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10 Tips for Turning One-Time Shoppers into Loyal Customers and Help Boost Your Sales

10 Tips for Turning One-Time Shoppers into Loyal Customers and Help Boost Your Sales
Mohab Customer Experience, Guest Posts 0

Any business thrives on its loyal customers. Most big ecommerce brands attempt some kind of loyalty program that keeps people coming back. Nearly every B2B company has a small number of key accounts bringing in most of the revenue. 

If you don’t have that stable of repeat buyers, you’re missing out. Not only do you lack that consistent source of revenue, but it might also suggest you’re not doing enough to earn those loyal customers.

Work from home platforms have changed the world and people are shopping online more than ever, too. This is a great time to be in ecommerce. With people more willing to buy online, customer acquisition costs should be falling. When you know how to turn those first-time buyers into brand evangelists, the opportunity is huge.

But how can you do that? Let’s go over ten tips you can use to turn first-time buyers into loyal customers.

10 Tips for Turning One-Time Shoppers into Loyal Customers and Help Boost Your SalesImage source

What is customer loyalty?

We should make a distinction between “repeat buyers” and “loyal customers”. Repeat buyers will come back to you again and again when you announce new products or seasonal offers –  you have their number and you don’t need to sell them hard on new campaigns.

Loyal customers are fully-engaged brand evangelists. They splashed out on a Peak Design backpack once and now they wouldn’t consider anyone else’s. They won’t buy a computer that doesn’t have an apple on it. In a B2B context, these would be the key accounts that the sales team knows on a first-name basis.

Not only are these the most financially valuable customers, but they’re also the core audience which the business should work to serve. What’s good for your most engaged customers, is good for the rest of them, and what’s good for them is good for the business. Listen closely to your most loyal customers, and you can’t go wrong.

You’d be lucky to turn even a small proportion of your customers into loyal customers. However, the benefit of trying to convert as many people as you can is that these loyal customers can become brand evangelists who’ll do your marketing for you. If they spend a lifetime recommending your product to everyone they talk to, your customer acquisition costs trend a little bit closer to zero.

With some simple incentives and easy-to-use referral tracking software, you can encourage and reward brand evangelists without the work of running a whole affiliate program.

How, though, do you inspire loyalty from one-time shoppers? Here’s ten top tips:

1. Use email

Most ecommerce companies are collecting customer emails to send receipts and to get in contact if something goes wrong in the shipping process. But how many of those companies are using that email to build a relationship with those customers?

Many companies don’t go beyond simple, transactional emails with titles like “Get 10% off now”. Consider how you could email more “brand marketing” content like short blogs or articles on the way you do things, and what makes you different from your competitors.

Think about what a dedicated email flow for that would look like – how you should introduce yourself to first-time buyers once they’ve ordered, and what you think they need to know about who you are. You can iterate and A/B test that flow until you get it exactly right, just like any other marketing effort.

You can also weave your brand story into those transactional emails. If you add a little bit of that messaging into your order confirmation email, customers will be seeing it every time they buy from you.

2. Create great experiences

People aren’t going to become loyal customers unless you provide a great experience. It’s why Apple put so much effort into their Apple Stores, from the staff who are paid to focus on educating customers rather than selling, to the cash registers and cables hidden inside the tables.

For an online store, creating a great experience means conducting a mobile usability test on all platforms like iOS, Android, etc. If you want to turn a first-time buyer into a loyal customer, you have to make sure everyone’s first impression of your site is flawless.

And it doesn’t stop there. When your customer gets their package delivered, make sure this is a great experience too. Sending your products in nice, branded packaging is just the start. Think about the whole experience.

Make sure you’re providing any helpful information the customer might need. Track the delivery and as soon as they receive it, send them an email or SMS with a friendly message and a link to useful pages on your site.10 Tips for Turning One-Time Shoppers into Loyal Customers and Help Boost Your Sales

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3. Offer discounts

Discounts are a tried and true tactic for boosting sales in ecommerce. It’s also very easy to personalize those discounts to specific customers. Every positive interaction a buyer has with your brand is an opportunity to turn them into a repeat customer, so you want to encourage as many of those interactions as possible.

4. Be proactive

Proactively following up with customers is a big part of customer care. If you wait until there’s a problem and the customer comes to you, then their only interactions with you will be when there’s something wrong. Over time, that builds up negative associations with you and your brand.

