Enhance The Communication With Your Customers Using AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming an integral part of our daily lives. From personal assistants like Siri and Google to online services like Netflix and Amazon, AI is essential to our daily activities. 

As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been increasing in the last years in every industry, retailers are interested in exploring how this technology can be used to improve customer experience and business operations. 

Conversational AI is particularly interesting for this purpose, as this technology allows customers to interact on time through traditional customer service channels. But, how can AI be used in retail? What are some of the benefits and challenges of using it? Join us to find out more about Conversational AI in the retail industry!

What is Conversational Artificial Intelligence, and why is it important for retailers?

Conversational Artificial Intelligence is a form of Artificial Intelligence that allows humans and computers to communicate in a natural language. This form of AI is important to retailers because it allows customers to interact with the computer in a way that is natural and easy to understand. 

This can be useful for customers who need help purchasing or have questions about a product. In addition, conversational AI can collect data and customer feedback in a way that is easy to understand and analyze, while you can use this data to improve your customer service and products.

Conversational AI is important to retailers because it allows customers to communicate with businesses on time while using an everyday language that is constantly learning, improving at speaking, and providing better service.

This type of AI can be used to answer customer questions, provide product information, and help customers place orders. It can also be used to recommend products and services and to provide customer support.

Retailers around the world are increasingly considering the use of conversational AI because it can improve customer engagement and loyalty. Additionally, conversational AI can help retailers cut costs by automating certain tasks, such as answering customer questions.

How is it used?

With chatbots?

Chatbots are computer programs that can mimic a human conversation. They are commonly used on websites and applications to provide customer support or assistance. 

Another way retailers can use conversational AI is by adding chatbots to their websites and apps to provide an interactive experience for customers. This could include asking questions about what the customer is looking for or providing product recommendations based on the customer’s purchase history. 

Conversational AI in Retail Activities

As mentioned before, Chatbots are very helpful in handling simple tasks like:

1. Searching for products

Throughout the conversation, the Chatbot can display product options based on the customer’s preferences for the product, such as price range, features, ratings, and reviews from other users. 

To do this, it’s necessary to have a well-accomplished CRM integration within the Chatbot, so it can access a database to provide customers with updated information on inventories, stocks, locations, quantities, preferences, etc.

2. Giving recommendations 

Engines built into chatbots can help retailers increase revenue and help users discover products that are a good fit for their particular preferences.

3. Locating nearby stores

A customer may want to see or try on a product found while browsing your website. Through the chatbot, this customer can locate stores with this item on stock, different models, colors, and all the information the customer wants to complete his purchase, and even the opening and closing hours. 

4. Placing orders and pre-orders

Customers can choose the product they want to buy, add their address and contact information, and place their order through the chatbot. Additionally, the chatbot can provide information about upcoming products and allow them to order them when they start shipping.

5.Tracking packages

Once the order is placed through the chatbot, the customers can ask where the package is, the date and time of delivery, as well as get information about the postal service and get the contact information on the chatbot.

6. Customer Education / FAQ

Instead of speaking with a live agent, the customer can get information from a chatbot about the product or brand, as well as the product return policy, campaigns, or coupons, in addition to also getting answers to frequently asked questions.

7. Supporting live agents

Chatbots are linked to the company database, where all the information about products, services, features, and locations is saved. If customers prefer to speak with live agents, the agents can be helped by the chatbots to find answers.

8. Sending personalized notifications

Chatbots often ask users for their contact information during the conversation. This provides an opportunity for retailers to send users updates and notifications about new products, annual or seasonal sales, as well as branch openings and events. These messages and notifications are based on a customer’s information, demographics, preferences, searches, and previous orders.

9. Managing Loyalty Points

For retailers that provide customers with points and loyalty programs, chatbots can inform the customers about the points they currently have on their cards and direct them to purchase links or promotions where they can spend their points.

10. Managing Complaints

The chatbot can register complaints online by asking about the details of the incident. In this way, data and insights can be collected through the chatbot for monitoring and policy development purposes.

11. Collecting customer feedback

Instead of contacting the customer to fill out a satisfaction survey after a purchase, a chatbot can jump into the customer’s messages and ask them to rate your product, mail service, packaging, etc. In this way, you can analyze consumer behavior patterns and improve the general shopping experience.

12. Monitoring the Customer Satisfaction and Sentiment

AI technologies can analyze all customer conversations to create an estimate of customer satisfaction with no need for the customers to spend time on surveys.

What to expect from conversational AI in the future and how retailers can prepare for it?

As conversational artificial intelligence (AI) evolves and becomes more sophisticated, retailers can expect to see a number of benefits from integrating the technology into their customer service operations. 

In particular, conversational AI can help companies improve customer engagement, increase sales and reduce costs.

However, to reap these benefits, retailers will need to prepare for the changes conversational AI will bring to customer service. 

In particular, companies will need to move away from traditional call center models and embrace more modern approaches that rely on chatbots and other forms of conversational AI. 

Fortunately, many of the tools necessary for this transition are already available, and companies can start implementing them today. 

By preparing for the future of conversational AI, retailers can ensure they are ready to take advantage of the many benefits this technology has to offer as it continues to expand in the world of retail. 

It is important to remember that humans usually want another human to assist them if they have more specific questions or if they want a more personal accompaniment. Don’t forget that this option must always be present. 

Are you ready to take advantage of AI Conversational Retail? 

Teamwork Commerce is a cloud-based Omnichannel Point of Sale Solution, offering integrated OMS, Inventory Control, CRM and Analytics. The world’s leading retailers use Teamwork Commerce to create a customer-centric omnichannel experience, drive sales and achieve frictionless commerce. 

Take a look at how Teamwork’s functionality, scalability, partners, and integrations set us apart. Get answers to your unique questions, and find out why Teamwork is the right fit for your retail business.

For more information, visit: 

https://www.teamworkcommerce.com/demo-request/