4 ways AI can improve human customer experience

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies are evolving and maturing continuously. With the growing need to rapidly scale businesses, it is becoming essential to leverage technology for supporting this growth. More so important, when the manpower shortage across the industries is continuing to worsen. The latest research from Korn Ferry Institute estimates that the global shortage of skilled manpower is estimated to be at 85.2 million plus by 2030. With the multiple proven use cases, there are many possibilities to leverage AI to boost customer service and thereby enhance the customer experience. However, there is a caveat that 80 per cent of implementations fail due to wrong implementation, wrong data, or wrong use case. Affordability and quality are no longer the only differentiators to stay ahead of the competition. Delivering outstanding customer experiences, beginning with exceptional customer service, attracts customers and drives loyalty. Research conducted in 2019 revealed that 62 per cnt of customers use AI-based services to avail best experience. [Source: salesforce] Here are four ways where AI can help improve customer experience: 1) Personalization Research says, over 90 per cent of consumers prefer brands offering personalised services. Based on any customer’s buying history, and linguistic preferences, not just on one platform but across the internet where the user has agreed to share behaviour, systems can create a persona based on robust AI models. These AI models can enable us to create better representation in front of customers. With effective identification of choices, the platforms can adapt to provide a more personal experience. Where do you think customer experience begins? Customer experience does not begin after making a sale or purchase. It starts when the customer comes first to your web/store. For example, Person A goes to a travel website and searches for accommodation. Based on the historical aspects, the model identifies that the criteria with which customer has selected accommodations previously and the choices he/she/they made. With other attributes accounted in. And the website shows historically aligned, heritage and multi-cuisine food options at the property being selected. Whereas, when Person B goes to who has a historical attachment of budget focus, the platform shows him/her/them the properties accordingly. This means with a lesser effort the customer gets what they wanted. So higher conversion rate with a much better experience. 2) Proactive Approach Waiting until a client is already frustrated is unnecessary. With connected systems, and thereby deploying predictive models, with AI, businesses ensure customer satisfaction by recognizing potential problems and reaching out to customers at the right time, before even the customer reaches out. Your order will be notified if it has been delayed by weather due to an unexpected event. Through AI, platforms may automatically send informational material if the product contains complex instructions as soon as it is delivered. So, the customer doesn’t need to reach out for help or assistance, with information available handy. In addition, through AI, we can keep customers informed and help reach out to those losing interest in your brand with historical data and offers. So, an effective self-help option would be very effective. 3) Customer and Agent Assist To upkeep with potential issues a customer might face, with multiple systems involved, it is imperative to have scenarios where technology binds all the pieces together. This means strong dynamic self-help can enable customers to get quick resolutions to the issue they might be facing. Similarly, if self-help or bot is not able to resolve a customer’s issues, it is critical to be passed to an Agent who is empowered with context and intent on the go. Thus, it can eliminate time to share intent, and suggest potential actions based on the customer’s tone/intent/history. This ensures that the customer issues get resolved in the first go itself. Also, the customer is happy. AI may appear to replace customer service reps, but that’s not what the technology is intended to accomplish. It enables simplifying workflows, improves communication, and reduces employees’ workloads to concentrate on more critical tasks. 4) Faster ROI All digital transformation decisions must be taken based on key measurable metrics and ROI. If implemented right, it can enable businesses to scale faster, solve issues better and consistently, and enable people to serve customers consistently. With AI, customers would resolve a majority of the issues by themselves, thus lowering the need to speak with a human agent. Human capital has become rare, complex, and costly due to supply chain gaps, resulting in scarcity; technology can give a faster ROI, with improved efficiencies. Way forward AI has been proven to change dynamically the way customer experience is perceived. It is more than four ways that it can enable businesses to better experience for their customers. The author is founder and CEO, FiveS Digital. Views are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.