When your customer receives a tracked delivery, you could send them an email a few days later asking how the product is and if they have any comments or questions.

As well as building relationships with customers, this is a great way to gather data you can use to improve your product or service. More simply, it’s a great way to catch a product issue or computer bug that you might not notice in QA.

5. Exceed expectations

From internet service to energy providers, people are used to a poor level of customer service, especially over the phone. By exceeding expectations in every interaction, from your online store to customer service, you can surprise and delight users whether it’s via a customer support chat or in a virtual healthcare waiting room.

6. Use a loyalty program

A customer loyalty program won’t turn visitors into brand evangelists, but it can turn one-time buyers into repeat customers. That repeated exposure to your company gives you more opportunities to build up brand recognition and turn repeat buyers into loyal customers.

You can also use the loyalty program to offer a more personalized service. This could take the form of discounts on customers’ birthdays or other personalized offers based on their buying activity.

7. Use retargeting ads

Retail is a seasonal business, and for ecommerce stores, there’s a lot of value in turning seasonal buyers into repeat customers. Retargeted ads on social media can follow those users around Facebook and Instagram based on what they’ve done in your app, allowing you to get them back onto your site for a second or third time. Retargeting reduces the cart abandonment rate by 6.5% and can increase online sales by up to 20%.

10 Tips for Turning One-Time Shoppers into Loyal Customers and Help Boost Your Sales

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8. Leverage seasonal marketing

When you do have a seasonal peak, one with an influx of new customers, it’s an opportunity to turn people into repeat customers. Seasonal marketing strategies like limited-time discounts and special offers for your loyalty program can help make repeat buyers of people who have bought from you before.

You can think of your first-time-buyer-to-loyal-customer pipeline like any other marketing funnel. Once you have your “bottom of the funnel” activities figured out, you can focus your seasonal marketing on attracting new first-time buyers knowing you’ll convert a number of them to repeat buyers in the future.

9. Use data

To turn your one-time buyers into loyal customers, you need to understand them. And you can’t understand your customers at scale without good data.

One of the reasons why a mobile app is a must have for small businesses is that you can collect more detailed data on the way customers interact with you.

Whether you’re an ecommerce giant or a small coffee chain collecting people’s favorite orders, even a relatively simple app can give you valuable data while improving the customer experience.10 Tips for Turning One-Time Shoppers into Loyal Customers and Help Boost Your Sales

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10. Make it personal

Personalization is one of the most powerful ways you can create memorable experiences for your customers, with 90% of consumers surveyed finding marketing personalization appealing.

One of the advantages of an ecommerce mobile app for your online store is that you can offer a high degree of personalization, from recommended products to push notifications on offers you know they’ll be interested in.

Personalized experiences could be as simple as recommending products you think they’d like. You can also use your marketing emails or mobile app notifications to send them offers you think they’d like at the time they’re most likely to buy.

Using the customer loyalty funnel to boost sales

With a combination of some of these ten tips, you can start to turn more of your one-time buyers into loyal customers. Just like any other marketing funnel you can learn from your successes, double down on what works, and use this knowledge to boost your sales in the long run.

Matt CooperMatthew Cooper – Marketing Automation & Operations Manager, Global App Testing
Matthew Cooper is the Marketing Automation & Operations Manager at Global App Testing, a best-in-class software testing company that has helped top apps such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Craigslist deliver high-quality software at speed all over the world. Matthew has over 14 years of experience in the I.T Networking, Software & Services Industries. He is highly skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Marketing, Digital Advertising, Social Media Management, WordPress, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, CRM, and People Management. You can find him on LinkedIn. He has also written content for DZone and BigCommerce.

3 years ago
9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales
Mohab Growth Hacks, Guest Posts 0

9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales

In the internet age, effectively growing awareness of your online presence and converting leads into sales is crucial to your business’ success. It is not enough to simply be online and offer products – you want to be selling them. This is where ecommerce growth hacks come in. 

Growth hacks are cost-effective and low-resource marketing tactics to rapidly grow a business, using rapid experimentation and regular testing to improve the customer experience. 

