Crush WISMO: Best Automation Tools for Successful Customer Experience Managers

With customer expectations rising and competition growing fiercer than ever, organizations must streamline customer experience management processes. Harness the power of automation tools that help Customer Experience Managers (CEMs) optimize workflows and deliver seamless interactions at every touchpoint.

The problem of WISMO (Where Is My Order) inquiries has plagued many customer service teams, causing frustration for shoppers and support staff alike. However, innovative automation tools have emerged as powerful allies in combating WISMO. Automate repetitive tasks, free up valuable time and resources, and focus on your major strategic initiatives – enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In this article, you’ll find an overview of the best automation tools available to help CEMs conquer the WISMO challenge. From intelligent chatbots and AI-powered ticketing systems to advanced analytics platforms, these tools offer an array of features designed to streamline processes, boost efficiency, and ultimately create a delightful customer experience.

WISMO Automation Tools: Streamline Your Shipment Tracking Process

Gone are the days of manually checking tracking numbers and updating customers individually. WISMO automation tools leverage cutting-edge technology to integrate seamlessly with your existing logistics systems and your eCommerce website. From the moment a package is scanned, the tool takes over, sending automated notifications to you and your customers.

• Customers will be delighted to receive timely shipment information, enhancing their overall experience with your brand.
• You can customize the messages to match your brand voice, making every interaction reflect your commitment to customer satisfaction.
• WISMO automation tools provide valuable insights into your shipping processes. By analyzing the generated data, you’ll identify potential bottlenecks, optimize routes, and enhance your overall eCommerce growth strategy. 

With this newfound visibility, you’ll make informed decisions, improve efficiency, minimize WISMO, and reduce costs.

AI Shipping Platforms: The Future (or Present) for eCommerce CX Managers

At the core of AI shipping platforms is the ability to leverage vast amounts of data to make intelligent decisions. By integrating with various systems, platforms collect data on inventory, demand, transportation routes, and more. With the power of machine learning algorithms, they analyze real-time data and identify patterns and trends that were once invisible to the human eye.

• One of the key advantages of AI shipping platforms is their ability to automate and optimize various processes. They make decisions based on data-driven insights. Automation saves time and reduces human error, leading to higher accuracy and reliability.
• AI shipping platforms bring unprecedented visibility to the entire logistics chain (outbound and inbound logistics. You can track shipments in real time, providing customers with up-to-date information. Increased transparency allows proactive problem-solving. For example, if a shipment is delayed or faces an issue, the platform quickly identifies alternative routes and notifies the concerned parties to take corrective actions promptly.
• Customer experience is another area where AI shipping platforms excel. With advanced analytics and predictive modeling, AI anticipates customer demand, optimizes inventory levels, and offers personalized shipping options. From estimating delivery times to providing proactive notifications, you’ll deliver customers a seamless and delightful experience.
• AI shipping platforms are a CX Manager’s best ally in minimizing the time spent on WISMO (Where is my order?) questions. When customers have up-to-date information on their orders, they do not feel anxiety or a need to inquire. This proactive approach reduces the burden on CX Managers and minimizes the number of WISMO inquiries and follow-up calls. With AI handling the tracking process and keeping customers informed, you can focus your time and efforts on other critical aspects of your job.
• Finally, AI shipping platforms contribute to sustainability and eco-friendly logistics. By optimizing routes and consolidating shipments, you’ll reduce carbon footprint and minimize waste. AI also specifies opportunities for modal shifts, such as transitioning from road to rail or sea, further reducing environmental impact.

The Role of AI Shipping Platforms in Driving Efficiency for eCommerce CX Managers

AI shipping platforms empower you as an eCommerce customer experience manager by providing real-time tracking, proactive issue resolution, personalized communication, data-driven insights, and seamless integration. Leverage these capabilities to enhance your work performance, optimize operations, and drive the success of your eCommerce business.

