How to Improve Customer Experience with The Help of Artificial Intelligence

⏱ Reading Time: 6 minutes

Have you ever wondered what do cars and medical robots have in common? How does the internet exactly know what are you searching for, and how does facial recognition work? Artificial intelligence – simple answer, yet very complex to understand. 

Artificial Intelligence (or, AI), once the obsession of science fiction films and books, is now a very present reality. One field in which AI is set to continue to make a big impact is customer experience, and the way customers interact with and react to companies. 

🚀 Read Customer Experience Guide: How to Put your Customers First? 🚀

It’s already received partial adoption, with various uses like customer service chatbots, but with the built-in consistency and ease that it offers, AI can be sure to continue the trend in this field. Let’s uncover how to improve customer experience with the help of AI!

What is AI?

AI or artificial intelligence is an area in science technology focused on developing and designing machines capable of complex work that is otherwise assumed to be done by humans. 

As technology is progressing and machines are becoming smarter every day, AI is getting a much stronger impact on society. The result? AI has been introduced to many areas of our everyday life. Starting from our mobile devices to medicine, shopping, and smart homes. Moreover, we see robots working human jobs, that were earlier thought impossible. 

As such, AI technology has found its way to reach companies and speed up company processes, making it easier to automate tasks and become more agile. One of the main areas that AI is taking over is customer experience and how to improve customer experience using AI.

Although still young, this technology has skyrocketed in the last decade. Generally, some of the things AI can do is solve problems, recognize speech, learn, plan and that is just a beginning. 

How AI can Improve Customer Experience?

Artificial Intelligence usage has increased by 143 percent in the customer service industry. As the article mentions, this is something of a revolution, a complete turn around in the shape of the customer service experience.

Customer services make up a large portion of overall customer experience as the portal through which customers can address companies directly. To have that portal so overwhelmingly manned by AI and in such a short time, makes a big statement about the intentions and adoption of Artificial Intelligence for handling customer relations. 

Picture 1. Improve Customer Experience with Chatbot Automation

Improve Customer Experience Using AI Data

Data and AI are completely tied up in one another. “In some sense, there is no AI without data. And in another sense, data collection can only be as prolific as it is through the use of AI”, explains Harvey White, a business writer at Academized and Australian help. AI needs data to survive.

In terms of customer experience, it is vital that more and more data is collected along the customer journey. Why? To improve customer experience, companies must understand how exactly customers have experienced the company in the past and what ought to change about that in the future.

AI programs like chatbots, for example, make it a lot easier to collect data. When a user indulges in a conversation with a company via chatbot, that conversation is data-rich and becomes instantly documented. In chatbot programs, you can collect as much data needed – from e-mail addresses to complex shopping behavior.

Data gathered like that can then be used to craft the customer journey and to improve customer experience to meet customer expectations.

Improve Customer Experience with Cost-Effective Solutions

It’s almost needless to say, but AI-based customer experience operations are a lot cheaper than human-oriented solutions. AI services can be purchased in a variety of different ways and their automated, simple, digital functions aren’t expensive to run or maintain and certainly are cheap compared to hiring people to fill the same roles.

This is one of the major reasons why they look absolutely set to be the go-to option rather than an occasional oddity. Price points for customer service AI will vary depending on how self-regulating they are and how much they can offer companies, but in general, it’s looking like a really great way to save money.

Generate More Sales Using Personalized Shopping Experience

Chatbots, digital assistants, and other AI customer experience tools aren’t just there to be a fancy FAQ section.

“One of the really exciting prospects for AI development is using them as their own hyper-segmented marketing units. Such precise data can be latched onto through AI customer experience bot. Afterward, the data gathered can be used to market directly towards specific users, offering them deals and making suggestions at any available opportunity”, says Eleanor Smith, project manager at Paper Fellows and the State of Writing.

Read: Behavioral Marketing Strategy – How to Get People Clicking

The possibilities in this regard are pretty much endless and could revolutionize customer experience for good.

Imagine a scenario where an online shopper could be assigned a bot that organically responded to complaints and questions whilst also logging data in a way that could turn them into a marketing unit for the company. Talk about value!

Picture 2. Sephora makes customer made product recommendation based on previous purchases

Conclusion

It’s pretty clear at this point that AI is definitely going to be ‘the thing’ for customer experience development in the near future. It’s still a very fresh field, so there’s excitement in the air as to what can be achieved, but we just have to wait and see how it all turns out!

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Ellie Coverdale, a marketing writer at Essay roo and UK Writings, shares her tips and tricks on digital and social media marketing with her readers. She’s interested in how businesses can boost conversions and create exciting new websites that will appeal to their audience.