Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share
Digital is a demanding and competitive field. And women are still grossly underpaid & underrepresented. But we are not powerless; we have each other. Together Digital Power Lounge is your place to hear authentic conversations from women in digital who have power to share. Listen and learn from our amazing guests along with host Amy Vaughan, Owner and Chief Empowerment Officer of Together Digital. Together Digital is a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital who choose to share their knowledge, power, and connections. To learn more, visit www.togetherindigital.com.
Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share
Automate & Scale: Perfect Customer Journey
Imagine transforming your business operations with seamless automation.
Welcome to The Power Lounge, where Amy Vaughan of Together Digital hosts conversations with empowered individuals. In this episode, Amy sits down with Christi Stafford, CEO and founder of Automation on a Mission, who brings over twenty-five years of experience in revolutionizing small businesses through intelligent automated systems.
Christi shares her "Attract, Sell, and Wow" framework, a strategy that streamlines customer journeys, boosts revenue, and builds lasting client relationships. Together, they explore the evolution of Christi's business model, the crucial role of automation in sustainable entrepreneurship, and the balance between technology and personal interaction.
Discover practical strategies to automate and scale your business, reclaim valuable time, and thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur or interested in automation, this episode offers valuable insights to support your business journey.
Christi Stafford leads Automation on a Mission, empowering small businesses with streamlined sales and marketing automation since 2014. With over 25 years of experience, she has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs generate millions in revenue while reclaiming time through efficient, scalable systems. Her leadership includes launching impactful programs and a thriving social enterprise, making entrepreneurship more accessible and sustainable.
Join us as we explore the optimal customer journey through automation with Christi Stafford on The Power Lounge.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:52 - Nonprofit Management and Social Enterprise
03:29 - Unplanned Career Paths
08:41 - Efficient Meetings with Calendar Automation
10:42 - Unlocking Business Opportunities with Automation
13:46 - Automation's Human Connection & Magic
19:06 - Enhancing Client Renewal Rates
22:43 - Optimizing Business Automation Strategy
26:21 - Streamline Buying with Automation
28:07 - Inclusive Membership for Retired Members
32:04 - Automated Subscription Success
35:54 - Streamlining Guest Preparation Process
37:17 - Automated Affiliate Integration
42:14 - DocuSign Integration Limitations
45:40 - Mindful Use of Chatbots
46:53 - Chatbot Mastery with Lauren
50:14 - Custom Automation for Unique Businesses
53:35 - Design Career: Learning Through Experience
56:14 - Outro
Quotes:
"In digital chaos, automation is your secret weapon to reclaim time and energy."- Amy Vaughan
"Automation unlocks unique solutions and hidden opportunities for your business."- Christi Stafford
Key Takeaways:
Unlocking Automation Potential in Small Businesses
Creating Seamless Customer Journeys
Balancing Technology and Authenticity
Optimizing for Continued Success
Harnessing AI for the Future
Choosing the Right Automation Tools
Embracing Feedback as an Opportunity
Connect with Christi Stafford:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinorfleetstafford/
Website:https://automationonamission.com/
Connect with the host Amy Vaughan:
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/amypvaughan
Podcast:https://www.togetherindigital.com/podcast/
Learn more about Together Digital and consider joining the movement by visitinghttps://togetherindigital.com
Hello everyone and welcome to our weekly Power Lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughn and I am the owner and chief empowerment officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections. You can join the movement at togetherindigitalcom and today I am thrilled to welcome Christy Stafford, ceo and founder of Automation on a Mission kind of two of my favorite things missions and automations. Let's do this.
Speaker 1:For over 25 years, christy has been transforming how small businesses operate, helping hundreds of entrepreneurs generate millions in revenue through intelligent, automated systems. If you're not intrigued yet, I don't know what you're doing here. What makes Christy's approach so powerful is her attract, sell and wow framework that turns customer journeys into seamless experiences that not only drive revenue but create lasting client relationships. Since founding Automation on a Mission in 2014, she has been on a mission to make entrepreneurship more sustainable. Yay for that. By giving business owners back their most precious time. You know what it is right Resources or resources, time.
Speaker 1:You know what it is right Resources or resources time. Your most precious resource is a resource. No, it is time, christy brings a unique perspective that blends technical expertise with a deep understanding of the human side of business growth. Today, she will share insights on how automation can make your take your business from surviving to thriving, helping you reclaim time, increase revenue and, oh my goodness, scale with confidence. I mean, I'm excited. I don't know about you all. Welcome, christy, to the Power Lounge. We are thrilled to have you here, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I am so excited to be here, and I loved your own enthusiasm about all this, so I know you're in good company. This is.
Speaker 1:You are speaking to my soul, You're speaking my love language, like human, but also automation and time, like all of these things are so essential and important to our business and you know we throw the word out balance far too much. But business owners, we put everything into what we do and sometimes that could be at the expense of ourselves, and it's just something I don't ever want to see, because we need our small businesses.
Speaker 1:So yes, I'm very much behind the mission and the work that you're doing, christine. I love that you're doing it through automation, but before we dive into some automation strategies and nerd out more in that area, I would love for you to share with our listeners what inspired you to create automation on a mission and what were some of the problems that you were seeing that needed solving.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, so you know, you mentioned, you know over 25 years doing, you know systems and things like that, and so I think an important part to sort of point out is that my history came from nonprofit management. So I was doing a ton of stuff in the grassroots nonprofit world where you have to have, you know, like 10 times more creative ideas than you have you know capabilities to actually execute because you're the, you know you're wearing this hat, you're wearing that hat, and so on and so forth, like I can ask for $100,000 and then go change the tire on a 15 passenger van all in the same afternoon. So you know, I think that I kind of hit the adult world early on, learning about those things because it had to be simply in the type of work that I was doing. And I finished a master's degree and here's the God honest truth about how this thing all came to be. I opened a social enterprise in Denver, colorado, called Monkey Bikes Recyclery. It was an amazing experience. I was able to take the business from a place of you know, like asking for money in exchange for worm fuzzies, to let's provide a service and also train our youth and all of these really great things. And I was doing all this alongside building or, I'm sorry, finishing a master's degree in organizational leadership. So I was specifically studying those things so that I can, you know, do something meaningful with it in the future.
