Why Experience is Key to Brand Loyalty

Digital interactions are increasing year after year, and a company's ability to interact with customers quickly, and in a way that satisfies their needs, will make or break the brand experience.

To deliver VIP e-commerce experiences at scale — especially during the busy Black Friday/Cyber Monday season — brands need a customer experience strategy driven by artificial intelligence. By embracing intelligent automation that uses advanced natural language understanding (NLU), brands can instantly serve customers the answers they’re looking for, point them to the right place at the right time, and recognize and reward returning customers for their loyalty.

Automate Self-Service for Fast Purchase

With e-commerce at consumers’ fingertips, holiday shopping can be done in a pinch. And many are doing this earlier, with BFCM promotions starting as early as October and lasting well into December.

Pre-sales interactions such as product information, payment questions and checkout issues are what brands should consider as “low-hanging fruit.” These types of inquiries are high volume, well-matched for automation, and quick wins for brands to take the burden off of human contact-center agents.

The increasing volume of self-service interactions show that consumers are taking full advantage of automation to guide their digital shopping experiences, looking to brands for quick access to every detail: prices, inventory, handling and maintenance, gifting options, and accessories.

Conversational AI, especially when content and customer insights are centralized in one place, gives consumers everything they need to make it across the finish line. However, the customer relationship doesn’t end when a purchase is completed, and neither should the brand experience.

Post-Sales Interactions Drive Loyalty

The interactions that take place after a customer places an order offers brands a chance to extend a standout digital experience.

Nearly 80 percent of customer interactions are common, repeat inquiries that can be easily automated. In retail, WISMO (“Where is my order?”) interactions make up the lion’s share.

Using conversational AI, WISMO inquiries like order status, changes and missing items can be handled instantly and with a personal touch. Intelligent chatbots can help shoppers troubleshoot account access, update their subscriptions, and cancel renewals.

Better yet, brands can use conversational AI to proactively update customers. They can be greeted with communication in the chatbot or via SMS about their order, promotions or a recommendation based on their customer history with the brand. And this pays off — 58 percent of consumers purchased from a specific brand because of excellent past customer service.

Build Once, Interact Everywhere

A brand’s success is ultimately driven by customers, so it needs to be everywhere the customer is. This means digitizing beyond the brand’s e-commerce site and powering a consistent and excellent experience across channels and devices.

Customers should be receiving the same experience whether they’re interacting with the brand’s website, on its app, via SMS, or on social media. And regardless of where the conversation starts, it should automatically pick back up in the next channel.

For brands to meet the moment this holiday season, they need to invest in technology that can scale customer support up or down instantly. They need to use data-driven insights to tailor CX. And they need to curate the VIP experiences that lead to long-term brand loyalty. It’s a simple and smart way to keep customers coming back for more and to positively influence your bottom line.

Jessica Popp is the chief technology officer at Ada, a brand interaction platform.