The Importance of AI in an Omni-Channel Customer Experience
Technology has transformed the way consumers interact with their favorite brands. Especially, in the last few months of Covid-19, consumers have shifted themselves to digital communication. As per the Harvard Business Review, 73 percent of all customers use multiple channels during their purchase journey.1
54% of social browsers use social media to research products.2 63% of customers expect companies to offer customer service through their social media – and 90% of social media users have already connected with a brand or business through their chosen platform.3 Thus the customer expectations of being in constant touch have increased the focus of businesses on omnichannel experience.
What is an Omni-Channel Experience?
An omni-channel experience connects the physical world and the digital experience. It offers a multichannel sales approach that centers on providing a seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping from a mobile device, a laptop, or a brick-mortar shop.
In 2019, marketers using three or more channels in any one campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign. This shows a clear trend that customers prefer omnichannel campaigns. By 2020, the preference for omnichannel campaigns has increased by 14.8%.4
Omni-channel operations focus on the entire customer experience and not the customer’s individual experience on different channels. This includes connecting with digital touchpoints such as in-store digital signage, offline access, digital assistants like Google Home, Siri, Amazon Alexa, and even things like chatbots, IoT devices, and other applications.5
Relatable Reading: Why You Should Care About Improving Customer Experience?
Role of AI in an Omni Channel CX Strategy
AI has already begun to impact customer service. It enables omni-channel strategies to scale by providing insights into the changing needs and preferences of customers, creating customer roadmaps that scale and deliver consistent experiences.
According to Accenture’s omni-channel study, 89% of customers used at least one digital channel to interact with their favorite brands, and just 13% believe that companies are reaching their full potential by delivering digital-physical experiences.6
Many organizations turn to AI to close these gaps with greater intelligence and knowledge. It helps to measure how the customer journey evolves with time, and specifically identify service solutions. Top brands like Disney, Oasis, REI, Starbucks, Virgin Atlantic, and others use AI to deliver an excellent omnichannel experience. 7
4 Ways AI Helps Improve Omni–channel Capabilities
Defines Customer Journey and Enables Price Optimization
Using AI in omni-channel strategies individualizes customer experiences to a personal level. They use information such as brand, product preferences, location, content viewed, transaction histories, and channels used to create a precise persona of each of the key customer segments.
This even helps to achieve price optimization along all dimensions and determine the best delivery path to minimizes the delivery costs.
Digitize Supply Chains and Fuel Raster Revenue Growth
54% of retailers pursuing omni-channel strategies say that their main goal in digitizing their supply chains was to deliver greater customer experiences. 45% say faster speed to market is their primary goal in digitizing their supply chain by adding in AI and machine learning-driven intelligence.8
Using AI-based tools helps businesses to achieve a high level of connectivity, enables greater transparency, and results in better collaboration. It provides a network with greater data accuracy, clarity and helps managers monitor the performance of different processes, from sales to logistics. This helps to meet customer demand and deliver revenue growth.
Modernized Customer Service
Gartner predicts that by 2025, customer service organizations who embed AI in their customer engagement center platforms will increase operational efficiencies by 25%.9 AI not only improves overall omni-channel performance it also allows businesses to make sense of the data in real-time, gain a deeper understanding of their audience, and then take actions accordingly.
Amazon, for instance, uses AI and machine learning to decide when a customer needs to speak with a live agent.10 AI can also improve knowledge management, content discovery, and improve field service routing and support.
Improved Marketing Campaign Tracking
Marketing is already data-driven and with advances in AI, it can improve marketing and selling effectiveness. It helps track marketing campaigns, understand purchase decisions of different personas, and evaluate why and where omni-channel strategies are succeeding or failing.
By using relevant data from the web and predictive models, AI helps businesses to better understand prospective customers. This allows them to better predict behavior of the potential new customers and design improved marketing strategies.
iLink Helps You Bring Your Omni-channel Strategy to Life!
AI has been already revolutionizing omni-channel strategies and changing the way marketers market. The priority of digital transformation is to connect people with the right content at right time and across any device. Our goal is to keep this process effortless, consistent, and contextual.
But delivering such a seamless experience across all channels and devices for your customers can be a challenging task requiring a lot of effort and time. Our experts at iLink help you create an omni-channel commerce platform that not only helps businesses to deliver improved quality of service but provide the most customized experience to customers.
Learn More About Our AI Solutions
Endnotes
1. https://hbr.org/2017/01/a-study-of-46000-shoppers-shows-that-omnichannel-retailing-works
2. https://blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-day/social-browsers-brand/
4. https://www.orchestracms.com/Prioritizing-the-Digital-Experience-with-Omnichannel
5. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-59/Accenture-The-Big-Read-Full-Report.pdf
6. https://blog.hubspot.com/service/omni-channel-experience
8. https://www.gartner.com/document/3895585?ref=solrAll&refval=216626805&qid=c3e9983afa0bab32e7b5b3
