Customer retention is dependent on a number of factors. The ability to interact one-on-one with the company is an important part of encouraging customers to continue with your company. On a large scale, however, this is simply not possible without hiring a large number of customer service representatives. That’s where AI, or artificial intelligence comes in.
Machine learning allows you to figure out exactly what encourages people to continue with your service and what is a factor in their leaving. Track everything and then let the AI determine which factors to focus on. You can then build a better system to encourage customer loyalty.
In its simplest form, AI automates the tasks and messages that you find yourself repeating over and over throughout the day. Sending out welcome messages, for example, is something that you can automate. It’s also possible to have AI message people who have left complaints on your website or on your social media pages. The AI can ask for details and even suggest a solution.
The ability to connect with people around the clock, no matter where they are in the world, is a big advantage. It allows you to reach customers that would otherwise be turned off by the lack of communication during their waking hours. If they’re going to continue with your company, they’ll appreciate the ability to continue contact at any hour.
AI can also be used to handle multiple transactions and interactions without any input from you. It saves time and creates a far more efficient environment for your customers.
If you have more than a dozen customers, it becomes very difficult to cater to each one individually. Fortunately, AI can take over this side of your business and create more personalized interactions, based on what the customer has said and done before.
When someone has signed up for your service, you want to keep them around and personal service is more likely to do that. A fairly easy way to do this is to use the AI to create a custom dashboard for each person. This ensures that everything they prefer to use is within easy access. Even having to click a few more times can annoy someone, so giving them all the information and tools they use most right there on the front page will keep them around longer.
No two customers are exactly alike, but you will have some who act similar. The trick to customer retention is to capture these like-minded groups and present them with tailored offers. AI is ideal for analyzing customer behavior and segmenting them into risk categories. If someone is at high risk for cancelling their service with you, it helps to have them in a group that you can then work with to build customer loyalty.
If your high risk customers are logging in less these days, you might send them a special bonus or an email asking if they’re interested in continuing, etc. It’s a good idea to meet with your marketing department to decide what would be the best course of action to encourage people to stay with your company.
When you offer a tailored solution to a customer, you immediately gain their respect. Your company will be seen as a true solution and as caring for the customer. Each customer will feel that they are seen and heard, which results in more customer loyalty. People appreciate a company that pays attention to its customers, particularly when things go wrong.
AI can also be used to identify a number of settings that come from the customer. This technology has been used for years by companies like Amazon, but it is rapidly expanding to include other businesses.
By tracking customer preferences and behavior, it’s possible to present very specific marketing campaigns to your existing customers. For example, if you have a subscriber who is on a basic plan, you might look at their online behavior and questions they’ve asked to target a campaign toward their interests. Give them a specific reason to upgrade their subscription.
You can also use the information collected from your most loyal customers to create a look-alike audience for any new ad campaigns. These will tend to provide you with similar styles of customers and they will be more likely to stay with you.
You can’t always be online to respond to customer queries, but your AI can. More and more businesses are turning to AI to handle responses when business hours are over. Instead of hiring more customer service staff to work around the clock, the queries are turned over to AI. Any questions that the AI cannot answer will be picked up by a real life person in the morning.
Customers appreciate rapid responses and with AI, it’s possible to respond immediately to messages and questions. The AI can often respond just as a person would, providing information and responses that sound human. As it learns, the AI can adjust its answers to the person.
The faster you respond to customers, the more likely they are to continue with your business. Using technology to achieve this is more cost-effective and personal than an overworked customer service person. It’s even possible to have AI respond to comments on social media and to send personal messages to people, asking them to clarify their issue if needed.
Things are already changing quickly with AI and as it is a learning system, it can only continue to improve. As time goes on, we can expect to see even more personalized marketing options. Depending on what the customer has said and done previously, AI will be able to perfectly pinpoint what is required.
Customer retention is on the rise, thanks to the use of AI. However, in the future, it will only see more improvement. AI will eventually be able to take over many customer service issues and manage customer expectations easily. The companies that are on board with this will be the ones that improve quickly.
Your company can benefit from AI and your customers will, too. It’s an easy way to create a more responsive business model that your customers are bound to appreciate and they’ll show this by sticking around.