Customers’ needs and expectations are in a continually evolving mode. A wide range of technologies and channels are entering the customers buying routes, bringing with themselves a rise in touchpoints, transactions, events, and interactions – all getting incorporated into a new, advanced Customer Relationship Management software.
Custom Relationship Management solutions have come far in the two decades they have been in existence. Right from being a contact database where the customer information is stored to becoming a key source of business intelligence aligned with the customer lifecycle. This evolution journey is only getting stronger with the inclusion of new technologies in the market – like Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things.
In this article, we are going to delve into the many ways AI and IoT make the process of managing customer relationships through software a business-benefitting journey.
Role of Artificial Intelligence in CRM
The extent of AI is visible in a number of technologies – predictive analysis, machine learning, natural language processing, etc. CRM vendors from across the globe have been heavily investing in all the different facets of artificial intelligence to better optimize their customers’ interactions and experiences.
Where are some ways AI is being used in modern-day CRMs:
- Customer service
- Predictive planning
- Leads management
A prime use case of AI in bettering customer service can be seen in the usage of chatbots. On the first level of interaction, AI can ask customers’ names, preferences, and modes of communication and pass the information to the customer service team ensuring that personalized service is being provided.
The best part of using an AI-powered chatbot – besides the fact that they are available 24*7 – is that they can be designed to improve with time. This means that with the use of AI Technology to improve customer experience, the customer support staff can be utilized for other business-impacting tasks.
Powered by extensive customer journey knowledge, CRM can use the predictive analysis powers of AI for assisting upsell opportunities or service requests.
Based on the analysis of the data which customer support enters in the CRM, AI can suggest a sale offer, an add-on service, or product to the customers which are designed keeping the users’ needs in mind.
Sales teams can make use of AI for scoring the lead quality ensuring that there’s a positive likelihood of closing a deal. AI can make use of details like sales history, users buying trend, their search patterns, and their interest level in a service or product to give them a lead score.
The score can then be used for recommending them features and products or offers and discounts to ensure that the deal ends profitably.
One of the ways you can best gauge the inclusion of AI in CRM solutions is by taking reference notes from businesses that are using the combination.
Here they are:
Role of IoT in CRM
The success of CRMs in today’s modern marketing space is largely defined by how multi-channel supportive they are. With growing IoT advancements in the CRM domain, businesses are able to offer a more omnichannel customer experience. While inclining more on the technology side, the impact of IoT in CRM is nonetheless impactful and crucial.
Here are other ways IoT is set to alter the CRM landscape in the coming time.
- Personalized promotions
- Default-proof products
- Better customer retention
One of the most common applications of IoT in customer experience is in the usage of beacon technology. Usually followed by the retail sector, the technology identifies customers’ devices in the vicinity of the store and send out promotional push notifications to better the chances of them making a repeat purchase within the store.
Since the devices in an IoT setup are connected, the support team can remain on top of the product maintenance tasks. They can solve issues that they see coming in the product in the backend before the customer notices them.
IoT has been extensively used by CRM vendors to track customers’ behavior across platforms and channels. The benefit of this is that the customer support team can reach out to them when they identify any disengagement or deactivation of the service – giving businesses time to keep their customers from going to the competitors.
So here were the many ways AI and IoT technologies are being used to better the returns and efficiency of a CRM solution. The crux of using both the new-gen technologies inside a CRM solution is more or less the same: understanding customers better, improving the chances of customer retention, customizing promotions, and adjusting the supply and demand equation in real-time.
However, for businesses planning to incorporate the new-gen technologies in the system, it is important to manage your data accurately. The more control you have over your structured and unstructured the better will the technologies be able to perform.