Speaker 2:Except, I failed to ask what one does with a master's degree in organizational leadership, right? And so I spent two years in school joking about how I was going to get a job at Google and push the coffee cart and make eighty five thousand dollars a year, which is like twice of what I was making, right, as an executive director. And then I finished the program and realized I had nothing planned. I'd done all this stuff and I built this amazing business inside the nonprofit. And so then it was like, okay, so what do I do? So I literally called the school and I was like, in hindsight, I should have asked this question beforehand, what does one do?
Speaker 2:And literally the idea came from somebody saying well, you can solve, and it was kind of like an obvious answer, you know. And so when I launched the business, in the very beginning it was actually designed to be a coaching business and it turned out it was like the moth to a flame. I was not interested in waiting for you to have the personal transformation. I was like let's just nip this in the bud and let's talk about your systems and your processes. Like 25 years of doing it in so many different environments, I was like I could not do it. So I feel very blessed and fortunate to be one of those people who very clearly cannot do something that I'm not in alignment with, and this is what I was meant to do. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I think you know it. When you find it right, it's kind of like finding that soulmate walking into the house that you know was always meant to be yours. But to your point and what it sounds like, in your experience, you kind of had to take the winding road to get there right.
Speaker 1:It takes some time, it takes some exploration to figure it out. And then also another part I resonated with was that sometimes you don't realize like the answer right in front of you. You need other people to be like yo, you know, this is kind of what your jam is and where you're like like zone of genius is Right. And then you're like, oh duh, like cause sometimes it was obvious is hard to see yeah.
Speaker 2:I felt like I was like trying to stuff myself into pants that didn't fit. You know what I mean. Like, but, and also similar to, you can't wear pants that don't fit for very long. It was less than like a two week period where I was like, okay, this doesn't feel right in this whole. How do I, how do I find my place as an entrepreneur? And so when I really thought about, like, what is it that I am drawn to? What is it that I see everybody needs? Yes, 11 years ago, I felt like every business needed automation, including my own, which had a list of two people my mom and my brother and I was like, I'm going to spend a lot of money to do this, but I know I need it in order to go where I want to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so much benefit even small businesses with automation. We have a lot of members within the Together Digital community who are small business owners, digital professionals, that are juggling a ton of priorities. My next question for you is what is the first automation opportunity that they should look for when they're starting to feel overwhelmed, Because sometimes that keeps you from moving at all.
Speaker 2:Right, that analysis paralysis is a real thing, so I think you know and I want to start not only with, you know, low hanging fruit, but also what's something that's easy, and that would be things like making sure that you are automating how people schedule time with you. And the reason why I say that, first and foremost, is specifically because number one, it's 2025. And we are, you know, like if we put ourselves in the position of being the consumer. We want ease, we want an effortless process. So when we're doing that back and forth thing where, like, I'm free at such and such dates and times and so on and so forth, you know, so one, it's a lot easier, and I say that also because I also hear some resistance around oh, that feels so impersonal.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day, your job and your business is to serve your ideal client, and if that's your goal and you are wasting time doing this back and forth and you lose opportunities. So take the stress off of your plate. Give somebody an easy way to schedule time with you, you and then automate those reminders, because that's going to help you ensure that they show up. You know, like I got tons of support from you guys to make sure that I knew what I needed to know in order to be prepared for here. So then I did all my homework. You know what I mean and that's what we get, and I don't have to do it. You know, as the person who has those reminders in the background, they are there to serve me so that I can focus on other things and then show up on that call ready to be present and supportive, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:Low hanging fruit easy. I love that. Yeah, remove the barriers for yourself and for them. That's such a great point. I will plug for a hot second. You know Calendly now that they're paying for it. But, calendly, if you want to send us some money, please do. I'm pitching it all the time.
Speaker 1:You know a lot of people will use virtual assistants or assistants with calendars and things like that. I have used Calendly and I have created, like, different types of meetings for different types of days to really only allow people to schedule meetings when I want meetings scheduled and it's so much easier to send a link. And then the beautiful thing is is afterwards you can create a whole workflow for follow-up emails to really make sure that you're hitting those touch points and make sure they have what they need in, like you said, before, during and after, and so it's not just creating a better experience for you, it's creating a better experience for your potential customer. Acuity is another one we've used as well. There's a lot of great automation tools for calendar management.
Speaker 1:I honestly agree with you. I think calendar management is a great one, because I think that's a good place to start right, because we're trying to make our time more available and efficient. So why not start with the calendar, possibly? But again, like you said, low hanging fruit makes a lot of sense. What are some of the most mundane routine tasks that you're doing and really think about, like, how could I make this simpler? How could I automate it?
Speaker 2:I love it, love it. Well, and you said something, too, that I also wanted to just point out, and that was around when you give people access to you, and so one of the things, especially with women entrepreneurs, we're not necessarily always the best with our boundaries. So you can set up the boundaries when nobody's watching and that's in your availability.
Speaker 1:So absolutely, oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, I have one. I have two days of the week that I take meetings and it's like that. Those are my two meeting days. That's just the way I like to work. And again, as an entrepreneur, you own your time. It doesn't own you, and you're right, Nobody can see those boundaries. It's just they go on my calendar, they find the time that works for them and, honestly, it has saved me hours and hours of back and forth. I really do love it. So I do recommend doing that, if you can. All right, so also in some of our material that you were sharing with us before we got on here, you mentioned that most businesses lose leads and miss sales opportunities from a lack of automation. What are some of the most common blind spots you see in the customer journey that could potentially be solved with automation?