Growth hacking used to be the exclusive domain of early-stage startups. Startups are often in the challenging position of having to achieve rapid growth on a tight timeline and an even tighter budget, leaving them unable to resort to traditional marketing. However, nowadays even the biggest companies have started exploring the utility and relevance of growth hacks for their business models.

To truly maximize your online sales and success, you should consider implementing ecommerce growth hacks into your business strategy.

When integrating growth hacks into your organization, make sure to also consider how well your online presence functions more generally – is it working securely and as intended? You’ll want your IT team to be able to create efficient bug reports in software testing for your platforms to run as smoothly as possible. 

There are a plethora of growth hacks out there, but it’s hard to know where to start – or which to prioritize. This article will help you to get a start in your own organization with nine straightforward and actionable growth hacks that will boost your sales. 

1. FOMO & the power of urgency

The customer’s journey is time-sensitive. Customers only have so much time to spend looking for products, and unless it’s a truly urgent purchase they will browse and compare at their own leisure. 

For this potential customer to choose your product or service and choose it as soon as possible, you need to present them with an enticing offer, that they know they need to jump on quickly. This is where FOMO, or the ‘fear of missing out’, comes in. 

FOMO, is a social phenomenon that, as the name implies, can prompt quick decision making for fear of missing out. Use it sparingly – too often and your buyer will learn they can simply wait for your next limited time offer – and you can create a sense of urgency in your prospective customer.

9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales

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Utilize ‘limited time offer’ pop-up ads on your website, and send out email campaigns to your subscribers emphasizing the scarcity of supply and limited time they have left to pick up this deal. 

2. Popularity & peer pressure

Closely related to FOMO, you should also utilize the psychology of popularity. Your buyers are human, and humans are social creatures – we care about and take note of what our peers do. If a product is selling out quickly, it appears popular and thus attractive: ‘lots of people have/want this, maybe I need it too!’ 

The value of a product is increased in the eyes of the potential customer because they can see it is valued by their peers. This influences the potential buyer’s desire to make a purchase while they have the chance.

You need to give your potential buyer to see a product’s popularity linked to a sense of scarcity. Again, use these methods sparingly, but you might consider implementing things like a real-time stock counter for items you want to emphasize as limited. You might also include product reviews to emphasize quality, and might even highlight how many people purchased that particular item within the last hour. 

Once those customers are inevitably enticed to make the purchase, you’ll also want to have a robust online payment gateway in place.

3. Reward Programmes – giving them a reason to come back

Rewarding a customer’s loyalty and continued business is a simple yet extremely effective growth hack. You want to keep your customer invested in your brand. After all, if they see exclusive rewards for repeat business, why would they go elsewhere where they’d have to build a new relationship? 

If a customer trusts in your brand and feels that they are valued, they will come back for more. 

If a customer visits a set number of pages, or a particular page or product, perhaps offer them a discount. Better yet, incorporate an email sign-up where they can join your subscription list, offering them something like a % discount for their first or subsequent orders. 

Here’s an example from popular clothing brand AllSaints:

9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales

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You don’t have to offer discounts constantly for these reward programmes to do the trick. Even the occasional offer will incentivise a customer to return. 

Use this sparingly. After all, if the discounts are constant, customers will never even have the opportunity to pay full price. 

4. Mobile apps – always with the consumer on the go

Mobile apps are great, aren’t they? Easily within reach, accessible to everyone with a smartphone – 85% of US adults as of 2021. And that number is only increasing.

People love their phones, they love the apps on them, and they love to spend money on those apps. Global app revenue has climbed 15% year-over-year in Q3 2021 to nearly $34 billion. That’s an incredible increase! There is global opportunity here, that you need to have the means to engage with.

9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales

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Creating a mobile app that is specifically optimized for mobile users will ensure the best possible experience for your potential customers who are always on the go. There are numerous advantages of ecommerce mobile apps that you need to be utilizing right now.

With that in mind, you don’t want pop-ups too small to read or click – make sure that the UI (user interface) is as easy to read and understand as possible. Customer experience is essential to gain the benefits of an app. In order to incentivise app use, consider offering exclusive discounts or products only available to the app user. 

If you’re struggling or want to know more about the software, there are always QA conferences ongoing globally.

5. Cart abandonment – how to handle

This is a big one. Cart abandonment is a big issue felt especially on mobile devices, where up to 85% of purchases on a cell phone are abandoned at cart.

