Customer experience is the heart of your business. If it fails, all else fails too.
And yes, that stands true even if you have the best product or service in the market.
Perhaps, this is why AI is becoming a crucial component of every business these days. More and more companies are exploring artificial intelligence and how they can use it to expand their business.
In this post, we’ll explore the subject in complete detail. We will explore:
- What is AI in Customer Experience?
- Top 5 Ways AI is making customers happy and helping businesses thrive.
- 8 Effective Strategies of Leveraging AI in Customer Experience
You should be reading ahead if you’ve got an established business with some budget at hand. If you’re only beginning to lay the foundations for your business, we recommend reading 10 Ways to Build Great Customer Experience.
Understanding Artificial Intelligence
It is essential to understand the term Artificial Intelligence to fully grasp its role in customer experience. So, let us walk you through it.
By definition, artificial intelligence is a means of imitating human intelligence. Professionals develop devices and systems that replicate human ways of thinking to automate processes. Some prominent examples of AI are:
- Siri
- Alexa
- Self-driving cars
- Email Spam Filters
- Conversational Robots
- Netflix Recommendations
Another term that often appears along AI is machine learning (ML). It branches out from AI and is basically concerned with the development of algorithms. Developers and engineers develop computer systems or software applications that predict possible outcomes without being programmed to do so. Examples of machine learning include:
- Auto-friend Tagging Suggestion
- Google Translation
- Image Recognition
- Traffic Alerts when using Google Maps
For someone like you and I, things can get a bit confusing. How do we differentiate between AI? How do we determine which of the two we need to expand our businesses?
Well, it’s simple. Wherever you see technology behaving like humans, i.e., flexible, diverse, and intelligent, that’s AI. And wherever you see technology efficiently replicating or repeating processes, that’s ML.
For example, Siri is capable of responding to any question you throw at it. It can play your favorite songs, answer your riddles, and even chat with you for a bit. If you’ve ever pulled a prank or two, you’d notice Siri can sense humor too. On the contrary, Facebook’s auto-tagging suggestion will only tag accounts. If you type @R, all the accounts beginning with R will show up (your friend list being at the top). It cannot perform any other function.
As for determining which of the two you’ll need, leave that on the post ahead. As you read through, things will fall in place.
What is AI in customer experience?
AI in customer experience is equivalent to easing customers’ interaction with your business. You use AI to:
- Help customers meet their needs quickly
- Help customers make decisions easily
- Weave your business into your customer’s life
How so? That’s something we’ll explore in the next heading. But for now, we want you to visualize this:
Your customer orders a product from your online store every month. This month they haven’t visited your site. If you’ve got an AI-backed business, your site will be able to recognize that X customer ID or the person from an X IP address hasn’t placed an order or visited the site lately. The system will send them an email (you have complete control over the text body of this email). In this way, your customer is reminded, and he visits the site.
When the customer visits the site, his previous order history pops up. And he can easily re-order the Y Product that he frequently orders. By doing so, you make profits, and your customer smiles to himself as he no longer has to worry about remembering to place an order. He’s got help from your side. 🙂
At this point, we want you to give a quick read on how artificial intelligence is changing the outsourcing industry, as well as how to use artificial intelligence in a small business. Both of these posts will give you some clarity about how AI helps both businesses and customers.
6 Ways AI Can Make your Customer Happier
By now, we hope you know what you’re getting yourself into. Let’s focus on why you need to get yourself into it.
Simply put: For your customers.
Artificial Intelligence can make your customers happier by:
- Recommending relevant products
- Solving their problems quicker
- Saving the time they’d spent on searching or complaining
- Sending timely reminders
- Personalizing experiences (if they prefer a certain font on their posts, that’s what they get!)
- Making operations safer
It also helps improve customer experience indirectly. It collects data for you and helps you improvise operations as need be.
8 Strategies for Leveraging AI in Customer Experience
It’s time to get to the real deal: How can you get started? How can you leverage AI in customer experience?
