inventory, labor, and much more. Various filters you can use to analyze the report more efficiently and accurately.

The clear and concise stats of your restaurant business will help you to make data-driven decisions. You can easily identify the best-selling item in your restaurant, whether promos and discounts are working or not, employee performance, the payment received, profit margin, and much more.

Loyalty and Marketing

The loyalty program feature for the POS software is just amazing, it empowers you to create loyal fans for your restaurant. You can create a loyalty program through the POS software and set the rewards that customers will get after the completion of certain tasks. Like if a customer signs up for the loyalty reward, he will get certain points, and if he spends a certain amount in the restaurant, he will get cashback. Points can be redeemed for future purchases.

Creating an email marketing campaign is just another great feature to use. You can send a customized email to your subscribers and keep them engaged with your business through discounts, offers, and cash backs. There are a lot of options available in loyalty and marketing that you can easily configure according to your need.

Conclusion

The POS system is a great tool to handle your restaurant and you become familiar with the interface of the software, once you start regularly using it. But when you are just starting, then this comprehensive guide will help you to understand the hardware and basic features of the software.‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌

FAQ

What is a Restaurant POS System?

A restaurant POS system is software that helps restaurants to manage their business and it includes features such as inventory, menu management, guest tracking and floor management.

How does a POS System help Restaurants?

A restaurant POS manage all of the business operations and it POS simplifies restaurant processes, from order entry to payment and reduces errors. It captures data to maintain inventory and revenue numbers in real time and generates reports to manage the business.

How to choose the right restaurant POS system?

The best restaurant POS system depends on a variety of factors but the most important is what kind of your restaurant is and the features you need in your POS system to manage and scale your business.

What is the best POS System for restaurants?

The best POS system for restaurants must include features like good third-party integrations for smooth delivery, pickup, and tracking of customer reservations, menu management, customizable layouts and strong reporting capabilities.

December 29, 2022
7 Ways to Automate Customer Service | Pros & Cons of Automated Customer Service System
Automation is the term that seems to fit in almost every work situation these days. In this fast pacing time, it is important for people and businesses to automate as much of their work as possible. This not only saves time and energy but also makes the processes more efficient.

When it comes to customer service, some businesses view it as a necessary evil, while others see it as an opportunity to stand out from the competition. Whether you fall into the former or latter category, there’s no denying that automating your customer service can save your business time and money.

For example- Chatbots are a great way to automate customer service as it provides the customers with instant responses 24/7. In the case of the airline industry, customers can look for all the flight information, find the best option, and book a ticket with the help of chatbots. In this way, customers get to have all the necessary details in an easy conversation.

What is customer service automation?

Seven Ways to Automate Customer Service Process
Pros of Automating Customer Service Process
Cons of Automating Customer Service Process

Seven Ways to Automate Customer Service Process

There are a number of ways to automate your customer service. One of the most popular is to use a chatbot. Chatbots are computer programs that can mimic human conversation. They can be used to answer common questions and help direct customers to the right resources. One can also automate customer service using an interactive voice response system. This allows customers to get the information they need without having to speak to a live agent.

The following are the seven ways to automate your customer service process:

How do customers perceive chatbots?

Automate Customer Service Processes with a Chatbot

A chatbot can help you automate customer service by providing answers to common questions, routing customers to the right support agent, and even handling simple tasks like scheduling appointments or placing orders. You can create a chatbot using a chatbot platform like Chatfuel or Botpress, or you can use a chatbot builder like Manychat to create a chatbot without any coding.

Use an AI-Powered Live Chat Tool

An AI-powered live chat tool can help you automate customer service by providing instant answers to common questions, routing customers to the right support agent, and even handling simple tasks like scheduling appointments or placing orders. Live chat tools that use AI include Zendesk, Drift, Intercom, etc.

Take Advantage of Automation Tools

One can always take advantage of automation tools. For example- Zapier is an automation tool that lets you connect different apps and automate tasks between them. You could use this tool to automatically add new contacts from your CRM to your live chat tool or to send a follow-up email after a customer support conversation automatically.

Top 7 Customer Retention Tools to Help You Retain Customers

It is crucial for any business to retain its customers for long. Popular customer retention tools include Amplitude, Zendesk, Qualaroo, and more.