Potential customers can get distracted or put off, even at as late a stage in the customer’s journey as adding a specific product to their cart. You want to avoid and minimize this distraction and incentivise their making a purchase as much as possible. 

Shipping fees are a major reason for a buyer to be put off at the last second. Consider offering free shipping to entice those customers to finalize their purchase. Remember also to scale discounts or incentives accordingly. 

Free shipping is great for buyers who don’t meet the minimum threshold, but is useless to those who do. For these customers, consider offering upgraded shipping that will deliver what they considered purchasing sooner.

You should be using critical features like network monitoring to make sure that everything is working as intended; a smooth service will also reduce cart abandonment.

6. Live chat – hey, I’m talkin’ here

Nobody wants to spend ages looking for answers to their questions. If info about your product or service isn’t easily accessible, consider adding a live chat feature. This gives the potential customer the chance to communicate in real-time, getting answers for their specific questions and issues in a responsive and tailored way. 

Live chat is a conversation, and feels much more engaging and high-effort than something like a simple FAQ section. This makes the customer feel valued, which in turn increases the customer’s time spent on your online site and positively impacts customer satisfaction, loyalty and conversion rates. Software QA companies are a great way to monitor the success and impact of this feature.  

7. Minimalism & optimisation – less is more

Simplification and streamlining are enormously beneficial growth hacks to boost sales. 

What do we mean by this? Consider the UI of a theoretical online site. There might be buttons everywhere, redirections and just too much information in the customer’s face. It is likely all these redirects contain important info and features for the potential customer, but they also present something you want to avoid at all costs – distraction. 

Constant suggestion, too many options can overwhelm, so keep it simple. A single ‘proceed to checkout’ button will suffice, instead of overloading the customer with options like ‘empty basket’ or redirecting them to another page. 

Here’s how the ecommerce juggernaut Amazon approaches things: 

9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales
I typed in ‘T-shirts’, and added the first item from my search to my basket. I was brought to this page, with simple next steps and related products. I have only the necessary info, and don’t feel overwhelmed with ads or overly pressured – less is more. 

Be careful too not to inundate with options to sign up to email lists – you don’t want to appear desperate or overly promotional. If you like what you see from Amazon, know also that you can use fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to utilize their efficient system to get your orders filled fast.

8. Competitions and giveaways – give and you shall receive 

Competitions are a win-win. If you do a giveaway, someone will win – that’s great for them.  But in the process, you could win many, many new leads – that’s great for you.

This is a pretty straightforward hack. You garner interest, publicity, and incentivize potential customers by making them aware that you have products and/or services that they could win, completely free of charge.

Giveaways can be used to sign people up to your email campaigns or to tag their friends in social media posts thus generating more publicity. Giveaways get them to follow your page, exposing them to more of what you have to offer to them, and lead to sales and positive reviews. 

Expanding your reach is essential to boosting sales, and competitions are a great way to do so. If you haven’t tried one, now’s the time to give giveaways a shot. 

9. Consistency is key

Consistency builds trust in a brand.

Let’s take the example of Nike’s brand. When I think of Nike, I know what the brand offers in terms of quality, price, you name it – Nike is a known quantity. This is because they are consistent. Across platforms, in language, in UI, in their iconic ‘tick’ branding – I know what I’m going to get. 

This builds familiarity and trust – and subsequently, sales – that a brand that’s all over the place or confusing cannot hope to emulate. Nike offers a consistent service, and its customers have invested an understanding of it. You should also consider things like the social values your brand presents.

9 Ecommerce Growth Hacks That Will Boost Your Sales

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Let’s illustrate this further. Imagine it was my birthday. I’m a loyal customer and Nike offered me 10% off my next purchase – wonderful! What a great birthday treat. But then next week when it’s my friend’s birthday, they get offered 15% off. As a loyal customer, how do you think I’ll feel about Nike then? They offered me a birthday discount – which they didn’t have to – but it wasn’t the same for everyone. 

Inconsistency negatively affects customer perception and sales. Make sure that marketing tactics are clearly communicated amongst your organization. It is vital that you avoid appearing inconsistent at all costs. For comprehensive communication to maintain inconsistency across larger teams, consider implementing free WebEx alternatives. Communication is key in ensuring your growth hacking efforts are well-integrated across your organization. 