Speaker 2:So I think I like to think about it as like hidden opportunities in your business, and so I want to introduce this concept of if we think about our customer journey in three buckets. They are the attract bucket, the sell bucket and the wow bucket, and automation can happen in all three of those phases. And so when we think about it from the hidden opportunity or the potential lost opportunities, it's things like in that attract stage, what are you doing to make sure that you're speaking to your ideal client, that you know who that person is and that, when they come into your ecosystem, how do you make sure that they get the experience that they deserve and that they're expecting? In the selling sales stage, it is looking at what does your buying process look like? I sort of hinted at this with the calendar piece around friction in the experience.
Speaker 2:So how easy is it for people to know and understand what it means to work with you? How much does it cost? Can they check out on your website? If they buy on your website, does it work? What happens after they buy? And then, in that final stage, how do you deliver value? How do you want to deliver on your promises and continue to make them feel like an amazing, wonderful human being that you're grateful to have as a part of your ecosystem, because the easiest client to acquire is the one that you've already overcome. And so, if we can create new buying experiences, continue to deliver value over time. If they're happy they're not going anywhere else, you know, they become the raving fans that help us drive business into our world by referring their friends and their family.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. Yeah, no, I could not echo that enough. Referrals and existing customers, marketers we know these are like the key people. We need those referrals, especially small businesses. We need those referrals and we need those testimonials. In fact, you got a little shout out from our live listening audience. They love your website, christy and your testimonials.
Speaker 1:So well done. I think oftentimes that's one very underutilized thing. As business owners, it's like sometimes we feel like we're bragging, which you ought to be doing, folks. If you're running your own business, you got to be believing in yourself more than anybody else. But at the end of the day, having other people speak on your behalf just lends to that level of authenticity, the ability to create trust and, like you said, referrals, which are so essential to our business. And you know, the last thing you want to do is lose leads and sales opportunities by really, like you said, having like a poor user experience, and the best way to address that is through automation. But let's talk a little bit about the human element Because, like you said earlier, some people feel like automation is like a cold thing or feels impersonal. How do you balance creating automated systems while maintaining authentic connections with your customers?
Speaker 2:Well, I think the first, the first thing is to I was and I was thinking about this at like six o'clock in the morning, because I truly do wake up in the morning thinking about these things. You know, there are parts of our business that we can't and we don't want to replace ourselves, and so when it comes to the one-on-one relationship, this can't be beat. Most people who sign up for Automation on a Mission and when I say most people, I'm talking like 95% of people want to see me, meet me. You know and know I'm real and human and all those things, before they become a member of Automation on a Mission. I know that. So I'm not trying to sell. I'm going to give people an invitation in an email, but I'm also going to say I get it. You probably want to talk to me, let's schedule a conversation. You know what I'm saying. So you can have a personal relationship through automation but also recognize where do you shine and don't take that away from yourself because at the end of the day, you're just sort of crippling your own experience.
Speaker 2:And then the other side of that is that automation can be super magical, and this is the thing that I think a lot of people who have not had the opportunity to work with it underestimate. It doesn't need to be generic, it doesn't need to be generic, it doesn't need to be sterile. It can feel really personal and all that. Really, it's not the audit. The issue isn't the automation. The issue is messaging and knowing who it is that you're talking to and making sure that when you're speaking to those people, that they can really see themselves. You're picturing them. So my client avatar her name is Scaling Sarah, and I visualize her and she looks an awful lot like all of my clients. So when I'm calling out the struggles of business owners, I'm pulling from real life experiences. I can talk about those in my automated emails and that's going to really bring home that personal connection that they're building. And I wrote that email five months ago and it's just you're hitting it now because this is where you are in my automated customer journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a great great point, as you're working through automation, paying close attention to your messaging and really keeping your customer in mind, making them the hero, making it about them, the problems you're trying to solve, because then you're always going to be relevant and again they're going to be like oh my gosh, how does she know me so well? It doesn't feel like an automated message, right.
Speaker 1:Because, you've done the research and you've taken the time. You're right. I think some people might kind of just jump into the process of automation and just think, well, I'm just going to write a nice little template here and I'm just going to make it as vanilla and bland as possible. It's like no, make it personable. You know, I was at content marketing world it was two years ago now and, um, there was a team, a duo, a guy and a gal who did, um, a fantastic talk on your newsletter and your first opening welcome email and how like it's like email marketing is a relationship.
Speaker 1:But it's not like you're going to go and propose to them at the first email. But then why, as marketers, do we try to propose to people on the first email or the second one? Right? I thought it was such a fun analogy. But what they really talked about was, you know, asking the new, you know email list member what is it that you hope to get out of this? What are you looking for? How can I help you? How can we make this the most valuable email you receive every week?
Speaker 1:And I was like I love that I added a question like that to ours and we actually get responses from people for our welcome emails, and I'm like whoever replies to a welcome email, you know, and it's an automated thing, it's just that as soon as they sign up it just goes straight to their inbox. So I agree with you Like there's a lot to be had when you understand your audience and work your messaging in the right way, that automation doesn't even feel like automation on the other end for sure, love it All right. You have helped businesses generate millions of revenue through automation snaps to that. Can you share a success story where a simple automation tweak helped to create a some kind of impact?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I have lots of fun stories, but I think in light of you know who we most often serve. Today I'll share, you know, from our ideal client pool. So we worked with a human design expert for several years and she was amazing at selling on this webinar schedule that she was running Like she could be like at the last minute Yep, I'm going to do it at such and such date and she'd had 300 people registered by the end of that afternoon and then she would sell a $15,000 program and she was really inspirational in that moment. But then when they paid, nothing happened and it was essentially like chaos behind the scenes, and so nobody ever complained, nobody ever, you know, gave up on the program. But they also didn't renew.