Here are eight super effective strategies:
1. Automate Data Entry Processes
It pains your customers to enter all of their details every time they order from your site, go to a different page, use a different tool on your site, or do anything of a similar nature. Nobody likes typing down the same set of information over and over again.
You can use AI to collect their information, automatically recognize the user, and auto-input the required fields every time there’s a need.
Similarly, it pains your customer to manually search for the blogpost they once read on your blog. You can use AI and ML to your advantage and enable a search bar that allows them to locate the blog post by simply typing down a keyword.
They can even find related relevant posts, thanks to the predictive text technology. You can use AI-powered tools like Nanonet to implement this strategy.
2. Tailor Recommendations
Machine learning can help your business deliver a personalized experience. How so? With the help of algorithms!
Basically, when you incorporate recommendation engines in your virtual marketplace, the engine collects users’ behavioral data. It may include their likes, dislikes, reviews, pages they’ve visited, cart activity, etc.
Using this information, the recommendation engine filters relevant product recommendations from your database and presents them to your customers. Your customer readily finds things of their interest. Consequently, they are more likely to shop from you as it makes them believe you understand them better.
Your Instagram Explore Feed is an excellent example of this. The content that pops up in your explore feed is the type of content you spend most of your time on. This is exactly why you never get bored from browsing Instagram. Everything there is of your interest!
3. Trace Unhappy Customers
AI can help you improve customer experience by identifying unhappy customers as well. Amongst all the data that AI collects, it also collects data of those who abandoned their carts or left your website after several visits.
You can use AI to trace down these unhappy visitors and customers and send them nice and inviting messages. You can send them coupons, bonuses, and even gifts to get them back.
4. Use Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment Analysis can help detect the mood of your customers. And using this data, you can reply to the angry and frustrated customers before you answer the happier ones. When you’ll solve problems immediately, customer experience will automatically improve. Here, you ought to notice that AI is helping you filter customer feedback and set the right priorities.
5. Use AI as a Customer Service Assistant
In the current times, most digital businesses provide immediate customer support on their landing page in the form of a chatbot. You can use it too to boost your business.
Basically, the chatbot cuts down the need for an email or a call. If the customer has a query, they can type it down in the chatbot, and the bot will respond to their query respectively. Obviously, things won’t happen by magic. You’ll have to install a proper AI contact center and store your data. Activate and integrate systems, and then you can expect the AI system to handle customer queries smoothly. They are also operational 24/7, so your customers won’t have to wait for a response.
6. Incorporate Object Detection
Object detection software locates the position of an object in an image and assists customer experience. How so?
Well, consider furniture stores like IKEA. These stores allow you to visualize what a certain piece of furniture will look like in your home. Similarly, stores like Sephora enable you to try the looks of a beauty product, while certain healthcare platforms can help predict potential disease by having their AI-based object detection tools examine your X-Rays and CT scans.
You can use this technology to your benefit if you sell a product. It will work like a magnet for your customers as they get to try the product before purchasing it.
7. Incorporate Optical Character Recognition
Optical Character Recognition (OCRs) come in handy to automate document processing. It reads a physical paper and transmits it into the digital world just as is – accurately. Some practical applications of OCR in online businesses include:
- Online identity verification
- Medical Record Keeping
- Self-Check-ins in hotels
Your customer doesn’t have to traditionally scan their document and upload it on your portal. Plus, it makes the data transmission much more accurate and quicker.
8. Embed Machine Learning Models at Every Stage
You’ve systems to record behavioral patterns of your customers as they purchase. But do you know what they browse on your blog?
Well, that information can help you send out personalized emails to your customers and bring them back to your virtual place. Therefore, it’s a good idea to embed machine learning models at every page and stage to collect information.
Final Words
By now, we hope you have a clear of how useful AI can be for your business. In 2022, AI can help your business double its profits and establish a prominent name in your industry. It can bring your business super quick growth, given that you invest your time and money in the right strategies. Good luck!
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