Delivering a powerful and memorable customer experience is more important than ever. With several platforms at their disposal, customers can now publicize their feedback.
A survey showed that consumers trust a local business with positive customer reviews. Meanwhile, negative reviews can make them doubt the quality of a business. In fact, 94% of them may avoid a company with bad reviews.
The good news is, you can also use technology to build and enhance customer trust. Nowadays, there’s no shortage of ways to connect with a large number of customers.
In this article, we’ll go over the five tech advances that will help boost customer experience. Like any relationship, customer trust stems from how your business listens and interacts.
Understanding Technology’s Role In Customer Experience
Improving customer experience is about communicating with them often. In the old days, real-time communication was a pipe dream. But now, more businesses integrate automation to respond to customer needs. Attracting, retaining, and engaging today’s customers becomes easier with technology.
To understand its role, here’s how technology helps improve customers’ experience:
Unify Digital Experience
Customers expect a unified experience from businesses of any size. For them, your business is a single entity. They don’t care which department they’re interacting with.
But of course, it’s hard to keep customer information in one box, especially in big companies. So it often involves a chain of events, from customer service to sales, accounts, or marketing.
Yet, customers are happier when a company can resolve their issues fast. You can keep a complete history of a customer’s interactions using technology. You’d be able to provide them with a seamless experience across all channels.
Create A Positive Engagement
Building healthy relationships with customers is essential. Besides seamless communication, they also want unique and meaningful experiences. Note that highly engaged customers develop an emotional connection to a brand. They will buy more, promote more, and show more loyalty.
But first, you would need to grab their attention to build that connection. The right technology can create a positive engagement for the customers. Doing so helps foster a relationship that will result in sales.
Provide More Significant Insights
Understanding what your customers need is crucial to your business’s success. You can do this by knowing how they think and feel about your products and services. But traditional surveys can be time-consuming. Plus, they rely on your customers’ memory, which deteriorates over time.
With the power of technology, you can get more significant customer insights. You would better understand why customers like or dislike your product or services. Then you can build deep customer empathy and create better experiences for them.
Tech Advances for Improved Customer Experience
Like customers’ behavior and expectations, technologies are changing at a rapid pace. New tech solutions and tools are coming out now and then. That’s why it’s essential to pay close attention to various technology trends.
Below are some tech advances you can use that will help boost customer experience.
1. Omnichannel Solutions
Seventy-three percent of consumers consider customer service as an essential factor in purchasing. If they find a brand that provides them excellent customer service, they will stick with it. That means customer experience is a driver of brand loyalty.
You can deliver a seamless customer journey through various omnichannel solutions. Consistent brand messaging allows you to protect your relationship with customers across platforms.
Integrating customers’ data from one channel to another is critical. This way, you don’t have to ask them repeated questions. Plus, you’d be able to personalize their experience. By doing this, you can turn potential customers into paying ones.
2. Augmented Reality (AR)
Consumers prefer less-intrusive and fewer insignificant ads. They want to engage with an ad that’s relevant and worthwhile to them. Augmented reality is the new innovative solution to attract and engage potential customers.
Through an AR app, customers can try products without leaving their homes.
For instance, a customer can browse for furniture in the in-app catalog. Then they can drag the chosen item around the screen and see how it fits in their room. If they’re searching for cosmetics, they can also compare many looks side-by-side.
This can help you show off the features that set your product apart from others. But more than that, you help customers relieve their fears before purchasing.
3. Customer Chatbots
Implementing self-service through chatbots can help reduce customer waiting time. Your customers won’t have to wait too long for a response or resolution. With a knowledge base, it allows them to get faster solutions to their issues.
You can build chatbots with predefined responses for typical and straightforward questions. But some customers might have complicated queries.
When powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, chatbots can provide accurate answers. If they cannot answer the questions, they can direct customers to a service employee.
With reliable communication and accessibility, you can drive customer loyalty to your brand.
4. IoT (Internet of Things) Solutions
IoT can help with data sharing, inventory management, and security. It may not have an immediate impact on a customer’s experience. But, it can make a difference in how your business team responds to their needs.
With seamless data sharing, your employees will have the internal support they need. They can use this to assist customers better. They can also spend more time focusing on resolving customer issues. And, they’d be more effective in addressing their queries.
5. Customer Analytics Tool
Integrating analytics into your business strategy is vital to improving the customer’s experience. But collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer insights can be challenging without technology.
Through customer analytics tools, you can now better quantify and improve customers’ journeys. You can collect feedback when they interact with your brand across channels and over time.
Conclusion
Your choice of technology will affect the experience you create for your customers. But consider the customer’s satisfaction first, and the right technology will come after. Note that there’s no one-size-fits-all technological advancement for every business. So don’t hesitate to test and explore beyond the trends.