Speaker 2:And so the issue, you know that I saw was here is this amazing program. I do believe that you're delivering tangible results. But the issue is, how do they see it? How do they make that connection? And so what we did was we immediately built a new client, new member, customer onboarding experience that helps them understand what's the value of the program that you just signed up for, helping make that emotional connection to the big ticket item, so there's no buyer's remorse afterwards and that sort of spread out over time reminder series around when she had, you know, teaching classes, when there was you know private coaching opportunities, making sure that they were actually doing the things that they paid for, because the further away you get, the less likely they are to do that.
Speaker 2:And then, at that nine month mark, we started a reminder series for the coaches to let them know, hey, so and so is getting ready to come up for renewal. And for the client themselves starting to like, let's look back, let's reflect on where you came from, where are you today, how does transformation feel? And sort of warming them up to this idea of you're about ready to make another really big decision. What does this look like for you? So that when the coach had the conversation about renewal, it wasn't a surprise. They're not coming in disappointed, disgruntled, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So the the they already felt and could see their own success and and joy, and so they were more readily saying yes to. So we drastically improved their conversion rate to that second opportunity. So again, it was all about how she showed value to her existing clients instead of always having to go fish in a new pond for a new set of clients.
Speaker 1:That is a fantastic example, so easy. You actually gave me some ideas. I like the reflection, like look at how far you've come, or do you still have so far to go? Like why give up now? And because I think sometimes again, like automation, mind comes into play and you're like nope, you're lapsing, it's ending. You know these kinds of things. Instead, like how do you kind of bring them back into the story of why they were there?
Speaker 1:what they had hoped to achieve and why they maybe need to stay on and continue, because, yeah, I can imagine that's a pretty big ticket price there to then like kind of just leave them high and dry, give them all this love and attention to then they fork over you know five figures and then you're like, okay, well, thanks for the money. And then like kind of crickets, like you want to feel seen and heard, I think, especially when you're dealing with those kinds of programs. I know I'm a human design nerd as well. By the way, we've had a whole podcast episode just on that a while back. If you ever want to go back and listen to Diamond's episode, do you mind if I say something.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that we teach our community is prospects are people.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things that's really helpful when you're thinking about your own process is put yourself in the shoes of, or shoes of, or in the seat of your client, of your customer. And so I want you to think back to the last time you got billed for something on an annual basis and they didn't tell you that the payment was coming, and how pissed off.
Speaker 2:Or angry you were, and it's like that could have been avoided. You could have, you know, number one, talk to me sometime in the 11 and a half months from the time I purchased, but also like giving me a heads up and then I could make an educated decision Do I want to stay on? But you know, what we're trying to do is avoid that shock feeling. We want them to feel value. We want them to continue on because you know this is just the beginning.
Speaker 1:You know Right. Well, and with that kind of a business model, like you said, it's going to cost you 10 times as much to go fish and find a new person than it is to keep an existing. So you should be doing everything you can to keep those existing and maintain that retention. I wholeheartedly agree, love it. This is so like all my jam. I'm liking this.
Speaker 2:All right, I feel like you and I drink from the same punch.
Speaker 1:We do. We got to hang out some more after this, as we all know the digital landscape we do. We got to hang out some more after this. As we all know the digital landscape it's always changing and ever faster and faster, it seems. How do you advise business, businesses to future proof their automation systems, as newer technologies seem to be just popping up everywhere?
Speaker 2:Well. So I would say first and foremost to your point that technology is popping up everywhere. So I would say first and foremost to your point that technology is popping up everywhere, so our system is an all in one tech platform that we build, create, serve our ideal clients in and we automate their customer journey. But I also say to them yes, these technologies could be a dime, a dozen. It's really about the time and energy you're willing to put into that. And to that point, in terms of how do you future-proof your business in them? I would say being agile, recognizing you know, even if you said I'm going to change from you know this technology to this technology, there's time, energy involved with that. What does support look like to get you there?
Speaker 2:But the other important thing that I want to point out is that I think that when automation started to become a more common thing to even small businesses, it was sold to people with this idea of set it and forget it, and I think that there were a huge lost opportunities simply in that mindset, because what you should be doing with that is automate as much of your business as you realistically can and then go back and start to optimize, because what automation is doing for you is.
Speaker 2:It's helping you create consistency in every stage of the customer journey, and then you can go back and look at the data what does the data say in terms of what's working and what's not, and fix it. So, for example, our onboarding process. So when a new person becomes an automation on a Mission member, we're on version 6.0 in three years, and the reason why is because when we fix, you know the latest things that feel like friction in our process, whether it's for the client or for our team, it exposes the next layer. You know what I mean. You know what I mean and so you know, from the fall of last year to the spring of this year, my team has cut six, six weeks out of the onboarding process.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. Good for you all.
Speaker 2:And the only reason that that happened was number one a willingness to devote the time and a critical eye to say this isn't perfect. How can I make it better?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, it's more agile than that, right, it's like constantly looking for improvement and being willing and open to change and being flexible because ultimately, yeah, you have to keep automation. I agree with you, that's a good point. It's not a set it and forget it. It is, you know. It's just to keep in mind that it needs to be optimized from time to time to kind of be at its peak and to really do what it is doing, what you want to do, cause I was even thinking you know, we've both been kind of talking in the membership space but, like I wonder if you could give some examples for, like you know, people who are providing either services or selling products in terms of, uh, can you clarify the question of like, like, what ways and they could like automation might benefit them, or what are some examples of ways in which automation has kind of come in and really helped them gain additional revenue or sales, when maybe they might have left a pie and dry without any automation process or follow up?