Here’s how AI shipping platforms help you:

1. Real-time tracking and visibility: You will accurately track orders’ progress, identify potential delays or issues, and proactively communicate updates to customers. Access to this information lets you respond promptly to customer inquiries and provide accurate delivery estimates, thus enhancing customer satisfaction.
2. Proactive issue resolution: AI shipping platforms can identify potential issues or delays. You’ll take proactive measures to resolve the issue, such as offering alternative shipping options or notifying customers of potential delays. Time spent on WISMO questions will become a past inconvenience.
3. Personalized communication: The AI shipping platform personalizes communication based on customer preferences. You’ll bring your omnichannel marketing strategy and customer experience to a new level. Send automated notices via SMS, email sequences, or push notifications and keep customers informed about their orders. Also, tailor messages to match your brand’s tone and style and create a consistent and personalized customer adventure.
4. Data-driven insights: AI shipping platforms generate valuable data on shipping patterns, delivery times, and customer preferences. As an eCommerce customer experience manager, you will leverage this data to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences. Identify areas for improvement, optimize shipping strategies, and make data-driven decisions.
5. Integration with other systems: AI shipping platforms often integrate with other eCommerce systems, such as order management, inventory management, and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. This integration leads to seamless data flow and provides a holistic view of the customer journey. You will access order details, customer information, and shipping status in one centralized location, enabling you to provide a consistent and personalized experience throughout the customer experience ecosystem.

5 Must-Have Tools: Achieve Seamless Order Fulfillment Automation

As a CX manager, you face a variety of obstacles in delivering exceptional consumer experiences. Nevertheless, there are five indispensable tools that will significantly simplify your work.

1. Software for tracking shipments provides real-time visibility, ensuring transparency and fostering consumer trust.
2. Customer support can be automated by virtual assistants, allowing you to increase response times and focus on strategic duties.
3. The insights provided by predictive analytics applications empower you to make proactive decisions and anticipate customer requirements.
4. Warehouse management systems optimize your operations by facilitating order fulfillment and ensuring on-time deliveries.
5. Robotic process automation (RPA) handles repetitive duties, allowing you to allocate time to strategic initiatives.

Utilize these indispensable tools to optimize your operations, increase efficiency, and exceed customers’ expectations. Deliver exceptional buyer experience and thrive in the CX management landscape.

Ship with Confidence: Get Real-Time Updates with Shipment Tracking Software

There is a tool that can make a big difference and make your job a lot easier: shipment tracking software. The app keeps track of real-time orders, which lets you respond quickly to customer questions and concerns. You will build trust and be open with your customers by giving accurate information and delivery estimates.

The software will ease your job significantly, helping you improve everyday procedures and optimize inbound and outbound logistics. You can track packages through different channels and shippers, so you don’t have to do it by hand. This improved speed lets you solve problems faster, eventually making customers happier and more loyal.

Order delivery tracking software utilizes big data analysis and gives you powerful tools for competitive analysis and information-based decisions. You will improve your digital approach and learn more about shipping trends, arrival times, and customer preferences. At a glance, you’ll spot improvement areas, find optimal methods, make smart choices, and bring customer experience to the top of your niche.

TrackMage is a platform that will provide all the listed benefits. In addition, you’ll be able to track over 1000 carriers, unobtrusively promote your brand, increase upsales, and establish a long-lasting relationship with your shoppers. Use TrackMage’s free two-week trial to experience all the benefits for you and your company.

Meet Your Customers’ Needs with Virtual Assistants for Customer Support

Virtual assistants are the tech-savvy superheroes revolutionizing customer support. But how do they actually work?

Virtual assistants employ cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to understand and interact with customers. They communicate via various channels, including chatbots, voice assistants, and messaging platforms. By analyzing customer queries and context, virtual assistants offer personalized, accurate responses, solving problems with outstanding efficiency.

In the eCommerce world, AI-powered partners provide real-time assistance, 24/7 availability, and instant responses, ensuring customers receive the help they need at any time of the day or night.

From a CX manager’s perspective, virtual assistants ease the burden of managing customer support operations. Traditionally, CX managers faced challenges scaling their teams to handle increasing customer WISMO queries. Hiring and training new agents, managing schedules, and maintaining quality assurance were time-consuming tasks.

With virtual assistants, the CX manager’s load is significantly lighter. They handle routine and repetitive inquiries, freeing up human agents to focus on more complex and critical shopper issues. Now, you can focus on optimizing the workforce, allocating resources strategically, and ensuring efficient customer support.