StartupTalkyMarlene Ann Anthony

Implement an E-commerce CRM

An e-commerce CRM can help you automate customer service by providing a central place to manage all your customers’ data, contact information, and support conversations. Plus, e-commerce CRM tools can automate tasks like shipping and order tracking, making it easy to keep your customers updated on the status of their orders.

Popular e-commerce CRMs include:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Magento.
Best Hosting Provider For Ecommerce 2022

Hosting providers serves website for eCommerce stores. The best eCommerce hosting providers are HostGator, Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger, etc.

StartupTalkySubhajit Mitra

Use a Help Desk Ticketing System

A help desk ticketing system can help you automate customer service by organizing and tracking all your customer support conversations in one place. A help desk ticketing system can also automate tasks like assigning tickets to the right support agent and sending notifications when a ticket is updated. Popular help desk ticketing systems include Zendesk, Freshdesk, Zohodesk, and Help Scout.

Use Social Media Automation Tools

Social media automation tools can help you automate customer service by posting updates, responding to comments and messages, and even monitoring for keywords and hashtags. Automated customer service on social media can help you stay connected with your customers and resolve issues quickly.

Social media automation tools include:
- Hootsuite
- Buffer
- Sprout Social.
Automate Your Customer Service Reporting

Zendesk Insights

Customer service reporting can be time-consuming, but tracking metrics like customer satisfaction and first-contact resolution are important. Automating your customer service reporting can help you save time by always generating reports on a schedule to have the latest data. Reporting tools that can automate customer service reporting include Zendesk Insights and Helpshift Analytics.

Pros of Automating Customer Service Process

73% of customers consider good Customer service Experience is the key factor in Brand Loyalty

The customer service process is extremely important and automating it can be really effective for a whole lot of businesses. The following points show the pros of it:
- One of the pros of automating your customer service process is that it helps to improve efficiency and productivity within your organization.
- By automating certain tasks, you can free up your staff to focus on important tasks that require more attention.
- Another advantage is that it can help improve the quality of your customer service by ensuring that tasks are completed correctly and in a timely manner.
- It can also help to reduce the overall cost of your customer service operation by eliminating the need for manual labor.
- Finally, automating your customer service process can help improve your customers’ overall satisfaction by providing them with a more efficient and effective customer service experience.
Social Media Customer Service: Best Tricks and Tips

Social Media Customer Service is helpful to build a strong brand image. Learn how it’s helpful and How to plan Social Media Customer Support.

StartupTalkyJhalak Mogra

Cons of Automating Customer Service Process

Automated customer service definitely ups the game for many businesses, but it might just not be the perfect thing for others. The following are some of the disadvantages of automating your customer service process:
- One of the potential drawbacks of automating your customer service process is that it can lead to a more impersonal experience for your customers. Automation might not be the right solution if your goal is to create a more personal relationship with your customers.
- Another potential drawback is that automated systems can sometimes be less reliable than human customer service representatives. If your system goes down, or if there are technical issues, your customers will not be able to get the help they need.
- Automated systems can also be more expensive to set up and maintain than traditional customer service solutions. If you are on a tight budget, then automation might not be the right choice for you.
- Finally, automated systems can sometimes give customers the impression that they are talking to a machine rather than a real person. This can lead to frustration and even cause some customers to take their business elsewhere.
If you consider automating your customer service process, carefully weigh the pros and cons. Automation can offer many benefits, but it is not right for every business. Make sure to consider all of the potential drawbacks before making a decision.

Conclusion

Automating your customer service can provide a better experience for your customers while freeing up your team to work on more important tasks. However, in some cases, automation might just not be the right thing for some businesses. The above-mentioned are some of the most important points that will guide you to automate your customer service process.

FAQs

Can customer services be automated?

Yes, it can be automated. More businesses are now keener to automate customer services as it improves customer experience and employee satisfaction.

What are automated reporting tools used for?

Automated reporting tools are used by professionals to make and share organizational reports at particular intervals without updating the information each time.

Which are the top software to automate customer service?

The Best tools to automate customer service are:
- Zendesk
- Freshdesk
- HelpScout
- Agile CRM
- Groove
- Zoho Desk
What is a help desk ticketing system?

A help desk ticketing system is software used by customer support teams. It is used to create, maintain, and manage lists of customers’ problems.

What are examples of automated customer service system?

Some examples of automated customer service system are:
- Self-service portals
- Standardized email replies
- Live chat and Chatbots
- Virtual Assistant
- Ticketing tool to assign tickets to the relevant team
November 30, 2022