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's go back to those three buckets that I talked about attract, sell and well. So in the attract stage, my favorite automation is a long term nurture. And a long term nurture can start as big or as small as you want, and I wanted to point that out because as soon as I talk about days, weeks, months, years, um, people start to hyperventilate and the goal is just start, and every time you write a new email, pack it in there. But the purpose of that is is it really helps make sure that you are building that relationship. You're not going from hi, my name is Christy to will you marry me overnight? Right, and you're also creating an environment where you are saying I'm open, I'm here and I'm ready whenever you are, instead of saying buy my stuff now, and when they don't buy, you feel like you are a terrible business person.
Speaker 2:So, in the attract stage, long-term nurture In the selling stage, I think I would. It's truly a tie, especially because different businesses have different methodologies for how they sell. Some can productize and offer pricing, checkout and all that stuff on their website, whereas others need estimates and custom pricing. Whenever possible, I always recommend productize, productize, productize, productize, because it reduces the friction in the buying experience, but really what I would say my favorite would be what happens after they buy.
Speaker 2:How do you make sure that that process is nailed down with automation? Because, again, it's all about making sure that they get the best experience possible and you get the best experience possible and you know so, like I know, every single person who signs up for automation on mission gets the exact same experience. And you can't tell me you didn't get such and such email, because if you're in the automation you got it. Now we just got to go find it. So there's that consistency piece and then in the wow stage, it's about that and my favorite would be okay. So my favorite automation is and we separate this out into three. So I think, satisfaction survey, testimonial and referral. And the reason why I break those up is because I have found, working with a lot of diverse clients and a lot of women, that there was apprehension about asking for testimonials and referrals, and so the concern was well, what if they're not happy?
Speaker 1:And my reaction to that is the concern was well, what if they're not happy? And my reaction to that is don't, don't you want to know.
Speaker 2:So are we. You know, we have an automation now that is that goes out before you ever ask for a testimonial, and it's essentially just two emails thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, thumbs down. It takes your reader two seconds to pick the right, you know, emoji and then, depending on how they answer and this is the amazing thing of automation If you push the happy button, then it triggers a request for a testimonial and a referral. If you push the neutral button or an unhappy, then it gives the owner a notification. Hey, you might have some problems that you want to address, and how amazing is that they're giving you a chance to fix it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that would be my favorite in that stage.
Speaker 1:I love it and.
Speaker 2:I love that example.
Speaker 1:I do think that is sometimes scary asking for feedback, and then people are like oh, feedback is a gift, and you're like but it is true, because it all depends on how you spin it Right. So we just recently did some past you know, lapsed member surveys and conversations, and we happened to find a member who was like I'm semi-retired and I'm on a fixed income, I love the community, I still do some of the work, I'm still working a bit, but it's just, it's not within my budget anymore.
Speaker 1:And so we created a retiree legacy leader membership type so that these women who still want to give back to community, want to learn from community, be in community, have the opportunity and it doesn't take it away from them just because they happen to have their circumstances, you know, their regular income changed and because, again, it's like it's that depth and breadth of you know diversity within the community that makes it so rich. But it was like, just think about that. Every time you're asking for feedback, you're asking for an opportunity to actually improve on what you're doing already. So, while I know it's hard, you know we do surveys every year too, and I'm always like a little gut, my tummy is like all tight and I'm like, oh, what are they going to say? You know we all take the feedback so personally, but again, look at it as that opportunity. So I love that you encourage that and I do think that is definitely one of those places.
Speaker 1:That leads into the next question, nicely, of when you're looking to retain. Often retention gets overlooked and prioritization of acquisition I guess because it's sexier. I don't know, I never quite understood it myself. What automated processes have you found most effective for keeping clients coming back?
Speaker 2:I think it really depends on the type of business. So I shared the example of the human design. And can I tell another short story? Oh, I love it. We love the stories, bring them. So here's another very different kind of business.
Speaker 2:So I worked with a whole bunch of different master spa dealers for several years and when I had an opportunity to visit a master spa dealer in Ohio, um, and they had a brick and mortar store and we were building out solutions for their business, and he, he said my customers are transactional customers. And I was like, okay, well, what do you mean by that? And he said well, you know, we deliver a $50,000 swim spa and then we never hear from them again, unless there's a problem. And then I'm like, what kind of problems do they have? And he said cloudy water. Cloudy water is a party stopper. I'll never forget that thing. I had this picture of like Super Bowl Sunday you got the wings and the beer and your water is dirty and nobody's going to get in there and and so. But but the irony of it was I was. I was in his physical space that was covered wall to wall of chemicals, filters and smelly goods. And I'm like why aren't you selling those? And he said that you know the business goes elsewhere. They go to this online store to order their, their, their products. And I was like, well, I mean we could solve that problem.
Speaker 2:And so I also had learned that you don't buy a hot tub and take it home in the back of your car. It's a multi-week process, and so during that time, the first thing we did was we automated what happens from the time they buy To the time their hot tub is delivered, and all the content was around Preparing your space, helping you understand, permitting, making sure that you have the right kind of electrical outlets, all this kind of stuff. And did they need it? Maybe a few of them, but really what it was was helping them understand. You didn't just take $50,000 of their money and run away with it. It's helping them understand. You're actively working on their project, et cetera, et cetera. And then, after the hot tub was delivered, or swim spa was delivered, it was all about how to maximize the use of said hot tub. These are the health benefits. How do you do exercise?
