In today's digital world, customer experience (CX) is more important than ever. It's no longer good enough to have a good product: Customers expect seamless, personalised experiences that go beyond the sale itself. This is why many companies are now investing in AI-powered solutions to improve their CX.
AI has been around for some time now and is helping people with tasks ranging from writing poetry to detecting people’s risk of heart attacks. Also within marketing and CX environments, companies have started to implement AI systems that can help them gain a deeper understanding of their customer's preferences and needs - and make better decisions about how to interact with them accordingly.
In this blog post, we will look at ways in which AI can improve customer experience and list examples of AI tools and how they can specifically aid you in your marketing and CX efforts.
How can AI improve customer experience?
AI can analyse data to better understand your customers
One of the first steps in providing a better customer experience is gaining insight into your customers' needs, behaviours, demographics, preferences and pain points. AI can help you understand all of these things by analysing data from things like surveys, social media posts and other customer interactions.
It can also help you better understand what your customers are saying about your company through sentiment analysis. By using these insights to create relevant content for specific segments of your audience, you'll be able to provide personalised experiences that improve customer loyalty and satisfaction—and make sure every interaction with a customer leaves them feeling valued.
AI can make predictions based on data
AI technology can help you gain valuable insights into customer behaviour, which will enable you to better serve their needs. AI can analyse data to determine what it is that motivates people and their behaviour. It’s a way of understanding the “why” behind human actions and emotions rather than just observing them as they happen. This can be especially helpful when trying to understand what leads people towards certain products or services, or away from others.
At the same time, AI can predict what customers will want next. This is especially helpful for companies that sell a wide range of products, as it helps them plan for future demand. You can use machine learning models to identify trends in customer behaviour and needs over time.
AI can identify potential problems before they occur
AI can help companies anticipate problems by monitoring customer behaviour and identifying patterns of concern.
Imagine a customer who has been in contact frequently to complain about issues related to a product, or perhaps even cancelling orders without warning. This would be a clear indication that something is not working properly and needs immediate attention.
Through analysing this incoming data, AI can draw conclusions about customer behaviour very quickly and alert you about the recognised pattern. This means that you can spot these potential problems before they occur again and take action against them.
AI can personalise every interaction
Personalisation and customisation are crucial to inbound marketing, and the ability to personalise interactions based on data is something that customers expect by now.
AI can be used to personalise interactions with customers, from marketing campaigns to customer service requests. Functions like the personalised content recommendations on Netflix are powered by machine learning algorithms and create a delightful experience for customers.
AI can provide 24/7 customer support
AI-powered functions like chatbots are a great way to provide 24/7 customer service. They can answer simple questions, forward messages to the right department, and handle routine customer service tasks like scheduling appointments and checking in on orders.
Chatbots also have the potential to help you use AI in other parts of your business. For example, a chatbot could be used to provide service in multiple languages or currencies. This flexibility helps you reach more customers than if you only offered service via email or calls.
AI tools that can change how you interact with customers
There are many ways in which you can improve your CX experience - from collecting and implementing customer feedback to investing in customer experience consulting. AI has become an additional way to assist with it: by now there are also quite a few AI tools on the market that focus on improving customer experience. We have listed some examples here, to help you gain insights into how exactly they can aid your company:
Enlighten AI
The CX AI tools from Enlighten AI include a sophisticated complaint management tool, offers behaviour analysis for customer sentiment management, and provides helpful recommendations on how to work with vulnerable customers (anyone who is susceptible to harm due to personal circumstances). Enlighten AI is part of the offerings of NICE, a global software solutions provider.
Talkdesk AI
Talkdesk AI focuses on providing solutions for customer self-service, CX analytics, customer engagement, and team collaboration for CX improvements across the organisation. A leader in the CX industry, Talkdesk drives innovation within all things customer experience.
HubSpot
While HubSpot itself is not an AI tool, the powerful CRM platform has a variety of AI-driven functions that can improve CX immensely:
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Deduplication: A tool that finds duplicate contacts and companies and makes it easy to merge them, which helps with cleaner data and accurate customer communications.
Source: HubSpot
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AI-powered mapping processes: when importing contacts into HubSpot, your account automatically knows which columns in your spreadsheet are associated with which properties in your database.
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Automatic call recording and transcription: with these functions, you can capture details that you would otherwise miss, which helps you create deeper relationships with your customers
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Automatic email data capture: this function automatically captures information like names, titles, phone numbers and addresses from leads and prospects, which empowers your segmentation, routing and reporting. This also works on their live chat function.
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SEO suggestions: this function helps you to provide valuable content to prospects and customers while aiding with SEO strategy, content optimisation and search success measuring. The AI tool also scans your website automatically and suggests topics for you to write about.
AI is the future – and the present
A lot of us make use of AI software already, without even realising it. Tools and apps like Grammarly, Apple’s Siri assistant, and Spotify – their popular “Spotify Wrapped” function is a prime example of improving customer experience through AI-powered personalisation – have become embedded in our daily life at work and home.
Companies who want to stay up to date with the times should therefore think about how AI tools might aid them not only with day-to-day tasks but also with staying relevant in a world of technological advancement.
In 2022, we’ve only scratched the surface of what AI can do for customer experience. However, it already is powerful, reliable, and, most importantly, helpful for very real people – your customers.