With that in mind, you’re ready to begin your journey into growth hacking. After a little initial planning and deciding what tactics are best suited to your organization, you’ll begin seeing results in your growth and marketing reach in no time.

Kate PriestmanKate Priestman – Head Of Marketing, Global App Testing
Kate Priestman is the Head of Marketing at Global App Testing, a trusted and leading end-to-end functional testing solution and automation test planning for QA challenges. Kate has over 8 years of experience in the field of marketing, helping brands achieve exceptional growth. She has extensive knowledge on brand development, lead and demand generation, and marketing strategy — driving business impact at its best. Kate Priestman also published articles for domains such as CEO Blog Nation and Stackify. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

3 years ago
Your Complete Handbook to Ecommerce Logistics as a Startup
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

First things first, step back and congratulate yourself. You’ve done what, at times, seemed impossible. You’ve turned your idea into a successful ecommerce business with customers eagerly awaiting your product. This is where ecommerce logistics come into play.

Your Complete Handbook to Ecommerce Logistics as a Startup

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As the difference between physical store and online store shopping grows smaller, your logistics infrastructure needs to be first-rate. With companies such as Amazon and Bosta offering exceptional delivery, consumers have become accustomed to this type of service. 

It’s up to you to match this service as best as possible.

The journey of your inventory starts with the manufacturer and ends in your customers’ hands. 

To achieve a smooth transaction, you need to consider your supply chain efficiency. Below are some key steps that you should explore within your ecommerce delivery.

Demand planning

Startups don’t have the luxury of planning their inventory on past performance. Instead, you have to track what‘s at your fingertips, such as your online presence and website traffic. 

Planning for upcoming seasonal events means you can anticipate what orders will be popular. Also, engaging with your social media hashtags and shares will give you an accurate overview as well.

Visibility and managing your inventory

Taking stock of your inventory with your manufacturing warehouse promotes customer service. There’s nothing more frustrating to a prospective customer than ordering a product that is, in fact, out of stock.

Established companies have contact center best practices available to handle such issues. Startups aren’t as fortunate, with only word-of-mouth at their disposal. So a positive customer experience can go a long way in terms of engagement. 

That’s why providing customers with accurate communication is essential to growth.

Free shipping

In a recent study, 90% of consumers would shop online more if free shipping were available. If you provide this option, you remove the one advantage that in-store shopping has over online shopping. 

Problems arise due to cost efficiency, as offering free shipping can interfere with profits. You need to consider this cost when pricing your products.

Managing returns

Monitoring the number of return requests offers you a real-time analysis of product satisfaction. It also awards you the opportunity to conduct damage control on products that may hinder your brand. 

In short…

By following this guide, you take action to help your company to grow. By promoting customer satisfaction, you’re also promoting customer retention. Logistics is an important step in your customer’s journey, so let’s ensure it’s an easy trip.

Grace Lau
Grace Lau – Director of Growth Content, Dialpad
Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad , an AI-powered cloud communication platform for better and easier team collaboration. She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Grace Lau also published articles for domains such as Whatfix and VMblog. Here is her LinkedIn.

3 years ago
What is Supplier Relationship Management And How to Enhance it
Mohab Growth Hacks, Guest Posts 0

When it comes to running a successful business, there are two main relationships that you should consider. The first is between you and your customer, the second between you and your suppliers. Both are important and both deserve nurturing.

In this post, we will take you through what supplier relationship management is (SRM) and the key benefits it can bring to business growth.

What is supplier relationship management?

In simple terms, SRM refers to the relationship between a buyer and supplier. It aims to encourage communication that identifies and measures the performance of products as well as suppliers.

What is Supplier Relationship Management And How to Enhance it
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SRM aims to streamline such relationships. Your main goal should be to develop a rapport that is beneficial to both organisation and its suppliers. A successful SRM seeks to ensure an understanding of what the business needs and what the suppliers can offer. 

Establishing consistency between the two prevents popular stock selling out and product discontinuation. With effective coordination, companies can take a strategic approach to their products and services. 

Taking a page out of the account based marketing ebook, long-lasting relationships encourage new opportunities. Successful business enterprises succeed on trust and cooperation. 