Speaker 2:By the way, you could buy this little floaty thing that you could put your snacks in all that kind of stuff. And then we went one step further. We already know what you bought, so we know what schedule you need filters and chemicals like. Let's use that information to automate reminders. And so it went from just a little bit of value around how to get the most out of it to let's help you proactively avoid the problem that they hear about, to let's help you create a subscription program. So, rather than waiting until you know a couple of days before every single time, let's save you money with a subscription program. You'll have your filters and your chemicals on your doorstep before you even need them. And I'm telling you overnight tens of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2:And one of the cool things about getting to and this is my message around niche down is I served about a dozen different master spa dealers and they all got along really well and shared and collaborated. So when I built it for one, we could take it and put it in another business and another business. And so not only was it tens of thousands of dollars for one store, it was tens of thousands of dollars for all of the other master stores. And um, you know, and so, and, and. The moral of the story is deliver value. And the last piece that I will say about all of this is I wish that I could buy from the first guy when I when we were moving into this house, I wanted a hot tub and I went to my. They're in Ohio and I'm in Colorado, so that wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 2:But I went to my friend and said hey, I know you have a hot tub. Where'd you buy it from? And it had only been a year previous as she bought it. She had no idea who she bought it from.
Speaker 1:Tells you something. That relationship it's like it is transactional at that point. But yeah, how can you take that purchase and make it more relational than just transactional?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that Hatha, for her, wasn't the value. The value was what could they have done Like? The experience was so unmemorable she had no idea who she made a sizable investment with.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. That's impressive. It tells you something, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's such a great story and example.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, we love our stories here, so you just keep on bringing them. We don't mind it at all, especially like those kinds of case studies and examples, cause it really, again, it can be applicable across so many different types of businesses as well. That's what's so amazing For business owners who might be hesitant about automation or maybe fearing it's too technical or too impersonal, like we touched on earlier. What perspective, what perspective shifts, would you suggest for them? You don't have to do everything.
Speaker 2:I would say start small and, and like I said before early on, like just start with one thing and let that one thing take something off of your plate, and then you know maybe. But I think the most important piece about all of that is just because you have automation doesn't mean that you have have to have it in every part of your business.
Speaker 2:I have our system integrates with QuickBooks. I do not integrate my system with QuickBooks. Do I tell our clients they can, Absolutely. And for me that's just one area that I want a little bit more access, a little bit more manual control, and I'm okay with that and that might change. But to that point you don't have to do everything, and so if you're feeling like it's an all or nothing kind of thing, start small, pick one thing at a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no again. I think that's always the best way to start right Baby steps, one little thing at a time. Rue is jumping into the chat with our live listening audience. She says that she loves that. You mentioned checking for the friction and the client experience.
Speaker 1:Speaking of that, I remember this platform which we're on, by the way, Riverside, she loves it. Glad that you love it Requires Chrome or Edge browser. This led to a bit of confusion and error messaging when she tried to join this webinar today from Firefox. So, yeah, thanks for the feedback, rue, we love to hear that, and you're not the first person to mention it. And then their online web platform is also kind of heinous. So yeah, riverside, if you're listening, we got feedback for you.
Speaker 1:But it is about that experience, right, because you want people to show up and if they're having problems and struggling to log in, then it is a pain in the butt. But we also have automated emails that go out to remind people two hours ahead of time, 10 minutes beforehand, that we're like we're waiting for you right now, so people hopefully start to try to get on early in case they need to log in extra things. But it is that. It is that attention to detail and friction. I think, like you said and mentioned earlier, even in our like podcast guesting process, we try to alleviate and remove a lot of the friction by, you know, listing out here's kind of what you need to do to prep. Here's how you need to when we needed to show up, so that it is easier for you and you can just show up and not be like, you know, I mean, I don't know you're. You're doing fantastic. It sounds like you just sit around and talk on podcasts all day, every day.
Speaker 2:But yeah, some people come on they're like ah, you know sometimes they get really excited and I get a little bouncy.
Speaker 1:So I'm really proud of myself that I'm sitting still You're being, still you can bounce around, it's all right. But yeah, no, it definitely helps. You know, even when we're doing like in-person events, we have learned just really making sure that people know and can see and understand where they're meant to be, what time, what to expect, because it does reduce a certain level of anxiety for people as well, because you want people to show up and be present for the impending event. So there's definitely so many ways you know, outside of just even our business, that you could think of to kind of make automation. So Laura did have a question from our live listening audience. She says she notices that you have an affiliate program. How many affiliates are in your ecosystem? That's a great question.
Speaker 2:So I would guess probably between 75 and 100. And the reason that I would estimate that is because that's the number of members that we have in our system. So anytime somebody becomes a client or a member of Automation on a Mission, our automation automatically adds them to the affiliate program. So our private member only community gives them access to all kinds of content and things like that, as well as an affiliate dashboard. So they get a custom link. If they wanted to sell our program or refer business, they can, and they can watch their own dollars and cents, you know, generate through there. And then we do have, you know, folks that are they're not a good fit for one reason or another in their own business but they love what we do and so they share, you know. So they get added as well. I will never tell somebody they can't sell for me, I know right.
Speaker 1:Oh, you want to spread the word, please, right? Yes, make it easy for them. Make it easy. That's a great question to ask yourself too, business owners. How can I make it easier for my existing customers to sell for me? You know whether that's a referral program or an easy way to share your services or an easy way to discount for them. Sharing that's always a great way to go. I love it. Live listening audience. You're super engaged today, which means we must be doing good, christy. Yeah, so I've got a couple more questions for you, but live listening audience. You keep the questions coming too. You are absolutely a part of this conversation and why we do this and why we're here. So don't be shy. Looking ahead, Christy, what excites you the most about the future of business automation and how do you see it evolving for small businesses in particular?