Moreover, virtual assistants identify patterns, trends, and buyer’s pain points. Armed with this data, you’ll make informed decisions, fine-tune support strategies, and proactively address customer concerns, fostering long-term loyalty.

The integration of virtual assistants into customer support not only enhances efficiency but also drives cost savings. Your eCommerce business will reduce the need for extensive agent staffing, optimize the budget, and redirect resources toward other vital areas.

As virtual assistants evolve and improve, they hold immense potential for reshaping the customer support landscape. The ability to deliver personalized and efficient assistance, coupled with the relief of CX managers’ burdens, makes them indispensable tools for the eCommerce industry.

Three examples of eCommerce Virtual Assistant Softwares

1. IBM Watson -a platform that analyzes vast amounts of data, provides personalized product recommendations, offers assistance with purchasing decisions, and supports virtual shopping experiences.
2. Salesforce Service Cloud – a comprehensive customer service platform that handles customer WISMO inquiries, provides product information, assists with order tracking, and resolves common issues. The virtual assistant in Salesforce Service Cloud integrates with customer data and knowledge bases, and gives contextually relevant responses.
3. Nuance Virtual Assistant – a well-known platform with conversational AI capabilities. It interacts with customers through natural and interactive conversations. Nuance Virtual Assistant understands intent, provides accurate and contextual responses, and supports multiple channels, including voice and text-based interactions. It can assist with WISMO questions, product recommendations, troubleshooting, and other common eCommerce-related tasks, offering an intuitive and user-friendly customer support experience.

Make Better Decisions with Predictive Analytics Tools for Shipping

Predictive analytics tools for shipping are powerful software applications that utilize historical data, algorithms, and statistical models to forecast and optimize various aspects of the shipping process. These tools help shipping companies, customer support teams, and CX managers make data-driven decisions and improve operational efficiency.

Let’s explore how these tools empower customer support and CX managers:

1. Enhanced Shipment Tracking: Predictive analytics tools can provide shipping process real-time visibility. They analyze historical data and current variables (weather conditions and traffic patterns) to estimate more accurate arrival times. With enhanced shipment tracking, customer support teams proactively address customer WISMO inquiries and provide timely updates.
2. Proactive Issue Resolution Analytics identifies patterns and trends in shipping data to anticipate potential issues and delays. By flagging potential problems in advance, customer support teams can reach out to a buyer and offer proactive solutions, such as alternative shipping options or expedited delivery. This proactive approach improves the customer experience, minimizes the WISMO query number, and reduces workload and stress on CX managers.
3. Optimized Resource Allocation Platform – identifies inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the shipping process and helps CX managers optimize resource allocation. With the ORA platform, CX managers will ensure smoother operations, faster response times, and more efficient use of resources.
4. Demand Forecasting -predictive analytics tools that analyze historical shipping data, eCommerce market trends, and customer behavior to forecast future demand. With it, CX managers can plan inventory levels, allocate resources, and staff customer support teams accordingly.

Optimize Your Warehouse Operations with Warehouse Management Systems

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is an advanced technology application based on barcode scanning and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification*) to track, manage, and optimize warehouse operations. It centralizes inventory data, streamlines order processing and facilitates labor management. WMS enables businesses to:

• optimize inventory control, 
• improve order accuracy and fulfillment, 
• maximize warehouse space utilization, and 
• significantly reduce supply chain costs.

At the end of the 20th century, industry giants that developed and implemented WMS were:

1. Amazon

2. Walmart

3. FedEx

4. Coca-Cola

5. DHL

*RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology that uses radio waves to identify and track objects or individuals wirelessly. It consists of two primary components: RFID tags and RFID readers. RFID tags are small electronic devices that contain a microchip and an antenna. They are affixed to objects or embedded in products or packaging. RFID readers emit radio waves and receive signals from the RFID tags. When the reader detects an RFID tag, it communicates with it and retrieves or stores information, such as unique identification numbers or data about the tagged item.

How to Implement WMS

Introducing a Warehouse Management System (WMS) into your company is a huge endeavor. It requires careful planning, effective change management, and major operational changes.

Here are the steps to incorporate WMS into your business operations:

Assess Your Needs

Evaluate your current warehouse operations and identify pain points, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement. Determine your specific requirements and objectives for implementing a WMS, such as improving inventory accuracy, order fulfillment speed, and/or labor productivity.

