No matter what you’re selling, the customer experience (CX) is a key brand differentiator. While we used to think of “brand” as a company’s logo or tagline, today it represents so much more. Your brand is the sum of every interaction an individual has with the business; it’s not just an ideal but a living, breathing thing.
Similarly, CX is about much more than customer support. CX and brand are inextricably linked, and when a business provides a VIP experience to every customer, in every single interaction, CX becomes a robust growth lever. In fact, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as necessary as its products or services.
Many CX leaders talk about personalization, but what does that mean? Personalization is not about offering up canned responses to FAQs, it’s about understanding why customers are interacting with you and delivering on that need — whether that means answering their question, resolving their issue, or routing them to the correct person or place to get what they need. To meet customer expectations in a digital world, brands need advanced conversational AI tools to effectively personalize at scale. Investing in an AI-powered platform that fully integrates with your existing tech stack allows brands to power next-level experiences beyond the FAQ, building long-term loyalty and driving revenue growth.
Customers want authenticity, consistency, and empathy
Consumers tend to value the same characteristics in brand relationships that we do in our personal lives: realness, reliability, and relatability. Every interaction is an opportunity to reinforce this — and also an opportunity to lose a customer. To create high-value brand experiences, bring purpose and authenticity to your CX efforts.
-Brand is the heart and soul of any business. Authenticity is about bringing this “True North” to every interaction and communicating the brand promise clearly, and without fail.
-No matter where, when, or how customers interact, brands need to show up and be helpful. Consistency builds loyalty because customers know they can count on you.
-Customers expect businesses to understand their needs and history, without having to explain. To create meaningful connections, use data to infuse empathy and personalize every conversation.
More personalization, more growth
To personalize at scale, CX organizations must take advantage of all available data. A conversational AI solution should be able to instantly access the customer’s history and anticipate their request, because 63% of consumers and 76% of B2B buyers expect businesses to know their unique needs and expectations. Begin the conversation proactively, for example: “Hi Jane, do you need help with the order you placed for X-product/service on X-date?” Put your customers at the center of every exchange and personalize at every opportunity.
Taking a bottom-up approach to CX can also uncover opportunities to grow your business. For example, Pair Eyewear, which makes prescription glasses with changeable frames, launched AI-powered customer support and soon discovered that many customers were asking about non-prescription options including bluelight glasses, sunglasses, and fashion frames. After bringing this to the C-suite’s attention, the company decided to expand its offering — capturing an untapped market and delivering for their loyal buyers.
Providing personalized support during initial purchase is table stakes, but staying engaged for the duration of the relationship is equally important. It’s not just about meeting customer needs when they come to you for support — it’s about presenting relevant offers, promotions, and rewards that match their interest to increase loyalty and revenue.
How to use technology to enhance CX
For smaller companies and early-stage startups, support agents are able to provide personalized interactions. But as the customer base and interaction volume increase, the cost of adding agent seats makes this increasingly difficult. Additionally, around-the-clock availability as you grow is critical to retention. To achieve effective CX at scale, you need the right AI platform — one that automates simple interactions solving the majority of basic, repetitive requests, while at the same time providing the added value of personalization.
Consider the experience for both customers and the business when deciding where to invest. On the UX side, you need a solution that recognizes customers, hyper-personalizes conversations, and provides a seamless experience across customer journeys. After all, 68% of consumers are willing to pay more for products and services known to offer good customer experiences.
On the business side, choose a platform that can be deployed quickly and easily, managed by non-technical users and with the ability to extract CX data insights in real time. Focus efforts on integrations with existing backend systems to bring your data together, deepening your ability to iterate and optimize. Leverage performance metrics and reporting to fuel continuous improvement of individual interactions as well as overall automation performance.
Understanding your customer interactions in detail allows new opportunities to bubble to the surface, so pay attention to what your data is trying to tell you.
Every interactions matters
The more you interact with your customers the better. Stop measuring CX success only in terms of cost per conversation, but instead in terms of the value of retention and growth. Every exchange adds data and context to improve these experiences and outcomes. An advanced conversational AI platform allows brands to understand customers better and provide curated experiences at scale. Make your customers feel seen and valued to deepen loyalty and drive long-term growth.
