Gone are the days when the main goal of your company was to ensure your customers were happy. Today, you need to delight and dazzle clients if you want to retain them. Thankfully, technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI) help businesses delight prospects and clients by enhancing and improving customer service.
According to a report by Gartner, more than 85% of customer interactions will be handled without the need of a human agent in the future.
So, how does AI enhance customer experiences and help drive profits?
Mingling artificial intelligence with the customer experience allows for real-time responses based on their most recent interactions with your company. Marketing messages can also be tailored based on their interactions. For example, AI can identify customers who use ad blockers and provide them with an alternate user experience.
Combining AI with real-time decisions helps you understand a customer’s intent, recognize the actions they take, and present highly personalized, relevant content. AI also can analyze bulk data quickly and guide future interactions between a company and its customers.
Gaining deeper insights into a customer’s behavior has become easier than ever. Making customer experiences seamless and relevant helps your customers stay emotionally connected with your brand.
The 2020 MIT Technology Review cited customer service via AI chatbots as the leading application of AI being deployed today. And 73% of the respondents claim that by the next two years, it will still be of leading importance in the AI ecosystem. In fact, as a customer, we see AI-enabled interactions in almost anything and everything — be it a digital assistant, facial recognizer, biometric scanner, or chatbot.
However, chatbots should not be seen as a replacement for humans; rather, as a supplement. It’s necessary to strike a perfect balance between human interaction and self-service to deliver the most convenient and delightful customer experience.
Although these chatbots might not be able to understand everything a human says, they can tackle a selected number of questions. This might include product inquiries, troubleshooting, order tracking, or account-based task management. They also have a ton of potential to solve transactional errors.
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Customers and brands appreciate conversational AI because it can provide quick, personalized experiences. What customers dislike the most, however, is repeating information they already shared. Re-confirming phone numbers or having to explain pain points to multiple support agents can become frustrating and not reflect well on your brand.
With conversational AI, algorithms and machine learning help identify conversation histories, data, and a customer’s previously shared intentions, allowing for a more personalized experience. When AI and machine learning join together, they analyze big chunks of data and present the best response to a customer in a matter of seconds.
Data captured from a client’s previous interactions helps your brand unlock its true potential and provide a consistent and seamless personalized experience. These types of experiences can help differentiate your business in the marketplace.
Some customers have little patience and want answers now. It stresses the importance of quick and proactive customer service, and embracing AI can help customers get solutions within seconds.
Customers can also explore answers to common questions by clicking on a specific concern; the AI assistant will take it from there. AI helps businesses streamline their processes and operations, cut down on costs, and provide a helpful “self-serve” customer experience. With the advancements of AI, customer service agents can be freed up to focus on more complex customer concerns or sales opportunities.
Innovative technologies like AI, robots, and machine learning have significantly streamlined business functions and improved productivity, leading to higher profits over time. AI can perfectly handle a higher volume of workflows and lead to more conversions, helping to generate more revenue.
Automation also reduces the possibility of human error, helping to build trust while easing your customer service team’s workload — a win-win. It’s easy to see how automating your processes helps reduce operational costs and maximize profits.
While there is an ongoing debate that says AI is here to replace humans, it certainly cannot replace a personal and sincere human touch. But human agents can’t always offer 24/7 assistance to customers and remember each of their interactions in detail. Fortunately, AI can supplement their efforts when they’re not available.
Adopting AI into your customer engagement strategy can effectively improve customer experiences and engage them throughout their buyer’s journey. Thankfully, it’s easy with HubSpot’s advanced automation capabilities. Learn why HubSpot is the best all-around marketing, sales, and service platform in our free comprehensive guide.
Topics: Marketing Technology, Inbound Service, Artificial Intelligence
