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6 Ways Email Automation Can Elevate Your Customer Support
Enhance your customer support with personalization, consistency and feedback.
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Customer support is a frequently neglected part of the sales cycle, but it’s vital to a company’s long-term success. With the increasing reliance on electronic communications, email automation is a must for large and small companies that want to keep their customers happy.
While email marketing campaigns can help you grow your business, automating your email communications can also improve customer support, streamline messaging and reduce the demands on your customer service team. It’s a win-win for customers and your business. We’ll explain how to improve customer service with email automation and share examples of effective automated email sequences.
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What is email automation?
Email automation is a broad term for any program, application, add-on or system that leverages technology to improve email sending, retrieval and storage. It typically includes triggered emails sent automatically under specific conditions.
Email automation also incorporates email analytics to help companies pinpoint and fine-tune their marketing efforts. By evaluating how prospects and customers react to automated emails — do they open the emails and click the links? — companies can improve their electronic communications.
Nicole Magelssen, CEO of Alpine Virtual, emphasized that, contrary to what the term “automated” implies, automated email marketing and communications shouldn’t be cold and robotic. “You can use automated emails as your first line of communication,” Magelssen said. “Use them to help set expectations, provide instant support, and keep customers in the loop.”
Magelssen highlighted the benefits of automating customer support emails specifically. “They build trust with customers, improve retention, and make your customers feel heard,” Magelssen said. “That’s the goal of customer service.”
When done correctly, email automation should result in a more personalized support experience for the customer. “This is huge for your customer’s experience because they are not waiting for hours (or days) for a response,” Magelssen said. “You also aren’t going crazy trying to stay on top of every email that comes through.”
6 email automation tips to enhance customer support
Fortunately, automating customer support emails is straightforward. Here are some tips for using email automation technologies to boost customer satisfaction with timely, relevant service.
1. Personalize outgoing automated customer service emails.
Mail merge is an essential function of automated email support. The best customer relationship management (CRM) software integrates with email marketing platforms, allowing you to automatically embed a client’s name and company information into an email to personalize your customer support messages.
However, personalization goes far beyond including a name. Your CRM software records information about product features that may interest a potential client. You can use that information to create an automated email flow with targeted messages that incorporate those features and proactively provide detailed support with information they may need.
Rachel Durkan, president and founder of Paradigm Marketing and Design, noted that personalized support emails also enhance trust, retention and customer loyalty. “Specifically, immediate responses and clear expectations build trust,” Durkan said.
2. Provide consistency with email templates.
When responding to support requests, your tech support team likely wastes time and energy writing new emails for each customer’s issue or experience. However, many customers encounter the same issues or have questions about similar features or situations. To streamline your tech team’s efforts, use prewritten email templates to ensure every customer gets the same high-level answers to their questions.
Durkan cautioned that “consistent” and “prewritten” don’t have to mean impersonal. “Avoid impersonal or generic messages,” Durkan advised. “Instead, use customer names and relevant details instead of broad, robotic responses.”
3. Gather feedback with embedded polls and surveys.
Durkan advised businesses to learn what their customers really think by embedding a poll or survey into an email. “Follow up after a service or product purchase with a satisfaction survey or feedback request,” Durkan suggested.
Instead of outbound Net Promoter Score links, in-email polls can be an excellent way to gather customer feedback. In-email surveys are a convenient and easy way for customers to share their experiences, and they help your business collect voluntarily provided survey data to improve customer service and refine your products.
This strategy provides valuable information about customers’ opinions and how your product is perceived in the marketplace. It also allows you to address potential problems before they become complaints or negative reviews.
4. Schedule customer support emails to send later.
Scheduling emails is a significant advantage for salespeople, support staff and business owners. Let’s say you have a small business with a remote work plan, and team members work at various times. However, you want to give the impression of a traditional company with regular hours while still serving your customers’ needs when they arise.
Scheduling emails to be sent at specific times can help. For example, employees who work at 10 p.m. can follow up on emails and schedule other emails to go out first thing in the morning.
5. Integrate email communications with other systems.
In addition to CRM integrations, you can integrate your email communications with Google Calendar, Dropbox, X (formerly Twitter), GitHub and more. You can also connect emails with tweets or include attachments from your cloud storage service. This functionality makes email faster and more convenient and results in quicker customer responses.
6. Automate responses to common customer questions.
Every business receives frequent customer inquiries, such as, “What is your return policy?” or “How fast will I receive my item?” Instead of having your customer service team answer these questions repeatedly, use automated email triggers to deliver the right information at the right time.
For example, consider these scenarios:
- After a customer purchases a product, send an automated email with shipping timelines and your company’s return policies.
- If a customer submits a support request, send an automated email with a link to your online knowledge base, community forum or troubleshooting guide.
Automated proactive emails reduce support volume so your team has more time to focus on complex issues.
Examples of good automated emails for customer service
The following example offers a personalized touch that allows you to address the customer directly. This email also provides business hours to let the customer know when they can expect a response.
Subject: We’ve received your message
Hi, [insert name]. Thank you for reaching out. We received your email and will get back to you as soon as possible. Our regular business hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.
The following email lets the recipient know that you’re working on the issue and that they can expect a reply soon. It also offers an expedited way to contact your business if the issue can’t wait.
Subject: We’re on it!
Hi there. We are reviewing your message and will get back to you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, feel free to contact us by phone to speak directly with one of our associates.
Benefits of email automation
Email automation offers the following noteworthy customer service benefits for businesses and customers:
- Email automation saves time and drives sales. Email automation helps you convert leads into customers more efficiently. Your business can stay connected with potential buyers, thus strengthening relationships while freeing employees to focus on higher-priority tasks.
- Email automation enables personalized communication. Personalizing your customer communications is an excellent way to increase engagement and click-through rates (CTR). Companies that personalize communications often see higher engagement because customers find tailored messages more relevant and compelling.
- Email automation helps you develop a deeper understanding of customers. Email automation helps you learn more about your customers and gain a better understanding of their interests. By observing which links recipients engage with, you can determine which communication and messaging strategies are worth pursuing and which aren’t delivering a strong digital marketing ROI.
- Email automation helps you nurture relationships with existing customers. Although marketing often focuses on attracting new customers, it’s crucial to leverage your existing customer base as a potential revenue stream. With email automation, you can easily retain current customers — and reactivate stagnant ones — by sending emails with incentives, surveys and loyalty program offers.
Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article.
