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Analysing online Menus
with RPA and Web Scraping
Contacts and leads in the consumer goods industry
To sell products within the consumer goods industry in a targeted way, quickly generating new leads and establishing new and relevant customer contacts is important. The underlying CRM system, in which existing and potential customers are maintained, is the basis for this. The search for new customers is often not an automated process however, but rather is done manually by the responsible sales representative on the internet. From research to establishing contacts the effort involved is great, and has to be done alongside the day-to-day business.
Automating manual research with RPA
For a manufacturer of consumer goods in the catering sector restaurants, pubs and similar establishments are the main source of potential customers. General information, such as name, address and telephone number, must be made available to the sales department. Extra information, such as menu extracts, are useful in gaining an impression of the brands on offer.
Automated research, analysable data
4brands Reply, in collaboration with Macros Reply, has developed a more efficient and smarter solution which reduces the manual effort of research. Thanks to Robotic Process Automation (RPA), it was possible to relieve the field sales staff enormously in the research process. 4brands Reply and Macros Reply supported the company by using RPA to make profitable use of unstructured web data, thus creating a competitive advantage.
Bot research of keywords and images using Google
Using RPA, the research work normally done by the field sales employee over several hours can be handled by a bot which works much faster. The bot does its research in the same way a human does: For example by making a search request via Google. A list of results is worked through sequentially. The bot filters for previously defined information automatically.
The bot is not only able to extract standard information such as name, address and phone number, but can also read menu content stored on Google maps. If there are no menu links stored, the bot searches the images available. As soon as the bot finds a photo with a menu tag within Google images, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is used to convert the photo and it is saved ready for the field sales employee.
Reducing the effort
The employee can start establishing contact directly and only has to add the newly acquired contacts to the CRM system. This scenario can be used not only for a general Google query, but can also be implemented on Facebook, Tripadvisor, foursquare or Twitter.
Structuring external web data for analysis
For the unstructured web data compiled by the bot to be subsequently usable by the CRM or ERP system, and thereby also for trend potential or turnover analyses, it must first be structured. This was made possible by 4brands Reply using web scraping, a process that pulls data from a website and presents it in table format. Information is thereby available in a structured format within a short timeframe. Existing internal data can then be enriched with the newly acquired data, and used for exploration and analysis.
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web scrapping
The benefits at a glance
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Data is current
Thanks to RPA, company data can always be kept up to date without spending a lot of time on research
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Increased efficency
The smart search creation reduces manual effort and saves the employee a lot of time, which they can spend on the customer instead
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Analysis
The more structured processing of the data means it can be used effectively in exploration and analysis
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Extra hit rates
The use of OCR increases the hit rate, so additional information, on menu content for example, can be extracted from tagged images
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Further potential
The bot can be used not only for lead management, but also for updating existing customers' contact details
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4brands Reply specializes in the consumer goods industry and supports companies in the design of their individual digital transformation processes with innovative IT technologies. 4brands Reply's approach focuses on the consumer with his Customer Journey, which covers the entire value chain of the company. The offer includes process consulting and system integration for the core areas of Customer Experience Management, Revenue Growth Management, management of Demand-driven Supply Chains, Enterprise Management and management of a Digital Data Platform.
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Macros Reply is an expert in digitalization and automation of business processes for insurance companies and financial service providers. In order to meet their high standards, Macros Reply develops flexible and configurable software for the core functionalities, enhanced with solutions from selected, tested and long-term partners. Using innovative technologies such as Process Mining, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Machine Learning, Macros Reply helps its customers in their transformation into modern, fast acting companies: Relieve the processing from routine work and support value-adding activities, with benefits for the customer in significantly reduced processing times. Macros Reply also stands for: ECM, transaction processing & DMS, distribution rules, workflow & process management, eFiles and ePostboxes, and archiving.