By Megha Jain & Vanyaa Gupta
The offer one can’t refuse, the experience one can’t forget, the nazni one enjoys, is the experience that is called ‘the brand experience’. Customers today are the most valuable asset for any business or brand. Hence customer engagement is the key. When we talk about customer engagement, how can we forget automation? The digital era, industry 4.0, is revolutionizing the path that leads to customers with various tools and techniques.
AI-powered tools personalize interactions, automate tasks and provide 24/7 support. Data-driven insights enable tailored experiences and Omni-channel strategies connect with the customers across various touchpoints. For instance, if you see a product on the internet today, its ad will keep popping across multiple touchpoints. Ultimately hitting customer psychology by reinforced hammering of the same product, they end up buying it.
Currently, the human age has reached a stage of time that is “NOW”, everything one wants is now, in a click. So, picture this - you are dreaming of a product and BAM! There it is, an ad perfectly tailored to your desires, popping up the second you hit a website. That's AI's magic touch. It is the secret sauce brands use to decode your wants and needs through algorithms like clustering and segmentation, making advertising so targeted that it feels like mind-reading. Let’s delve deeper into the world of automation to understand various models that are used today to actively engage customers.
Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots such as Amazon Lex, IBM Watson Assistant provide instant, 24/7 customer support, answering common questions, guiding customers through self-service options and even initiating proactive conversations. However, this model necessitates the need for a large corpus of data that could brute-force numerous customer-centric questions and
provide appropriate resolution to them.
Email marketing automation
This involves automated email sequences triggered by specific customer actions such as website visits, abandoned carts or purchase history. These sequences can include welcome emails, personalized recommendations, and follow-up messages. Marketing titans like Omnicom have unlocked the power of the 360-degree customer view. By meticulously understanding their audience, their desires, their pain points and their interaction, they have engineered a dramatic surge in email-open rates over the past decade. This isn't just about data, it is about wielding that data to forge powerful, personalized connections that resonate deeply.
Personalized recommendations
AI-powered recommendation engines analyze customer data to suggest products, services or content tailored to individual preferences, enhancing the customer experience and driving engagement. However, its success hinges on a trifecta - pristine data, brilliant algorithms and insightful interpretation. Imagine a skincare brand perfectly matching products to your unique skin – that's AI personalization in action. Two companies at the forefront of this transformation are Salesforce and Solo Brands. Salesforce is a pioneer in data management and technology. Its Einstein AI tools empower sales teams to gain deeper customer insights.
Marketing automation platforms
Platforms such as Marketo Engage by Adobe integrate various marketing channels and automate tasks like email marketing, social media management, lead scoring, campaign tracking, etc, by providing a comprehensive solution for customer engagement. These models help businesses streamline interactions, personalize experiences, and improve efficiency, ultimately leading to a stronger customer relationship and increased engagement.
Moving ahead, let's look at the success stories of some iconic brands. How did they become what they are today?
Amazon
Predictive shipping - Amazon leverages data to anticipate customer orders and proactively ship items before they are even ordered, minimizing wait times and exceeding expectations.
Personalized recommendations - The "customers who bought this also bought" feature and personalized product recommendations on the homepage are driven by powerful algorithms, enhancing the shopping experience.
Drone delivery - Amazon utilizes its MK30 drone for delivery of small packages within a short timeframe, often within an hour in the USA. This program aims to revolutionize the e-commerce experience, offering faster, more convenient and engaging delivery options for its customers.
Sephora - where beauty meets experience!
Virtual try-on - This feature uses augmented reality technology to allow customers to "try on" makeup virtually, enhancing the online shopping experience and reducing the risk of purchasing unsuitable products.
Personalized beauty routine recommendations - Sephora's app analyzes customer purchase history and provides personalized beauty routine recommendations, helping customers discover new products and improve their skincare and makeup routines.
Disney - the world of Mickey Mouse
Interactive experiences - Disney offers interactive content like "Choose Your Own Adventure" episodes, allowing viewers to influence the storyline and create unique viewing experiences.
Character interactions - Disney Parks utilize AI-powered characters that can interact with guests in more personalized and engaging ways, enhancing the overall park experience.
Customer engagement is the ongoing cultivation of a relationship between a company and its customers that goes beyond a simple transaction. As they say, any experience is a brand experience. AI’s large language model can analyse data to such an extent that it can accurately predict what could be happening in a person’s life now. The best example of this is Astrotalk, predicting your needs and sending tailored notifications, like suggesting 'puja' for health challenges. It is the most sorted app of customer engagement. This goes beyond basic segmentation and tailors interactions based on real-time behavior, purchase history, and even emotional cues.
Another such example is Nykaa which has a strong foundation built over years, leveraging a vast customer base and a loyal following. It does strategize well to make sure its customer base remains intact. The day when you are expecting a message from them, that’s birthdays, anniversaries, they do deliver cross-channel experience, freebies, personalized messages, indicating that you are valued. They don’t let them go off your mind by sending offers and messages frequently. Another on-point example is Zomato. They know what and when you need. A notification on the match day pops up, “caffeine is good but you still need food”, suddenly inches the cravings to order.
Further, we can expect augmented reality to take the front seat. It will blend the digital and physical worlds, allowing customers to virtually try on clothes, visualize furniture in their homes or interact with products in newer ways. Moreover, virtual reality will offer immersive experiences, allowing customers to "step into" a brand's world, explore products in 3D or attend virtual events. Let’s experience something beyond bricks & clicks!
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(Dr Megha Jain is an Assistant Professor at Shyam Lal College, University of Delhi, and a Visiting Fellow at Pahle India Foundation. Er Vanyaa Gupta is a seasoned technocrat in Delhi, India.)
The views expressed are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times
