Kommunicate, a US-based technology company and recent inductee to Google’s AI-First Accelerator Program, has carved out a niche in the SaaS space by leveraging the power of AI to make the process of creating chatbots easier and developer-free for customers worldwide. Founded in October 2020, Kommunicate has quickly risen to prominence, thanks to its innovative approach to customer service automation. By integrating ActiveCampaign’s marketing and sales automation software, Kommunicate has significantly enhanced its operational efficiency, driving remarkable business growth.
The Origin of Kommunicate
Kommunicate was founded with a vision to revolutionize customer service through automation. “Kommunicate is an AI-powered customer service automation platform, built specifically for customer service use cases,” says Manab Boruah, Product Marketing Manager at Kommunicate. The platform allows businesses to create AI chatbots with ease, eliminating the need for extensive technical expertise. “Kommunicate allows you to create AI chatbots very easily. Previously, these chatbots could only be created by developers. You needed software engineers on your team to create an AI chatbot,” Manab explains.
Growing Pains and the Need for Automation
As Kommunicate began to grow, they faced the inevitable challenges that come with scaling a business. Initially, their growth was manageable. “In the early days, we used to run beta programs. We would get three or four signups a day, it was easily manageable. We were able to provide very hands-on support through the onboarding and free trial process” However, they quickly grew in popularity, making it difficult to maintain such a manual process. “As we were growing, it became impossible to manually reach out to each one of them. Also, as the product evolved and we launched new features and integrations, we needed to communicate more regularly with users.”
With their signups increasing rapidly each month, it became clear that manual processes were no longer sustainable. “We reached 500 signups a month and decided it was time to start looking at automation to help manage marketing, sales, and customer experience processes,” says Manab. This realization led them to explore automation solutions to manage the influx efficiently.
The search for a robust automation platform led Kommunicate to ActiveCampaign. “Our CEO originally brought ActiveCampaign into the company. He decided to automate with a marketing automation platform,” Manab recounts. Shortly after implementing ActiveCampaign, Kommunicate moved its business model from one-time software purchase to subscription (SaaS), so automated communication became even more important to help manage important billing notifications. ActiveCampaign provided a comprehensive solution that addressed several critical areas for Kommunicate.
Managing Inbound Leads and Onboarding
Kommunicate uses ActiveCampaign to streamline the onboarding process for those initiating free trials. “The moment someone opens a trial account, this triggers an automation called ‘signups’.” The automation sends new users a welcome series of 8 emails to help them get started and learn more about the code-free capabilities Kommunicate provides to end users to simplify the chatbot creation and implementation process. At the scale that Kommunicate is growing, this would be a monumental task for their single account manager to undertake. Automating the welcome series and onboarding process allows Kommunicate to ensure all new leads get nurtured to maximize their potential for success (and hopefully conversion to paying customers).
Additionally, Kommunicate uses ActiveCampaign automations to manage communications when users’ accounts are coming up for renewal by using the account’s renewal date as the triggerKeeping onboarding and account management on autopilot ensures an efficient and reliable user experience for Kommunicate’s customers.
Personalized Content and Trial Management
ActiveCampaign’s Mixpanel integration gives deep insight into user activity inside Kommunicate’s product. This allows the team to tailor content specifically based on in-app user activity throughout the onboarding and free trial process which helps boost guidance and engagement. “If users haven’t logged into the product after three days, they drop into an automation that serves content to help encourage them to get started,” Manab explains. This process ensures that new users have the resources they need if they are having trouble getting started, helping them understand the platform and how to utilize it effectively.
“If that person has not started creating a chatbot, we send them a different email and they follow a different path in the automation. We encourage them to build a chatbot without code and show them how,'” says Manab. This personalization extended to integrations as well. “If they are not integrating after four or five days, then we send another follow-up specific to integrations, encouraging them to connect their chatbot to WhatsApp, WordPress, Facebook Messenger, etc. If they have integrated a chatbot, then they are sent down yet another path to increase product usage and engagement.” This approach helped users see the value of the product and increased the likelihood of conversion from a free trial to a paying customer.
Lead Scoring and Sales Qualification
With a small sales team, effective lead scoring and qualification are crucial to ensure Kommunicate engages high-quality and high-interest prospects. “Lead scoring is where things get serious for us. We have a lot of people coming in and their interest is not that very high.” Manab explains that since they offer a free trial, frequently new signups come from students working on school projects, people doing market research, or other groups that have a low probability of converting to paying customers.
Activities that indicate high intent–such as creating multiple chatbots, connecting the chatbots to an integration, or adding an additional user to the Kommunicate account–are all tracked and fed back to lead scoring automations in the ActiveCampaign CRM to ensure the highest-quality leads are passed to the lean sales team. “That’s where marketing is able to add value to the sales team,” Manab highlights. By using ActiveCampaign’s lead scoring, Kommunicate easily identifies high-quality leads and ensures they receive the attention needed to convert them into paying customers.
The Impact of ActiveCampaign on Business Growth
The implementation of ActiveCampaign had a profound impact on Kommunicate’s business metrics. “66% of revenue year on year is likely driven by ActiveCampaign automation through email or in product notifications,” Manab notes. This is mainly driven by the targeted and personalized communication based on user activity and interest that ActiveCampaign’s automation and integration capabilities enable. This personalization also ensures a consistent open rate of 23%, ensuring that users are well-informed and engaged with the product. This engagement strategy continues to drive significant growth for Kommunicate. Manab shares, “Our conversions are also currently growing 1.5x from quarter to quarter.”
Additionally, ActiveCampaign helped Kommunicate save valuable time. “Based on the manual efforts that we used to do, ActiveCampaign saves somewhere around 32 hours a month,” Manab states. This efficiency allowed the team to focus on more strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down by repetitive tasks.
Conclusion
Kommunicate’s journey from a fledgling startup to a rapidly growing SaaS company underscores the importance of automation in scaling a business. By leveraging ActiveCampaign, Kommunicate has been able to manage its growing user base efficiently, provide personalized content to enhance user experience, and effectively qualify leads for its sales team. The result has been impressive growth and improved operational efficiency, demonstrating the transformative power of marketing and sales automation in today’s digital landscape.
If you’d like to start seeing the automation-powered growth Kommunicate created with ActiveCampaign, sign up for a 14-day free trial today!
