Every customer or client a business interacts with has a unique set of needs, wants and desires. In today’s consumer-centric economy, people are looking to have their questions answered and their problems solved by a trusted, reliable resource. They are searching for a brand that resonates with them personally and actually takes the time to get to know who they are. As marketers strive to make the customer’s journey an enjoyable one, Artificial Intelligence is bringing to life the possibility for any business, no matter its size, to meet customer needs and provide them with the best possible experience.
Customer Service In Real-Time
Great customer experience starts with letting the customer know that their concerns are being listened to. In the past, when a customer had an issue or a question about a product or service, they would have to contact you during business hours or face a serious delay between asking their question and getting the answers they needed. Because of this time delay, customers may lose interest if they feel like they’re not getting enough attention from your company. But technology is working to solve this problem.
“From a marketing standpoint, one of the most useful AI innovations of the last few years is the AI chatbot. With 80% of business hoping to implement chatbots by 2020.”
A chatbot implemented on the homepage of your site or integrated with your social media profile can prompt users to start an interaction with your business, without the need to have a live real person on the other end. Chatbots can answer frequently asked questions, provide general information to new customers, start a help ticket for someone having an issue, and collect data.
Nowadays, bots for business can help to make a lasting connection with new visitors, potential customers and business goals. It may not always be easy for customers to know where to find the information they’re looking for, so a ai chatbot can help point them in the right direction by answering basic questions and providing links to more information within your site. Think of your typical interaction with a potential customer. Do they come to you with a question? Are they looking for information? Or are they just looking to connect with your brand? Your chatbot can automate some of these processes, making it easy to collect data and give potential customers exactly what they’re looking for. And you can save time, money and resources by automating these conversations that would otherwise require a live person to answer.
Make Stellar Recommendations
AI can collect data on potential customers based on their purchase history, the actions they’ve taken, the questions they’ve asked, and the products they prefer. From there, AI can make some pretty accurate predictions about what actions your customers may take next. You can use this data to recommend the products on your site, or even send them a personalized email showing off products they may have a need for, sometimes before the customer even realizes they need them!
AI gives you the opportunity to grab data and use it to offer personalized experiences in real time. Each interaction the customer has with your business can be used to tweak their experience a little more, as you get a clearer picture of each of your customers.
This means your AI can help with making the perfect offer at just the right time. The data you gather can help you understand where exactly in the buyers’ journey the customer is and can help them take the next step towards making a purchase. Targeted ads and personalized email messaging means that customers are seeing the information they want to see without having to sort through unnecessary spam. And websites that change dynamically are driven by a script that generates content that changes based on your visitors’ actions and preferences. Customers are more likely to feel a connection to your brand when you use your data to personalize their experience.
Use Your Data Wisely
Over time businesses gather a lot of information about their customers’ behaviours, preferences, and feelings about your company. What you do with that data, however, can change how you interact with your customers in the future.
“When you feed AI lots of high-quality data, AI will be able to make smart, accurate predictions about upcoming consumer trends.”
AI can work hand in hand with your customer service team and marketing department to make sure that you are addressing these trends. You can also use this data for your own research as a business. For example, learning the demographics of your customers means you can get a better idea of exactly who they are and what type of interactions they respond best to.
What is it about your brand that customers appreciate and feel passionate about? How do you fall short in comparison to your competitors? AI can bring all this data directly to your fingertips and help you craft a better experience for your customers from start to finish.
Where To Start
As AI continues to advance and its capabilities expand, we’ll see more opportunities to use it to improve every step of the buyers’ journey and AI impact on our day to day life. Even small companies with limited resources can use AI to help deliver insight into customers wants and needs. Now’s the time to start using AI to bring your business into the future, and getting started doesn’t need to be a stumbling block.
Plug a ai chatbot into your site or use one on social media and start gathering data on how people interact with it. Try basic personalization in emails and on your website, based on the actions that your potential customers take. And perhaps most importantly, keep the data that you gather organized. Artificial intelligence is only as good as the data you feed it, so make sure your AI is getting the right data to make solid predictions about customer insights. Stay on top of advancements in AI to keep your customers happy and engaged!
Author Bio
Rachel is a Philadelphia-based writer, digital content specialist, and Hubspot-certified expert in inbound marketing, e-commerce, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and tech marketing. Check out her website at www.rachelhorvath.co
