Traditionally, Small Businesses make up about two-thirds of new jobs in the United States. As we come out of COVID, many businesses are doing a “great re-assessment”, responding to realities like the great resignation and very low unemployment rates. A 2019 CNBC study found that 52% of small business owners claimed it to be harder to find qualified individuals to hire, compared to a year earlier, and that the quality of the labor was poor. COVID has only increased that challenge.
In addition, the number of small businesses is about to grow even further, making the competition for talent more brutal. The latest statistics from The Small Business Administration (SBA, 2021) show there are now 32.5 million small businesses in the US, which account for 99.9 percent of all US businesses. And 23 million of these have fewer than 20 employees.
Not to mention, a growing 40% of small businesses use websites as their main source of revenue. That’s why small business owners need to get creative to provide the right amount- and quality of customer service.
The problem is, that owners end up taking on a lot outside of their CEO job description. From managing payroll, training employees, and perfecting their product. And being the face of customer service, it can be hard to keep up. They could hire additional staff, but that can waste a lot of time, not to mention cost more than they can afford. And while it’s very easy to start your own business and become your own boss these days, it’s not always easy to find the right talent to be the face of customer service efforts.
“The ability to add continued value to a customer is arguably the most important part of a modern business’ success. That’s why customer success today is the new sales” -Amy CEO Stijn Hendrikse
Today, the focus of many businesses has shifted to recurring revenue streams and growing the amount of revenue per customer. This also translates to small businesses, where customer service is at the heart of achieving these goals. The value of a small business has shifted from the question, “how many customers have you obtained in x amount of time” to “how many of your customers actually stick around?”
The majority of new small businesses started in 2021 were:
If you’re a small business owner with big ambitions, you know how customer loyalty can make or break your business goals. Unlike a phone- or utility company, you can’t afford to lose customers or prospects because you don’t answer their calls or inquiries. Plus, many small businesses were hit hard in the past few years, losing the in-person connection with the customers they depended on to thrive. You try to answer every customer inquiry, but with a global staffing shortage, scarcity of time and resources is a big challenge.
Most business models are now predicated on what the lifetime value of your customers is. Almost every business is now trying to become a subscription business. Whether you go to a retail store, to a hospitality business, or even when you purchase a simple cup of coffee, every business is vying for their customers to sign up for a loyalty program or subscription. Companies value keeping their customers, and growing them, more than getting new ones.
“Whether it’s a bakery handing out a punch card or a hairdresser that’s giving you 10 haircuts for the price of 8, everything is predicated on the notion that customer success is key to business success.” -Amy CEO Stijn Hendrikse
Many large businesses focus on subscription-based business models to maximize and improve the lifetime value of their customers. That’s why we’ve seen an increase in customer service technologies like enterprise chat solutions. These live chat solutions are often combined with chatbots, and AI technology to appear human to users. They can be pre-programmed with quick reply options, and are starting to get better at learning from the conversations. They minimize the need for an actual person to sit behind a keyboard and respond to customers.
The problem is, that many of these solutions aren’t fully “smart” enough to completely anticipate a user's needs, are complicated to set up, or can be costly. In short, the current tools are not fully equipped for Small businesses and their unique needs. That’s where Amy comes in.
The chatbot for small business owners and their unique needs
Small businesses are complex. From the way small business customers order to the questions they ask, there’s no true solution out there that directly understands their needs with the right content.
That’s why Amy takes suggestions directly from small business experts to create pre-built flows. From updating a menu by seasonality to booking a tour or event, Hendrikse views Amy’s content as an opportunity to differentiate the solution from other chatbots on the market.
At its core, Amy allows users to customize their interactions as little or as much as they need from the existing pre-built flows. As Amy’s user-base continues to grow, Hendrikse envisions the library of templates to grow alongside it and continue to create meaningful flows that resonate with each type of business.
In fact, throughout Amy’s “Beta” period, the team saw an opportunity to create “mini flows” that align across different industries and their similar needs. Take small breweries, for example. Many offer tours that visitors can schedule to walk through their facilities. This isn’t too off the mark from a local museum. Different industries with similar needs can take these “mini flows” and adapt them to their Amy chatbot. What this does is create more efficiency for the Amy product team to service a variety of industries, without creating individual flows for each one.
Small business owners don’t have a ton of time on their hands to learn a new technology or go through a complex onboarding process. With a simple copy and paste code, users can get Amy on their website in a matter of minutes, so they can be there for their customers, even outside of regular business hours.