With the digitalization of goods and services increasing, customers have become more demanding than ever. The customer relations industry has evolved accordingly, digitizing, for example, some of their interactions with customers both before and after a sale. E-mail has advanced this digitization and currently is a key contributor to the range of marketing tools available. Many may find creating and responding to emails to be quite a time-consuming task. However, with an automation tool like Odoo, emails become less daunting and regain their efficiency in the workplace.
E-mail has always been a key tool used in pre-sales, sales and during administrative follow-ups . It is an efficient way to raise awareness of your services and offers, or track communication. It can also be used to check a prospect's maturity and gauge the appropriate time to send a commercial proposal and close the deal. It is also traditionally used for sales administration functions such as sending reminders for unpaid invoices or unsigned quotations and purchase orders... Once a quote has been signed, or a product or service has been delivered, email becomes a great way to assess customer satisfaction and use their feedback to improve customer experience.
Within the company itself, e-mail is essential for improved collaboration regarding customer follow-ups. But.... Because of course, there is a but. Sending e-mails can be quite time-consuming.
E-mail: A powerful customer relations tool, but time-consuming
Using e-mail also has its disadvantages let's take over-saturated mailboxes for one. The sheer volume of emails constantly grows, making it difficult to follow up with clients in a timely matter, especially in large companies. It is estimated that in France, an executive receives an average of 88 messages per day, spending the equivalent of more than 5 hours per day on their email. And this data does not take into account the actual time spent on creating and sending e-mails manually!
Add value with e-mail automation
In this context, using an e-mail automation solution is essential. An ERP like Odoo has many advantages for those in the customer relations field. It is particularly beneficial for sales managers. 92% of them consider that customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of their job. However, 35% of them do not find the time to handle customer relations, due to their time being spent processing manual tasks (orders, customer invoices, etc.).
One way Odoo saves time for sales teams is by automating pre-written reminders for unpaid invoices. These automatic reminders are fully customizable and adapt to each company's specifications. The reminder method (e-mail, mail, telephone) is customizable. and the frequency and the time between each message can be adjusted as well.
Odoo automation: marketing, customer relationships and sales
Odoo's marketing automation module is very useful for sales teams. The workflow is automated based on pre-set configurations defined by the sales or marketing manager. Each workflow defines what email messages should be sent and to which target. The email workflow will also specify the calendar schedule and recurrence. Marketing automation helps familiarize prospects with company offerings and eventually converts them into leads. In addition, Odoo allows you to set up different alerts that prompt sales representatives to contact high-priority leads based on the settings entered in the marketing automation tool (for example, resource downloads or cart abandonment).
The automation provided by Odoo encourages companies to continue elevating customer experience even after the sale is made. For example, the signing of a sale can be a great time to send an automated thank you or welcome email. A few weeks later, this action can be followed up with a satisfaction survey to further strengthen the relationship or find areas for improvement.
Odoo automation: Greater financial ROI and happy customers
Odoo's e-mail automation has multiple benefits. The first being its ability to improve payment rates which contributes directly to cash flow quality and health of the company. Beyond purely financial ROI, e-mail automation contributes to overall customer satisfaction. By multiplying the points of contact with customers, especially if they are a source of added value for the customer, email automation actively plays into building customer loyalty. Because each customer is also a potential advocate for your product or services, the use of email automation can help establish a powerful cycle that feeds into the sales pipeline and improves conversion rates.
As powerful as Odoo is, it can't replace the value of human relationships. Yet at the same time, it helps reach out to active customers at the right time and in the most engaging ways.
In addition to being an Odoo Gold Partner Captivea has been integrating Odoo for several years and has a solid knowledge of the software. This makes us the perfect partner for supporting your Odoo project.