Speaker 2:Okay, so first I have to give a confession, I was really excited for this question. So I am type A or A minus, and I say that because there are parts of my business and my life that I'm all about structure and setting things up in advance, et cetera, and then there's plenty of things that I am also fly by the seat of my pants, and so one of the things that I see happening is we're seeing more and more about AI getting put into anything and everything. Obviously, the work that we do is going to be hugely impacted by AI. I am very excited for the point in time where I can go in and say I need an automation that does this, this, this and this, and it just whips it out and I don't have to take an hour to build it, because then my flyby I mean and maybe it won't serve me super well because I'm already a little too fly by the seat of my pants sometimes but at the same time, I think so for me. I love that. I, I, I see that coming and I see it happening very soon.
Speaker 2:But I also think about the struggles that we I've watched our clients experience in learning, and when we made a big shift last year. We went from offering our program as a DIY solution with a course to doing the setup for our clients, and and the reason why we made that change was because we were seeing that they weren't getting it and as much as they tried, as much as they wanted to learn, as much as they showed up for our live q&a calls, participated in our trainings, the learning was happening. It was just happening slow, and what I felt was a sense of responsibility like this is not where you need to be spending happening slow, and what I felt was a sense of responsibility like this is not where you need to be spending your time. And so I could see AI coming in with a bigger presence and how we run our technology, so that, rather than having to do all these things, we can tell AI what we want and need it to do, and it will do it for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I'm a huge fan and super kind of learning out right now on AI agents and workflows because, workflows are definitely, I think, that next phase, that next step in kind of creating those automated multi-step tasks instead of just like a singular task, which actually leads into Betty's question very nicely. So thanks, Betty, for sharing your question. Zapier is very popular. We use it for a lot of things.
Speaker 1:Zaps man, they feel like magic, sometimes Does a lot of automation. She has found it, though, to be a little buggy. I don't disagree, depending on what it's trying to integrate with. Are there any other automation tools you have used or have found reliable?
Speaker 2:Okay. So I want to break that question down, if that's okay. So I want to break that question down, if that's okay. So, uh, so Zapier actually has. Zapier is an element of automation, so it's job. I like to say and I've been saying this for a decade now uh, and I do this, Zapier is, is the me and, and it's shaking hands with different systems, and so to that point and I can't believe I'm defending Zapier, because they also sometimes make me want to pull my hair out, but they are Zapier is going to do as good of a job as the people who develop the solution. So Zapier doesn't write for Calendly or DocuSign. They just create the environment for these two companies to come together.
Speaker 2:And so you know, and I'll use DocuSign and I don't mean to sort of diss them, but I'll use DocuSign as a good example of the imperfection there is. When DocuSign first created their solution with Zapier, they were like, yeah, we integrate with Zapier. Yeah, if you have more than one contract in DocuSign, it does not work because it will just willy-nilly pick whichever. It didn't have the sophistication to say I want this contract versus this contract and that's not on Zapier to solve that problem, that's on DocuSign. So that's the piece that I would say about that. But in terms of how? So Zapier as an integration tool? Other, there's Make. Zapier has an integration tool there's Make.
Speaker 2:And I think more and more products are becoming more user-friendly with just using webhooks in lieu of Zapier. So you can just sort of skip the middleman and just go straight from connecting point A to point B and then, if it's okay, to do a plug for our system, sure, you know, our automation on a mission is all the technology that you need to run your business online, and so when you have your calendaring and your e-commerce and your website and your CRM and your emails and your automations and your membership and courses all under one roof. You don't need Zapier, you don't need somebody to say, hey, forums talk to you know, crm, for example. You can build all of that all in the same place and you can use some or all of it. But the fewer places that you have to make connections, the fewer things that you risk breaking down, the fewer things that you have to troubleshoot Something. I was with Keap for a very long time. Keap has three different integration solutions with Zapier and I'm like, okay, well, pick your poison. Which one's going to?
Speaker 1:work today. Great, that is such a fantastic point, chrissy. I 110% agree. Zapier is kind of that conduit between. That makes the connection. But depending on how it's integrated into the other software, I've definitely found that where it's just more limiting or things don't work quite the same because you're asking one software to talk to another software and then be that, go between. And so oftentimes it's not necessarily Zapier, sometimes it is the setup, sometimes it is the software that you're trying, the pieces of software you're trying to get to talk. And it sounds crazy y'all, but I've actually also used AI to be tech support for me to help me if I find that, like, setting up a zap isn't working quite so well and I'll tell you it keeps defaulting me back to just making like, like creating web hooks and things like that. So I've all of a sudden learned how to do that.
Speaker 2:And what you're doing is you're getting a layer underneath of Zapier. Zapier just makes all of that pretty.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's just the. It's a nice pretty interface interface. Also, dan um, uh included uh system IO. He says it's a lot of uh built in inbuilt automation tools, including CRM, email marketing and website courses. So, yeah, those are some good solutions as well as alternatives. So thanks for that. Yeah, um, and then, as I mentioned earlier, uh, live listeners. There's some links in the chat. If you want to meet up with Christy to talk more about these awesome things, there's a link to her calendar above, and then I've also linked her website. We'll be sure to include those in the show notes as well. All right, keep the questions in the comments coming live listeners. We're going to move into the final few questions, which is our power round. This is just a fun kind of quick hit set of questions that we've got for you. Christy, one of my questions that I had for you was email sequences or chatbots. Which automation tool delivers the biggest ROI for most businesses? Do you think?
Speaker 2:I'm going to start with email sequences, and I feel fearful to say that answer because I do feel like it might date me a little bit, like I don't want technology to leave me behind, sure. But here's what I will say about chatbots. I think they're incredible. I think that the potential is huge, yes, and unless you have the time and the technical know-how to really make sure that your chatbot is getting your voice and your brand and is going to behave themselves, then I would say you know like, be really mindful of them. And as a quick example, we have a chatbot. It is presently turned off because it was trying to sell automation on a mission to our clients, and so I was like, okay, great job, a little too ambitious and I need to like, tone you down a little bit. So she is turned off until further notice.
