How To Use AI To Win More Online Shoppers Who Want To Stay

Imagine a world where you could have an intelligent, personalized conversation with your favorite brand at any time of the day or night. Where businesses engaged people in dialogues and used conversational interfaces to add value at every step in their customer journey.

Technology is everywhere. It’s changed the way we shop, travel, and communicate with each other, and in a world where customer experience is everything, AI and machine learning are now the most revolutionary innovations of our lifetime.

So, how do you deliver authentic customer experiences to make consumers feel valued and keep them coming back for more? Liziana Carter, CEO of GR0W.AI, an Australian-based conversational AI agency shares her insights on how to get started.

Use Messaging Apps to provide real-time automated support

Two of the frequently used ways users communicate with brands online right now are either by messaging them on Facebook, Instagram or going straight to their website and searching for a chat widget. It’s imperative that brands meet their customers where they are and automate conversations to deliver instant value with every interaction, whether that’s answering questions around shipping times or taking things further and asking questions, processing data, and returning product recommendations that are tailored to each individual’s needs.

“As the “conversation-first” future arrives, people’s impression of one’s brand will be reflected in the effectiveness of your bot, how much contextual value, and how fast it can deliver it to your visitors. Conversations go nowhere unless people perceive them as useful.” says Carter. She adds that the smartest chatbots are now connected to a customer’s entire past history, are able to anticipate what they want, and answer questions instantly through chat. They are available 24/7 year-round and get smarter every day.

Add AI to the mix

Artificial intelligence may sound intimidating, but 94% of customers say they are more likely to buy again from a brand if it delivered a great customer experience over a messaging channel (State of CX 2020), and as consumers’ behaviour and expectations continue to evolve, more and more online businesses become aware of a new reality: using new technology to reach their target market and improve their customer experience.

AI powered chatbots can simulate human-like conversations and provide contextual personalized experiences to customers. This helps brands understand what their buyers want and return a more personalised customer experience with each interaction.

“Conversational A.I. allows us to design a seamless experience for consumers at every stage of their customer journey, whether that’s converting a first-time visitor into a new customer, re-engaging them through different campaigns or simply answering questions on the spot. It allows us to continue adding value to people even when we’re not selling, which in turn increases retention rate. And the fact that behind the scenes we’re tracking every single click and user behaviour, then allows us to segment these people and deliver back to them a hyper personalised experience, where the bot knows their entire history and is able to act based on that data.” says Carter.

Listen to the data

In April 2020, we saw 10 years of eCommerce growth happen in 3 months. Consumers are more demanding and have higher expectations. They want to be able to shop on their schedule, and they want a personalized experience that lets them tell the brand what they need, instead of the other way around.

The world is changing. Customer-centricity is becoming the new norm, and brands are scrambling to keep up. “Building a chatbot is only the first step. Taking a visitor through a 10-minute AI powered 1-on-1 conversation will give you an unexpected leverage through the data you can collect from that conversation and how you can use it to optimise the conversation to deliver a better and more personalised experience with every interaction, then scale that experience to millions of visitors simultaneously.” says Carter.

The customer-centric revolution is in full swing and Conversational AI is the next frontier. It’s an amazing time to take advantage of conversational interfaces to build the customer experience around these new technologies, so that you can provide rich interactions that will keep your customers coming back again and again!