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DigitalFeaturedOpinion

How to employ GenAI for effective customer experience

WebEngage's Robert Novotny shares strategies that can be employed to optimise GenAI for an effective and personalised customer experience

GenAI customer experience

Drawing on extensive work experience and research in customer retention, How to employ GenAI for effective customer experience is out to reshape how leaders and executives approach customer experience.

Recent advancements have demonstrated various use cases and capabilities, indicating its potential to transform customer journeys efficiently.

However, as a new technology, brands are simultaneously eager to adopt GenAI and cautious about its implementation, particularly when dealing with customers who are hesitant to trust AI.

The question then becomes: how can decision-makers and marketing leaders effectively leverage GenAI for personalised customer experience?

Here are strategies that can be employed to optimise GenAI for an effective and personalised customer experience

1.      Using predictive analytics to enhance customer retention

GenAI’s predictive capabilities help brands analyse patterns and forecast future customer behaviours, identifying those who need extra support. This proactive approach enables companies to engage customers with tailored incentives.

It can also predict Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) based on gathered data and interactions, allowing the companies to prioritise marketing efforts and anticipate customer needs.

By leveraging predictive analytics, businesses can improve retention and loyalty, driving long-term growth.

A subscription-based streaming service, for instance, can use GenAI to predict potential cancellations analyzing viewing habits, engagement levels, and customer service interactions to present personalised retention offers.

2.     Bringing intuitive interactions to the fore

Some AI-powered models can help improve customer interactions by empowering conversational interfaces like chatbots and virtual assistants to engage in more natural and empathetic conversations.

Businesses can deepen their understanding of customer needs, swiftly identify and resolve challenges, and build stronger brand-customer relationships for a better CX.

Brands can use interactive virtual assistants and bots to easily assist customers wherever possible and even leave a caveat for the customers to reach out to someone on the team if needed.

3.    Developing an omnichannel customer support strategy

Integrating GenAI across all customer touchpoints enables a cohesive, omnichannel strategy that fosters a seamless, personalised experience. By ensuring consistency across channels – including email, social media, in-app messaging, and web push notifications – brands can deliver a unified approach that prioritises customer centricity.

An excellent example is the retail fashion industry; integrating GenAI into marketing automation allows for efficient customer engagement. Customers who abandon their online shopping carts can receive a personalised reminder via email.

At the same time, in-store sales associates can employ AI-driven recommendations to suggest complementary items, driving retention and revenue growth.

4.   Leveraging visual customisation

In many industries, visual storytelling shapes customer perceptions and experiences. By leveraging GenAI’s advanced capabilities, businesses can create immersive, interactive, personalised visual experiences that redefine customer engagement.

GenAI-powered tools enable rapid prototyping and innovation in CX design when combined with design-thinking principles and guardrail strategies. In the car retail industry, for instance, GenAI can generate real-time, photorealistic images of vehicles, providing customers with an interactive experience that simulates the look and feel of their potential purchase.

Additionally, GenAI can summarise thousands of customer reviews into concise, actionable summaries, streamlining the research process and significantly improving customer satisfaction.

5.   Enabling a seamless customer onboarding

The onboarding process is key in shaping a customer’s first experience with every brand, and GenAI can transform it into a frictionless and engaging journey.

It can deliver interactive, adaptive, and personalised onboarding experiences that adjust in real time based on individual customer behaviours and preferences.

This intuitive approach provides contextual support and guidance, identifies common pain points, and facilitates seamless adoption.

In the BFSI and Fintech sectors, for instance, a mobile banking app can utilise GenAI to guide users through account setup with dynamic, step-by-step instructions that adapt to their progress and comprehension of the onboarding, this can make the onboarding easy, and that sets the tone for long-term customer loyalty and retention.

The potential use cases of Generative AI in personalised customer experiences are still vast and untapped. As many more brands and businesses are discovering this usage, it’s essential to tailor the abilities to set better standards for customer experience as it’s a state holder in customer retention.

With these strategies, GenAI can be applied to anticipate customer needs, provide real-time support, and continuously improve your marketing strategies. The future of customer experience is here, and it’s more personal than ever with Generative AI.

By Robert Novotny, Director, Customer Success – MEA, WebEngage