4 Ways Cognitive Technology Can Enhance the Customer Journey

Cognitive Technology Should be on every marketers radar when seeking marketing tool to improve the customer journey online.

4 Ways Cognitive Technology Can Enhance the Customer Journey

One of the biggest struggles for small businesses is keeping a consistent, streamlined customer experience across all business channels. Since we live in a digital world with answers constantly at our fingertips, today’s customers expect to receive answers instantaneously as well as 24/7 access to your a company’s support agents. By implementing cognitive technology, you can do just that and create the best customer journey possible. This post will look at 4 ways cognitive technology can help your business.

 

What is cognitive technology?

Cognitive technology is a field of computer science that mimics functions of the human brain through various means, including natural language processing, data mining and pattern recognition. It is expected to have a drastic effect on the way that humans interact with technology in coming years, particularly in the fields of automation, machine learning and information technology.

 

Online marketers should find cognitive technology a very important component to their overall marketing strategy. As Forbes recently pointed out;

“dramatically improves the shopping experience for customers and that’s one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, priority for CMOs today. When you make every step of a customer’s journey brilliant, they will come back for more, they will talk you up to their friends and become advocates for you in social media circles. That’s how you create loyal customers which is something every CMO cares about very deeply.”

 

Here are four ways this technology can help your business.

1. Boosts Communication and Workflow

One way to provide consistent customer service across all areas of your business is to ensure you utilize the same practices and protocols throughout every department. In order to accomplish this, integrating a cloud contact center into your day-to-day operations is ideal for managing an efficient workforce.

Through a cloud contact center, you’re able to delegate tasks to your employees and/or virtual agents, share insights, and get real-time reporting. In order to retain current clients and be able to attain even more clients in the future, it’s key to maximize the workflow you already have.

2. Hones in on Customer Needs

One of the top priorities for small and large businesses alike is finding new ways to better serve your customers. A cloud contact center provides both agent-assisted and self-service options to meet your client’s every need. To do this, you’ll need to better understand the makeup of your customers, including their individual needs and wants.

Fortunately, a cloud contact center has the capability to do just that by aggregating customer data. It provides insights into customer demographics, purchase history, preferences and more. And, in turn, you’ll be able to see your client behaviors and change your business strategies accordingly.

3. Delivers Faster Response Times

Additionally, your call center can take on high-demand and high-volume calls and inquiries with ease. After receiving the inquiry, the cloud contact center delivers outbound messages using interactive voice response and SMS technology. With these faster response times comes reduced wait times and instant answers to customer questions and concerns. This helps with client retention and also builds trust with your client base.

Beyond these benefits, IVR systems provide your customers with a connection between you and the mobile world, making for a more user-friendly experience. That’s because your customers will most likely be able to download your mobile app that features callback and in-app live chat functionality to better assist them. Ultimately, this means virtual agents and other self-service portals are readily available to serve your clients anytime, anywhere.

4. Cuts Down on Business Costs

One of the many benefits of implementing a cloud call center is that it can significantly reduce business costs. This is because cloud call centers include internal IT solutions that handle cross-channel telecommunications, 24/7 monitoring and software and hardware maintenance.

Because of this, staffing and technology efforts can be focused elsewhere. Moreover, cloud call centers can alleviate some of the more tedious tasks that employees must perform and help increase both profit and productivity throughout your business.

Every big- and small-business owner knows keeping customers happy is their No. 1 priority. After all, your customers are the driving force for your business. By implementing a cloud contact center to help you reach that goal, your company is destined for success. Remember to keep these four strategies in mind if you’re thinking about implementing cognitive technology for your business.