AI Is Changing the Customer Experience—Here’s How

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s critical to provide an excellent customer experience (CX). That’s never been truer than now, as many customers report significant frustration in their online shopping. 

Fortunately, companies can tap into a secret weapon for excellent CX: artificial intelligence (AI), which creates intelligent digital experiences by optimizing the best possible on-page experience, and combination of experiences, to optimize conversion across the entire journey while delighting customers. AI's ability to scale, automate, and personalize user journeys is a game changer for revenue-focused businesses.

But don’t wait to implement AI personalization. Organizations are increasingly using AI to deliver customized experiences, which will quickly raise the bar for what companies can deliver in terms of CX—and customer expectations. According to Adobe research, leaders who have invested heavily in their CX report that their digital experience meets or exceeds customer expectations (51% vs 25% of laggards). If you’re not leveraging AI to present your website visitors with the right experiences, your brand will soon seem out of touch. Instead, join the AI revolution in CX and look forward to happy customers in the years ahead.

Online Buyers Now Expect Personalized Shopping Experiences

Customers’ frustration with your online shopping experience can badly damage your business’s credibility. According to a 2022 Segment report, one of the best ways to avoid losing customer trust and loyalty is by providing an intelligently personalized experience to each customer; 62% of consumers feel far less loyalty to a brand without one (up from 45% last year). 

A McKinsey study showed that 71% of customers expect consistent customization, too. Companies that fulfilled personalization expectations outperform in their industry, with 40% more growth. A customer personalization strategy is no longer a “nice to have”—it’s a game-changing necessity.
 
So why aren’t more companies delivering a personalized CX? Perhaps they don’t know how to implement personalization across the board or don’t have the right partner, and there is an understandable fear of failing to deliver. After all, getting customized CX wrong can seem worse than not providing it at all. No one wants products pushed on them that have nothing to do with their interests or have a website’s personalization efforts seem creepy or intrusive.
 
For websites accommodating millions of unique visitors, the customer journey can get complicated quickly. More visitors mean more factors to consider in every area of your CX: data management, customer understanding, privacy and data protection, and more, all while working within the constraints of a business’s technical resources. If left to surmount this challenge unaided, optimization can be an uphill battle.

The Benefits of AI for CX Throughout the Entire Customer Journey
 
AI implementation is transformative to CX. Here’s how you can use AI to increase levels of customer satisfaction at each stage of the customer journey.
 
1. Test All of Your Best Ideas
The customer journey begins with first understanding who the current customer is. Leveraging AI enables brands to analyze data across various sources to stitch together behavioral patterns and journeys, making it easier to identify segments of customers with similar buying habits or preferences.
 
By understanding the customer and segmenting groups of similar customers together, you can target your personalization journey to each group specifically. You could segment repeat buyers, for example, and send personalized codes for future sales. You could also target prospects who’ve downloaded a lead magnet, following up with an email containing more helpful information on the same topic. Understanding each group of prospects and customers allows you to serve and deliver the best messaging at the best time.
 
2. Experiment On-Page and Scale Across the Entire Journey
Any purchase on your website isn’t a standalone transaction—it’s very often an opportunity for additional engagement, which can increase revenue and perhaps result in an even more delighted customer. Each step of your customer experience should be a level up from the last.

This is where the AI can really shine, as it can quickly consider the customer’s previous behavior and create on-page elements or paths for the customer to follow toward their ultimate goal. As each step builds upon the last (and delivers more behavioral data), you’ll be able to send progressively better and more targeted content and keep customers coming back for more. The end result is full-funnel optimization.

3. Discover New Opportunities Automatically
The customer journey—and the opportunity to leverage AI’s power—doesn’t stop there. AI can also be a boon to supporting customer service since the system is aware of what the customer purchased and when those purchases happened. Customer service can also be an opportunity for additional content or product recommendations, keeping people engaged with your brand longer and more often.
 
In addition, loyalty programs with personalized features can intelligently offer tailored rewards to customers that align with their interests and behaviors. AI can help you discover new buying patterns, uncover new customer segments, explore new shopping pathways, and so much more.
 
Get Started with AI for Enhancing the Customer Experience Today!
 
The tools of AI are here to collect, analyze, and guide interactions with your customers. Using AI to optimize your CX enables you to provide progressively smoother experiences for your customers, earning you stronger relationships and increased revenue. Now is the time to distinguish your online presence from competitors with precisely deployed cross-selling, product recommendations, content that will surprise and delight your customers, and so much more.
  
Connect with us today to learn more about how Evolv AI can help your business meet personalization needs before the competition does.