Managing the customer. This has become the pivot on which businesses rise and fall. The tipping point towards greatness that allows for an organisation to thrive in a highly competitive and challenging market. As PwC puts it – it is an ‘obsessive focus on great customer experience’ which is delivered by ‘using the latest technology to make the customer experience feel more human, and empowering your employees to deliver stellar service.’
Success hinges on a company’s ability to meet the customer at the edge of their expectations and needs. Which is why customer relationship management (CRM) tools have become so ubiquitous, and why they’re evolving at pace – customer engagement, loyalty and retention are defined by the technologies that support their experiences, personalisation and the organisation’s customer service capabilities.
Enter artificial intelligence (AI)
Yes, this is the starting point for most conversations today. What AI solution are you using? How have you integrated AI into your business? What have you done to expand your AI investments
Valid questions and, fortunately for CRM, invaluable ones. AI within this space is proving an invaluable ally in delivering significant value to the business by helping companies become more focused on meeting changing customer needs and expectations.
How? Also, a great question. Over the past few years, AI has crept within CRM systems and offers organisations immense potential, as evidenced by these impressive statistics:
- Potentially delivering up to $1 trillion in additional value[1]
- IDC predicts data generated by organisations will increase five-fold by 2025 – only 2% of this data is used by the business so AI offers CRM the ability to leverage this data far more effectively[2].
- 75% of customers use multiple channels to engage with a company which means AI is critical to providing accurate and timeous engagement across these channels at speed.[3]
AI within CRM is described by McKinsey as the ‘quickest and most effective route for institutions to deliver personalised, proactive experiences that drive customer engagement’.
