Sandra Schroeter is International Head, Customer Engagement Technologies at LogMeIn.
Artificial intelligence has come a long way from the early days when Alan Turing’s “Turing Test” evaluated a machine’s ability to behave like a human. It’s now playing a pivotal role across technology, from big data processing to self-driving cars.
Many organisations are looking to find the right place to implement AI to drive the business forward, and this can seem like a daunting task, but one area that is ripe for its involvement is customer engagement. Extending the personal touch across all technology platforms, AI helps to enhance the brand experience and raise customer satisfaction. To truly embrace AI, let's discuss some of the most prominent misconceptions.
“Chatbots are only for simple customer support experiences”
This is a myth that stems from our past experiences as consumers. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) could be seen as the first generation of bots, specifically voice bots. IVR would collect information via phone and introduce a simple decision tree to help customers find the correct answers and put them through to the appropriate agent. This technology served a purpose, but it can’t be said it was pleasant to use.
The AI of today is far more dynamic and nimbler than the archaic technology it replaced. It can go much further than just sending a customer in the right direction. Consumers can now ask questions, get advice and understand options before making a purchase and hopefully avoid having to make any unwanted calls or visits to a store.
In the age of online shopping and ease of purchase and return, AI-powered chat solutions keep consumers digital, while delivering a personalized experience at scale.
“It’s better to invest in customer acquisition than retention”
A common but flawed assumption for a few key reasons. First, cost. Acquiring new customers costs, at minimum, five times more than the cost of retaining one, according to Forrester. Also, existing customers tend to spend more the next time they buy and become brand advocates. Therefore, keeping customers happy generates revenue.
Part of prioritizing customers over prospects helps to create a more cohesive customer journey, ensuring that they experience the value of what they’ve paid for. A big part of the journey for current customers revolves around customer service and support throughout their customer lifetime. Luckily, there are many ways that AI can help to foster valuable customer relationships.
AI-powered engagement ensures each customer receives VIP treatment, is helped in the right way, and pointed to products, services and solutions that best match their needs. This encourages them to spend more, prompt them to share the brand with others and, ultimately, drive business success.
To become customers, however, they have to purchase something. Browsing and not buying is becoming more common and can become frustrating to organisations. While there is absolutely a time and place for follow-up emails and re-targeting ads, it can be beneficial to strike while the iron is hot. AI enables personalized outreach to each customer on a site through data gathered about the customer’s journey and knowledge about past interactions that have converted to purchases. This proactive engagement will track back directly to the organisation’s bottom line and add more potential customer advocates to your ranks.
“Technology makes humans obsolete”
Yes, technology is important. Contact centres, order management, and other customer-facing teams need to be armed with tools to optimize workflows, drive KPIs and ultimately make the organisation more successful, but technology has to be combined with human expertise. Tech helps to make employees more efficient and effective, but shouldn’t be used to completely replace them.
Just as on the consumer side, the expectation for technology to help make life better is rising among the next generation of customer-facing employees. Customer service and support are key areas where AI makes a real difference. AI-powered search and chatbots help to quickly scale by taking frequently asked questions off an agent’s plate. Modern chatbots deftly handle customer queries in a natural, conversational way, and free up the agent’s time to focus on resolving more complex, high-value customer issues.
AI is a game changer in this area if provided to employees at the right time and through the right platform. It enables employees to become much more strategic in nature and not only solve problems, but also drive revenue and loyalty.
“The first AI implementation has to be perfect”
The possibilities of integrating AI with backend systems is nearly endless. A good AI chatbot solution can integrate data from any source that is accessible through an API, and it can have automated backend processes. However, while these use cases can deliver immense value to an organisation, it doesn’t all have to happen at once. Starting with a simple use case that shows ROI quickly and adding capabilities over time is a great way to get buy-in for bigger projects.
There are many benefits to starting small and growing an AI implementation with a single software solution. Siloed and disjointed experiences make customers feel as if they were working with a different company or brand with each interaction. Coordinating efforts and insights across the organisation provides a more cohesive experience as users move through the customer journey.
Ultimately, the goal of using a single AI-powered engagement solution across the organisation ensures businesses deliver timely and relevant information to prospects and customers at the moments when they really need it. AI can also provide proactive guidance for agents of all capabilities, drive centralized approaches to knowledge management, and collect insights to help drive additional, ongoing training.
AI and bots can do a lot, but there is no need to feel overwhelmed by this. Defining use cases, setting expectations, starting small and growing can enable AI to help customers and employees exactly when and where they need it. What’s clear is that having the AI touch is the next frontier in customer satisfaction.
Sandra Schroeter is International Head, Customer Engagement Technologies at LogMeIn
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