Hands-on working has always been rooted in businesses. Chagan trumped the old-age methods and brought about a significant convenience to his work with Khatabook’s Automated Bot Call Reminder feature. How? Let’s find out!
Technology is often treated as a privilege. Sometimes only a few could use it because of its accessibility, design or cost. In recent times, however, we have seen more and more small businesses showing courage to change their old methods and adopting the right digital tools. Change is a scary word for many people, especially people running small and medium businesses. Growth, however, has proven to be a much more acceptable approach to change. If this last year has taught anything to Chagan, it is that change and growth are interchangeable terms, and very important in order to survive.
Running an electronic store in A-One Mall in Surat, Chagan has always been a businessman who believes in mixing the new and old methods to grow his business. Running a robust business model, Chagan has been a pioneer in using digital tools in order to make his work convenient, and his customers satisfied.
“I’ve been using Khatabook for over 2 years now, and have been utilizing all of its new features to their full extent, as the sole purpose of these features is to make MY work easier”
These words ring true even more today, as Chagan has been utilizing Khatabook’s new Automated Bot Call Reminder feature since it has been in development. Since there is a flurry of customers and retailers he manages, it has been a hassle to keep track of all of the pending invoices and payments for his everyday business.
Running an electronic wholesale store is a day-to-day business, and the earnings depend on the sales made each day. However, sometimes customers prefer to opt for paying in a different manner such as depositing a downpayment and paying the remaining amount at a later time.
“My earnings happen on a daily basis. When a customer opts to clear the full payment in installments or at a later time, it puts a dent in my daily monetary management.”
The “Due” Time
Chagan has seen how the normal idea of a “customer” has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Experiencing this shift in how customers themselves operate with the business meant that Chagan also had to accommodate for the new, and refine his business strategies.
“The era of notebooks and bookkeeping for all the purchases, transactions, and dues is long gone now for people like us. Having a digital assistant is one thing, but having a digital co-worker is another. Khatabook has been my co-worker for over 2 years now.”
Opening up his dashboard, Chagan takes us through all of his month’s activities, records, and all things related to show us how centralised he has made his operations. Even with his in-shop employees, Chagan has created a very collaborative environment by sharing access to the shop’s Khatabook account. Each and every single interaction that leads to a transaction is recorded on the app for easy tracking.
The next feature that Chagan was looking for was a digital assistant that could remind his customers of their due payments at fixed intervals.
“Text-based reminder is a good feature of Khatabook, but many users usually mute the messages and forget about their dues. That started to become a hassle for money recovery”
In comes Khatabook’s Automated Bot Call Reminder Feature to cover this gap for him! Chagan mentions that the Automated IVR calls have been immediately shown a significant improvement for the money recovery for his business.
Using this feature, Chagan has been able to schedule bulk reminder calls which are directly linked with his collection dashboard on the Khatabook app.
“Having this feature helps me in sending a bulk reminder to all of my customers for their due payments. The best thing is that just after the call reminder, the customers get an SMS with the payment link to fast track the process even more and make it convenient for all parties involved.”
While IVR-based call reminders are usually used by MNCs and large corporations, Khatabook has made it more grounded for medium and small enterprises (MSMEs). In today’s digital age, having a feature like this is a luxury that is much needed in the medium and small business segments to level the playing field for the small players in their respective industries.
Spreading The Gospel of Good User Experience
The thing that surprised Chagan the most was how well-received the IVR format proved to be for his customers. He was expecting the feature to bring in better results, but not at this level.
“I discovered that the customers preferred this method. I can just put in an automated call reminder in my collection dashboard with a defined date for certain customers, and it happens to be the best way to remind them”
Chagan mentions that the user experience of the app has crossed the horizon, and is now translating to his customers too. The convenience of committing to pay later and being reminded ethically has made his customers happy. Especially considering the fact that Chagan can decide himself when to send the reminders.
“If I send the reminders in the last week of a month, chances are that the customer won’t be able to pay and would prefer to pay the next month. The smallest things like this can affect the due collection. I always time my automated reminders well so the customers can feel comfortable in clearing their dues”
Certainly, this feature has brought about a significant convenience in Chagan’s day-to-day life running his business. He has played a key role in developing this feature to what it is, and was not shy talking about that either.
He says that being a testing user helped him understand how diversely he can utilise this feature, along with the type of customisable improvements he would want in the feature. This helped us in refining our automated call bot to what it is right now.
“It has been a humbling experience seeing the response to my feedback to Khatabook. This truly has become a feature that has given me a lot of mental peace over the months, and I can’t wait to see what new tricks you guys have in your bag for us next”
We can’t wait to see the response either!