Contribution of Technologies in Building Relationship With Customers

Technology is an extension of human cognitive, social, physical, and perceptive capacities. It is making our lives easier and businesses more productive. Nowadays “consumerization” of business is a technological trend.

Maintaining customer relationships and improving customer experience is the one area where a business can truly differentiate itself from other competitors in the market. Growing demand and the importance of technology in customer service are redefining the way businesses connect with their new and existing customers.

Let’s talk about the most promising technologies that help to provide the ultimate customer experience and also the main loyal relationship with their customers.  

Artificial Intelligence – Not Just a Theoretical Concept

There is a boom of artificial intelligence technologies in the market. It is radically changing many aspects of our lives. We use artificial intelligence in our daily lives via, Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. The use of this technology has not only been limited to individuals but also many companies that have invested in artificial intelligence to boost their businesses.

Narrative science report says that in 2016 only 38% of companies all over the world have offered the use of artificial intelligence and it is projected to shoot up to 62% in 2018.

Many companies have offered the use of artificial intelligence like NICE, Nuance Communications, OpenText, and Verint Systems. Building relationship with customers via artificial intelligence is a new trend because,

• It makes it less time-consuming for customers to find the information they need.
• Virtual agents are available for customer service & support.

When Harley-Davidson of New York started the use of Albert, the artificial intelligence, it was found that the sales of motorcycles were augmented by 40%. Albert intended to get the precise message in front of the right buyers at an accurate time. This technology not only gives customers what they want, but it delivers it even before they realize they want it.

(Source – ai-expo.net)

Chatbots – Big Game Changer

A patient will not mind paying more fees to a doctor that is ready to provide useful consultation or service modestly. Just like that, a consumer will not mind paying more to a retailer that saves their shopping time by offering quick assistance.

Today’s industry-standard Chatbot represents an outstanding step forward for brands that are keen to encounter an intelligent customer service system. Whether customer experience vs customer relationships, AI-powered chatbots can help in both for a business.  Let’s take “Adidas” as an example of a brand that already shows how to use technology in an intelligent way.   

Through Facebook Messenger and a purpose-built AI bot, Adidas has been able to improve consumer awareness with their new community space called “Studio LDN”. This studio offer number of benefits,

• Series of weekly free-to-attend fitness sessions for women which can only be registered for through the chatbot.
• Help to reduce the time and effort required to sign up for a workout time at the studio.

Though Chatbots are virtual assistants, still this technology impacted customer service

• It enables the customers to get the status of their order updates through messenger notifications.
• Chatbots provide direct assistance on returns or exchanges of products and services. This gives one-to-one customer service.
• The payment acceptance feature through Chatbot makes the payment process much easier.

Big Data – Storm which is Steadily Increasing

In today’s world data has become the new oil in business. Big data is a process used when traditional data mining and handling techniques cannot uncover the insights and meaning of the underlying data.

Data that is unstructured or time sensitive or simply very large cannot be processed by relational database engines. This type of data requires a different processing approach called big data, which uses massive parallelism on readily-available hardware.

In earlier times, businesses used customer surveys to gather all the market data. Nowadays, brands need to rely on customer engagement metrics or analytics to keep the data in real-time. Personalization is important to accommodate Big Data.

(Source – Oracle)

Benefits of Big Data-

• Focusing on the audience demographics can help to estimate consumer demand.

• Cloud computing and online big data analytics tools can help customers and employees to reap the benefits of powerful data insights to drive more sales and customer retention.

Messaging Applications – New King of Customer Service Technology

According to Gartner, “By 2023, requests for customer support through consumer messaging apps will exceed requests for customer support through social media.” This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The way we are using mobile apps is changing. Now many small, medium and big size businesses have begun to connect with their customers on yet another channel. The main reason is they are playing a vital role in building and strengthening customer relations.

Benefits from connecting with Messaging Apps-

• Unrestricted communication
• Easy option to reach your business privately or publically
• Manage workflow and respond to customer requests via messaging app

Here are some tips to keep in mind to improve the customer experience on messaging applications-

• Be smart enough to understand the intentions of customers and detect what is the best time to assist without the need to explicitly ask.
• Understand the seamless integration of chatting functionality with the use of technology in CRM.

Cloud Technology – Shaping the Future of All Industries

Cloud technology is another popular form of technology that delivers computing facilities like storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics over the Internet cloud.

Benefits of Cloud Technology-

• This technology has become prevalent due to its flexibility.
• It enables 24/7 accessibility to the customers.
• Cloud-based file sharing allows customers to virtually share and save document files.
• Offering a high level of security against hackers.
• It backups up the customer data allowing protection from computer crashes.

When the information is available on the cloud like client portals, customers can carry out business quickly and conveniently. This automatically strengthens customer relationships.

Forrester predicts the Asia-Pacific cloud computing market will grow from $6.9B in 2013 to $31.9B in 2023.

(Source – customerthink)

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that technology not only empowers to build stronger relationships with customers but also makes it possible for your firm to become more efficient and productive. This is a win-win situation. When using technology for business you will never lose a touch with your customers. Using technology is a “new big thing” for businesses to meet customer expectations and building relationships with customers.