Speaker 1:So fair enough, you know, and there's still something to be said. I mean, I don't know, I email marketing man. It's been a big conversation lately with you know, with platforms like within social media shifting. That is like my friend Lucretia says it's you are renting that house. You do not own that house. You own your email list. Yeah, all of these properties X, facebook, twitter was Twitter, I guess and Instagram, all those things, linkedin, I mean just, it's so volatile right now. Um, I think there's a lot to be said for that email automation and building and establishing that relationship, building the trust, etc. Um, and for those of you, and it's still the cheapest, it is right marketing strategy absolutely, it's very, very underappreciated.
Speaker 1:And, um, I was getting ready to say I haven't had her on the podcast yet. I was going back through my episodes going where's the link to lauren's podcast episode? She actually just did a master class on chatbots and automation and you know, not automation, but like creating and building chatbots that's what her business does. Um, so, members, if you haven't checked it out yet, jump into our digital digital IQ masterclass channel on Slack and you can kind of go back through and see the whole series of our masterclass videos. But I mean, she almost broke my brain with the masterclass talking about chat box, chat box and their capabilities.
Speaker 1:But I agree with you, like you know you, based on what she shared, you know I'm like, oh, if you, if you're gonna do this, you have to do it right Because, like what you were saying earlier, customer experience is everything and maintaining, retaining, keeping them, generating that additional revenue. So you could much like AI. It can be if you're not careful and you don't do it well and you aren't thorough about it, it can backfire. So I am still aligned with you. I don't think that age is us, I just think it just makes us wise, christy.
Speaker 2:And as time passes it's going to get better and better and easier for that, and mine has only turned off long enough for me to figure out. What do I need to do to have it be a little bit more discerning about who it's moving that conversation.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm happy to connect you and Lauren if you'd like. She's a little firecracker man. She's a blast. Yeah, I'm, I would love that Actually.
Speaker 2:Okay, I will.
Speaker 1:I will Thank you. I'm always down for making those good connections. Yeah, she's okay Wonderful, and then all right. My next one is oh, what's one business task that should never be automated?
Speaker 2:And I would say that it's possible that not everybody will agree with me, but I kind of hinted at this with, uh, the affiliate stuff, um, or I'm sorry, quickbooks, payments, money out of the business, in my opinion shouldn't be automated. Um, I want to know, you know like it could be something as simple as you think a subscription has been canceled and it hasn't. Um, I want to pay out my affiliate program, I want to pay out for for my bills, things like that, you know like, and that's not because that's to me that's not the same as auto pay. Auto pay is a different setup and arrangement altogether, but it comes up often with our clients around how do I automate paying the affiliate commissions? And I'm like, I think you probably number one, you can't in our system and, number two, I think you should be grateful for that Because you want to know whether or not.
Speaker 2:Somebody got credit for a sale that maybe didn't belong having that, you know, for one reason or another.
Speaker 1:Love it. It's a great example.
Speaker 2:All right, complete this sentence Good automation is like a good assistant, because she shows up on time, she's never late, she never takes snow days and she always does the best quality work that you told her to do Right, hey, so so agree. And it doesn't have to be a she, but mine's name is scaling Sarah, so that's right, I love it.
Speaker 1:I like the alliteration. Yeah the alliteration there. That's amazing. Yeah, you're so right, they can't take a sick day, and you know. And if there's any human error, it's yours, so there's nobody else to blame. All right, my last power on question for you is what is your go to response when clients say but my business is too unique for automation.
Speaker 2:Your business might be unique, but your automation is designed to be custom tailored around your business. So we figure out what we can automate in your business and we go from there. So, again, we start with with step one and a lot of times, you know, when I talk to clients, I tell them I'm super nosy and so I'm going to get in under the hood of your business and I'm going to poke around and find, you know, like I love finding things that people do with paper, and I'm like, yeah, we're going to eliminate that, you know. So it it. It really doesn't matter how special you think your business is. The intention is automation, isn't cookie cutter. So, yes, you can use, you know, these sort of themed solutions and but. But the experience gets built around what you need in your business because it's really for you. Yeah, exactly love it.
Speaker 1:Fantastic answer, christy. Thank you so much for all of these amazing insights, very actionable, on creating seamless customer journeys through automation. You have definitely shown us how to work smarter, not harder. One of my favorite sayings I don't care how old it gets for our listeners. You can find this recording on youtube. We've got a channel with all of this and all of our past podcast episodes, so be sure to check it out and subscribe. Connect with Christy on LinkedIn or at our website, automationautomissioncom. And remember, even small automations can create a powerful ripple effect in your business. So don't be shy, don't be afraid of it and don't miss next week's power lounge, friday, april 11th, when we welcome financial therapists. We're just like, we're just. We're just solving all the world's problems, all of our small business.
Speaker 1:I love that yeah, right, um, with kara cosway brittle. She is going to help us explore how our enneagram type influences our relationship with money. I know we talked human design, now we're talking enneagram. See, you're in good company. Love it Share some insights from her book on healing financial trauma and shifting from scarcity to empowerment. So another great conversation lined up for next week. Christy, thank you so much for being here with us and you know, talking to our amazing community.
Speaker 1:If you're not a member yet of Together Digital, check us out togetherindigitalcom If you are looking for the opportunity to get more content like this connections, conversations that are definitely going to move you and your business forward. Again, christy, I can't thank you enough. This is like food for my soul. I'm such an automation nerd. I don't know why I'm this way, but it's good to be in good company. We can't help it right. We can't help it Nope it. We can't help it right. We can't help it Nope it's all good, all right. Thank you all so much for being here with us today. Thank you, live listeners, for all your engagement and amazing questions. We appreciate you as well. Until then, keep asking, keep giving and keep growing. We'll see you all next week. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