How to enhance supplier relationship management

There is an economic benefit to both a business and its suppliers developing trusting relationships. No business can operate successfully without embracing the benefits of SRP. Let’s take a look at some top tips to optimise supplier relationships.

Communication is everything

Communication is key when building an effective partnership with suppliers. Keeping suppliers updated on your strategy will allow them time to prepare and time to support you moving forward.

Through openness with your plans, trust is built upon. Trust in your supply chain is an essential step in launching a successful ecommerce business.

Invest in technology

As consumer testing or sales call planning furthers company growth, investing in SRM software will too. Being able to track your supply chains as well as communicating intelligence keeps both parties updated and on the same page.

Get it in writing

Having a contract in place between buyer and supplier increases trust within the relationship. With agreed terms, all parties are invested in the success of the product, and all will strive to achieve this success.

Wrapping up

Like with anything, having a strong relationship increases trust and success. Ensuring mutual respect will have a positive effect on your business and your relationships going forward.

Jessica Day
Jessica Day – Senior Director, Marketing Strategy, Dialpad
Jessica Day is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, a modern business hosted IP PBX communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns. Here is her LinkedIn. She has also written content for Pretty Links and Kanbanize.

3 years ago
Guide to Automating Your Invoice Processing For Easy Cashflow
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

Guide to Automating Your Invoice Processing For Easy Cashflow
Processing invoices, especially when your business is starting to grow, can be painstaking. 

When performing the task manually, it can be easy to make mistakes which leads to delayed payments and upsets in business relationships.

Follow this guide to improve your business cash flow and develop reliability when it comes to invoicing for your business. 

Invoice Types

There are two main types of invoicing available to businesses. These are:

  • Before payment (accounts receivable or payable)
  • After payment (receipts and copies of transactions for record-keeping)

Before Payment

This is a common approach for many companies. These invoices detail the services or products which were provided and the amount they cost. 

It is essentially a request for payment within a period and needs to be completed by the relevant people before the deadline. 

Manually creating before-payment invoices can create issues when it comes to consistency and efficiency. By automating you can:

  • Automatically invoice clients;
  • Register invoices for your accounting department to see outstanding payments;
  • Receive reminders when payments are due.

All of these processes help to improve productivity so if you use them before payment invoicing, you can benefit greatly from automation.

After Payment

This process acts as a receipt for a client. It acknowledges that payment has been made and provides proof for bookkeeping purposes. 

A common area for these forms of invoices is online stores where you receive a receipt once you have purchased an item.

For small and growing businesses, creating manual after payment invoices whenever something is purchased from your web store is time-consuming and costly. 

Here you can automate: customers receiving copies of their invoices; making exact copies of invoices automatically for record-keeping and creating invoices instantly to accelerate the payment process.

Why Wait?

Guide to Automating Your Invoice Processing For Easy Cashflow
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Let’s for a moment consider a hypothetical new business start-up. 

The imaginary owners want to create a great external customer service experience, so they look at articles on how to start a contact center. They manage invoice payments manually for the first year of their company’s existence as there aren’t too many to manage, but suddenly they begin to grow exponentially due to the success of using vanity phone numbers in a marketing campaign. 

They are now stuck. Their company is wasting precious time and money creating invoices that have errors. Their clients are getting confused and feel misguided and relationships are fracturing. The company chooses to switch to automated payment systems but loses money during the transitional period. 

If the company had switched to automatic invoice processing before their sudden growth, they would be able to scale up payments and keep up with demand so consider doing this immediately. 

What is automated Invoicing?

Automated invoicing is the process of making a historically manual job automated through computer systems and software. 

The aim is to make an arduous and error-filled practice straightforward, efficient, and accurate. When you have your processes set up, scheduling payments, sending receipts, and creating invoices will be simple and means cash flow remains uninterrupted. 

It is important to recognize that the options for businesses are wide. However, some companies strive to make the process of moving from manual to automated invoicing as seamless and trouble-free as possible. 

One example of these companies that provide brilliant software is Paytabs. They have video tutorials available to those just getting started and have great customer communication channels to make sure your needs are met continuously. 

Benefits

So why move to automated invoicing? 

