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8 Ways AI Is Used to Enhance Customer Experience Today
12 June 2020
Today, AI is part of the business landscape. It helps us predict what might happen so we can make better business decisions. Yet, there’s one area in which AI can truly shine: improving the customer experience.
AI can boost the customer experience, as well as CX management, by automating a number of functions that make it easier for companies to connect with their customers. Read on to learn the eight ways that you can start using AI to enhance your customer experience and CX management.
Get a 360° View of the Customer
To improve the customer experience, you have to understand your customer deeply. That means knowing what actions your customer has taken on your website, what he or she has ordered from you in the past, and whether they have ever opened a support ticket.
When you understand what your customers have done in the past and what actions they’re taking now, you can better meet their needs. Meeting their needs improves the customer experience (and makes the customer want to come back to you).
Personalisation at Scale
One of the ways AI improves the customer experience is by scaling personalisation. Personalisation is one of the most effective ways you can improve the customer experience. It shows customers that you care enough to take the time and effort to tailor your communications to their needs. However, personalisation is generally a manual, labour-intensive activity that doesn’t generate great ROI.
AI automates personalisation by learning a customer’s preferences. It can assimilate a great deal of information at once and can apply what it’s learned at scale. For example, AI would understand that Janice likes going to steak restaurants, while Pam is a vegetarian. It would boost both women’s customer experience by sending them coupons for their favourite meals, making them feel that the restaurant values their business.
Personalising the Customer Experience
In addition to personalisation at scale, AI can personalise the customer experience, too. What does that mean?
Let’s say you’re visiting a site for a second time. AI recognises your IP address and doesn’t prompt you to sign up for the newsletter (as it would if you were visiting a site for the first time). A personalised customer experience could also be that a website recommends a blog post based on what you’ve previously read. Those sound like small actions, yet they have a deep impact. They improve the customer experience because they give the customer the sense that the company welcomes them, that they ‘belong.’ When customers feel that way, their customer experience is much better.
Predictive Analytics
AI can also improve the customer experience by figuring out what the customer wants next. That ability is known as ‘predictive analytics.’
One of the most prominent examples of predictive analytics is Netflix. Netflix knows what you’ve watched, and the video streaming firm uses predictive analytics to reckon what you might want to see next. If you loved ‘Game of Thrones,’ Netflix will suggest ‘The Witcher.’
Predictive analytics improve the customer experience because they show that the company understands what you’re looking for and wants to give you more of it.
Predictive Engagement
Predictive engagement is a subset of personalisation rather than predictive analytics. This application of AI uses machine learning to understand who a customer is, where that person is in their customer journey, and what next steps you should take to help that person progress to the following stage.
Imagine that you’re purchasing a new CRM for your company, and you’re quite far along in the decision-making process – you know what features you want, and you’ve got a shortlist of vendors. You wouldn’t want to receive a free demo at this point. What would really seal the deal is a testimonial. Predictive engagement technology understands that, and it makes the customer experience better by proving that a company supports customers throughout their journey.
Self-Service
Companies can also use AI to enhance the customer experience through self-service. Chatbots are one of the most popular AI-powered self-service methods firms use. They allow customers to connect with firms and get the answers they need quickly and easily.
It might sound counterintuitive that a chatbot can boost the customer experience – after all, don’t customers want the human touch? Actually, what customers really want is to complete a task. That task could be buying a new bike helmet: If a chatbot takes less time to answer his or her questions than a human, the customer experience is automatically better.
It’s Always On
Another benefit of AI as it connects to the customer experience is that AI doesn’t take breaks. It’s always on.
Let’s say you’re researching a new software solution for work, and you’ve put in some late nights doing so. If you have a question about the software’s capability, a salesperson isn’t going to answer the phone after working hours. But a chatbot can.
Having an always-on chatbot improves the customer experience because it fits into customers’ workflows and lifestyles.
Customer Service, with a Virtual Smile
Not only is AI always on, you never have to worry that it’s having a bad day or that it won’t deliver excellent customer service. Unlike human beings, AI is consistent – it always offers the same level of customer service, and it’s never moody or grouchy.
With AI, customers always get a great customer experience – it’s always consistent, and the AI solution is always friendly and ready to help. It makes customers want to keep coming back.
Enlighten Designs: Helping Improve the Customer Experience and CX Management
At Enlighten Designs, we have over twenty years of delivering an excellent customer experience. We have a deep knowledge of how best to implement AI to improve the customer experience and CX management. To learn more about AI can make your customer experience better as well as easier to manage, Contact Us!
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