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Your product may be the best in the market, but without exceptional customer service, your business will not succeed as your customers deserve an experience that exceeds their expectations.
That's where the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. By harnessing the capabilities of AI, your business can unleash a wave of innovation, revolutionising the way you engage with customers.
It’s understandable that, as a small business owner, you may be reluctant to use AI to serve your customers if you’ve had a less than helpful conversation with an automated bot in the past. However, AI-powered customer service software has experienced extraordinary developments and is now enhancing customer experience for many businesses. So, we’re going to unveil four extraordinary ways AI can elevate the customer experience, creating lasting connections and propelling your business to new heights.
Why use AI for customer experience?
Poor customer service is costing UK businesses a staggering £11.4 billion every month in lost productivity, according to new research, with employees having to dedicate an entire day per week to dealing with customer interactions and complaints.
But, there’s a straightforward solution: leveraging AI to enhance customer experience in your small business, while simultaneously saving valuable time and resources.
By incorporating AI into customer service, your small business can automate some repetitive activities that you or your employees would otherwise carry out. AI is no longer useless chat robots that can’t answer your customers’ questions. AI technology can now personalise its support services based on the specific needs of your customers, and gather relevant data about customers and their pain points or common inquiries.
AI allows you to design an incredible customer journey, and automate more repetitive tasks, leaving you time to fix more complex problems.
4 ways AI can improve customer experience
With AI, you can supercharge customer engagement, increase customer loyalty, and give your business a competitive edge. Now, AI isn't here to replace human support completely, but it sure does make things easier by automating repetitive tasks and lightening the load on you or your customer service team.
Here are 4 ways AI can improve small business customer experience:
1. Personalised customer service
AI can gather valuable data on how customers behave, including their spending habits, credit card purchase patterns, and items they have previously shown interest in. This data serves as a valuable resource for predicting customer behaviour accurately.
With this information at their disposal, your small business can offer personalised services that cater to each customer's specific preferences. By using AI in this way, businesses can enhance the customer experience by providing tailored recommendations, customised offers, and interactions. This personalised approach not only increases customer satisfaction but also fosters long-term relationships and loyalty.
2. Faster and more efficient responses
Online shopping means customers are looking for help day and night, and AI-powered systems can deliver just that. AI-powered systems are available 24/7, ensuring that your customers never have to wait for assistance. Whether it's answering product inquiries, addressing concerns, or providing guidance, AI chatbots and virtual assistants can swiftly and accurately handle customer queries, significantly reducing response times and enhancing overall customer satisfaction.
By using AI, your small business can meet the demands of a global and always-connected customer base, offering prompt and efficient support at any hour.
3. Multilingual capabilities
Expanding the language capabilities of your customer service with AI technology opens up new horizons for engaging with a diverse audience. Enabling conversations in different languages is a strategic move that can greatly enhance your customer service:
- Enhanced customer engagement: People feel more comfortable and willing to engage when they can communicate in their preferred language. By providing the option to interact in different languages, you empower customers to engage with your small business.
- Increased sales potential: Customers may be more inclined to make a purchase when the product information is presented in their native language. Offering multilingual support can significantly boost your sales conversion rates.
- Improved customer loyalty: Imagine the choice between shopping at a place where your language is spoken fluently and being in a setting where you might struggle to communicate. Customers prefer businesses that understand and cater to their language needs, fostering loyalty and trust.
By acknowledging the significance of multilingual AI capabilities, you can forge stronger connections with customers, drive sales, foster loyalty, and gain a competitive edge in your industry.
4. Prevent burnout
Working in customer service can be demanding, especially when it feels like you’re answering the same questions every day. AI-powered chatbots have the power to answer FAQs, so you and your customer service team have the time to deal with more complex questions, leading to a more fulfilling work environment
Despite the uncertainty of some small business owners, AI-powered customer experience is here to stay, and is evolving and shaping the future of customer service.
Jon Bartlett, Head of Customer Operations at Capital on Tap, comments "When considering AI as a solution to support your customers, this is not making a decision that replaces how you serve your customers, but should be seen as a tool that can help you to better serve your customers, either by doing things more quickly, enabling you to do more with less, or providing a stronger self-serve proposition."
This is a great way to look at AI; when coupled with the personal interfacing you already provide, AI optimises your customer experience.
The bottom line
Transforming your customers’ experience through AI is essential, although it may seem intimidating due to various hurdles and complexities.
But by leveraging AI, you can significantly impact customer loyalty and lifetime value. With a deep understanding of customer preferences and behaviours, and can develop detailed buyer personas tailored to individual likes and dislikes.
As small businesses strive for profitability, sustainable growth, and a competitive edge, they must embrace disruption as an opportunity to turn it into a strategic advantage and make extraordinary customer experiences an everyday reality.
While you’re enhancing your customer experience, the Capital on Tap Business Credit Card, is there to support you and your small business. With credit limits up to £250,000, unlimited free 1% cashback on all card purchases, and immediate access to funds for most approved applicants, Capital on Tap streamlines access to funds while providing great rewards for small business owners.