Guide to Automating Your Invoice Processing For Easy Cashflow
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  1. You reduce your costs vastly. Paying employees to manually create invoices is expensive, especially when they make a mistake and have to go through the process again to make sure it’s right. Furthermore, an automated service is trustworthy, so senior officers and managers won’t need to review every payment before it’s sent. 
  2. It reduces errors. Automation means you don’t need to worry about human error. When people make mistakes it can upset clients and fracture relationships, much like having out of stock products, with important vendors or clients. Ditching manual means you won’t have to worry, as the software is created to serve a specific purpose.
  3. Faster turnaround times. For all businesses, making your invoices automatic means you can make payments quickly and it minimizes the amount of admin. When money moves quickly and reliably, companies are happier. 
  4. Employees have the time to focus on higher-impact jobs. Without the need to process invoices, they can be asked to perform jobs that are more valuable to your company such as performing affiliate program monitoring.

What does it involve?

With all the software available to businesses nowadays it’s clear that automation is the way to go to improve efficiency and reduce costs. More people than ever are involved with creating new software, IoT app development, and websites. So where do you start?

Create Your Forms

The first thing you need to do is decide on the program which suits your business approach and requirements.

It is important to consider the needs of your company and the information required to process payments properly. Modern software allows you to use digital signatures, or provide simple drop-down menus with lists of clients or services to make payments even smoother. 

Once you have made this decision, you need to use pre-built templates or create your invoicing form. Creating a form provides clarity to users and uniformity across all of your payments. This is often instantaneous, meaning you can use the forms straight away. 

In the past altering forms manually would be challenging but modern solutions mean you don’t need to be a coding expert to make complex processes a reality. The automation and control you can exert, when it comes to creating your forms through appropriate software, is often very user-friendly and truly customizable. 

Consider Your Approval Workflow

Regardless of your payment process, more valuable invoices need to be sent to senior officers or company presidents for approval. Again, these processes are easily managed when it comes to software. 

Imagine that your company requires that all invoices over $10,000 are sent to the senior officer before processing. 

Modern software can be employed to ensure that this process happens every single time without error. 

This means that managers are only seeing the payments which they are required to under company policy thus saving time and improving efficiency.

Integrate 

It is important to consider how integration between your new and old systems will look. It is key that your payment records are kept up-to-date for bookkeeping. For example, when it comes to reviewing company profits or gathering information regarding a payment discrepancy in the future. 

This is where considering how you are going to ensure a seamless transition between manual and automated systems is vital.

Much automated software comes with the ability to integrate with current financial management systems.

Generally, companies are likely to use an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system for their finances, and manually entering order numbers into databases is time-consuming and costly. Find software that fulfills this process automatically and works well with the methods you currently employ.

Next steps

Guide to Automating Your Invoice Processing For Easy Cashflow
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Training

Whilst the initial set up of an automated invoicing software comes with difficulties, over longer periods you will find that the time previously spent on completing invoices, can be used for other important parts of your business. Use a time management tool to reap the benefits of spare moments.

Using a new piece of software can come as a challenge to many companies. Your staff must be trained to use new programs. You should have an approach laid out in your IT strategy to help employees manage and understand new systems.

The ultimate aim is to make the payment process easier and making sure everyone understands produces fluidity in sharing information and issues. 

Use and Review

Having an initial testing phase is important so make sure you do that immediately. 

However, after some time using the new invoicing software, your company must be reflective in regards to its effectiveness. 

Asking companies who have processed payments through your new approach for feedback can further develop your use of the systems. 

Gaps and difficulties can be challenging to overcome when filling out invoices manually. However, using automated software means you can quickly customize and change your invoicing forms and process to adhere to changing needs, so listen to feedback from clients and employees. 

Final Thoughts

For those who process a few invoices per quarter, or those doing hundreds a day, switching to automation contributes to great efficiency and reduces costs swiftly. When used correctly, it can alter the way your business operates and free up time for employees.It is important when considering moving to automation, that you find software that is effective for your business. To save time, don’t scour the internet, start with PayTabs, take a look at the great services they offer, and watch a few videos. You may find that they provide exactly what you need clearly.

Jessica Day
Jessica Day – Senior Director, Marketing Strategy, Dialpad
Jessica Day is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, a modern business hosted IP PBX communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns. Here is her LinkedIn. She has also written content for Pretty Links and Kanbanize.

3 years ago