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Research and Select a WMS

Conduct thorough research on available WMS solutions. Consider factors such as functionality, scalability, ease of integration, user-friendliness, and vendor support. Shortlist a few WMS providers that align with your business needs and arrange demos or consultations to understand their offerings better. Some of the most often-used platforms are:

1. SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM)
2. Manhattan Associates Warehouse Management System (Manhattan WMS)
3. Oracle Warehouse Management Cloud (Oracle WMS Cloud)
4. JDA Warehouse Management (Blue Yonder WMS)
5. HighJump Warehouse Edge

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 Define Project Scope and Budget

Clearly define the scope of the WMS implementation project. Identify the required resources, timeline, and budget. Consider costs such as software licenses, hardware, implementation services, training, and ongoing support.

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Plan for Integration

Evaluate the existing systems in your company, such as ERP, order management, or transportation management systems, and assess their compatibility with the chosen WMS. Plan for seamless integration to ensure data flow and synchronization between systems.

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Data Preparation and Migration

Ensure your data is accurate, clean, and ready for migration to the new WMS. This may involve data cleansing, mapping, and validation. Collaborate with your IT team or WMS provider to facilitate a smooth data migration process.

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Implementation and Training

Work closely with your WMS provider to implement the system. Set up hardware, configure software settings, and perform testing to ensure functionality and compatibility. Train your employees on how to use the WMS effectively, including system navigation, data entry, and eCommerce best practices.

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Pilot and Rollout

Conduct a pilot phase where the WMS is tested in a controlled environment to identify and address any issues. Once the pilot is successful, proceed with a phased or full rollout across your warehouse operations. Monitor the system closely during the initial implementation period and make necessary adjustments.

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 Continuous Improvement and Support

Regularly assess the performance of the WMS and gather feedback from employees. Identify areas for further optimization and leverage the support provided by the WMS provider. Stay updated with system upgrades, new features, and industry best practices to ensure ongoing success and improvement.

Increase Efficiency with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Tools

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools are software applications that mimic human actions to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks within business processes. RPA tools utilize bots or software robots to perform these tasks, interacting with various systems, applications, and data sources.

As a CX manager, RPA tools offer several benefits in reducing WISMO (Where Is My Order) inquiries and improving overall customer experience:

1. Order Status Updates: RPA bots automatically retrieve order status information from various systems, provide real-time updates to customers, and integrate with order management systems and tracking platforms.
2. Customer Communication: RPA tools automate routine customer communication, such as order confirmation emails, shipping notifications, and delivery updates. Bots generate and send communications based on predefined triggers and templates, ensuring consistent and timely customer messaging during order fulfillment.
3. Data Validation and Accuracy: RPA bots perform data validation tasks by cross-referencing information from multiple systems, databases, or documents. They reduce data discrepancies and mitigate potential issues that lead to WISMO inquiries.
4. Streamlined Returns and Refunds: RPA tools automate returns and refund processing. They extract relevant information from customer requests, validate eligibility, and initiate the necessary actions in backend systems. 
5. Exception Handling and Escalation: RPA bots identify and flag exceptions or anomalies in order processing, such as address errors, payment issues, or out-of-stock items. They automatically escalate these issues to the appropriate teams or individuals for resolution, minimizing customer frustration and WISMO inquiries.

By leveraging RPA tools, CX managers automate repetitive tasks, improve operational efficiency, and provide a smoother customer experience. RPA empowers CX managers to focus on more strategic initiatives and deliver exceptional customer support.

Final Thoughts

The combination of shipment tracking software, virtual assistants, predictive analytics tools, warehouse management systems, and robotic process automation tools is a comprehensive toolkit for CX managers to boost business efficiency and alleviate their burdens. 

• Shipment tracking software ensures real-time visibility and proactive customer communication. 
• Virtual assistants provide personalized and instant customer support, enhancing satisfaction. 
• Predictive analytics tools offer insights to optimize operations and anticipate customer needs. 
• Warehouse management systems streamline inventory management and order fulfillment. 
• Robotic process automation tools automate repetitive tasks and streamline processes. 

Together, these technologies empower CX managers to improve customer experiences, increasing efficiency and focus on strategic initiatives rather than repetitive tasks.