Customers want a seamless experience with the brands they love. And messaging has become a channel more and more companies are using to provide those seamless—and more comprehensive and consistent—experiences. According to Salesforce research,1 customers favor messaging channels as well—66% have used text/SMS, and 65% have used messenger apps to engage with companies. Now, generative AI has become the breakout star with the ability to transform the customer experience. In this article, we explore the benefits of messaging combined with generative AI, and how it will impact your business outcomes.
Benefits of Generative AI-Infused Messaging
1. Hyper-personalized conversations
Messaging offers businesses a direct and instantaneous way to communicate with customers. Unlike traditional communication channels that involve waiting on hold or delayed email responses, messaging provides real-time interactions. This instant connection, which customers have come to expect, contributes to a positive customer experience by addressing their queries and concerns promptly.
Enhancing messaging with generative AI technology allows a more personalized and natural experience. The solution can quickly access customer information, knowledge base articles, website information, existing PDF documents, and other sources of information that exist within the company ecosystem to provide an instant response tailored to the customer conversation. The customer doesn’t have to choose from a menu of options that may or may not fit what they really need.
2. Consistency
Messaging conversations can be initiated from basically any entry point—website, social media, branded mobile apps, in-store kiosks, QR codes on packaging—the options are endless. Keeping the conversation going with the customer through messaging offers an open dialog, which builds the brand-customer relationship and improves the customer experience. Generative AI can pull valuable breadcrumbs of data based on the customer touchpoints to provide better responses or recommendations.
For example, a customer could initiate a chat on a company’s website while searching for patio furniture, and then seamlessly switch to a messaging app on their smartphone to continue the conversation. This level of flexibility not only enhances convenience, but also demonstrates that the company values the customer’s time and preferences. Generative AI can also suggest additional products based on the customer’s search history, which can further build brand loyalty and boost revenue growth.
3. Lower operational costs
While advisors will always play a role in customer service, using intelligent bots for routine queries frees up staff to handle more complex issues. Generative AI technology uplevels the bots’ abilities, so the conversation between customer and bot is more natural. The bot can still answer questions even if the customer didn’t spell everything quite right, and can detect intent through the context used by the customer.
Ensuring the generative AI-enhanced bot has the appropriate guardrails and defined knowledge sources from the company’s domain eliminates hallucinations or inappropriate answers to customer questions. By enabling bots to handle less complex issues quickly and easily, fewer queries are routed to advisors, keeping your operational costs low.
4. Improved customer satisfaction
It’s no secret that customer satisfaction is key to brand loyalty. Customers who believe their experience was good will continue to use a brand, while customers who perceive a poor experience are more likely to jump ship. Providing the convenient channel of messaging allows the customer to get the information and answers they need in the channel they prefer—with self-service bots offering 24/7 availability. Infusing generative AI technology into your messaging platform increases the level of satisfaction by providing accurate answers through natural conversations between customer and bot, providing a positive experience.
Programming the bot to detect frustration or anger and then promptly and properly routing the conversation to the appropriate advisor also provides a positive experience. Even though the customer may be frustrated, their frustration won’t be increased through an endless cycle of trying to get to the right prompt to speak with a person. In addition, generative AI advisor assist capabilities help ensure the interaction remains positive, offering the advisor suggested answers, and even automatically turning a typed response from the advisor that may not be as friendly as it should be into a well-written, informative, and professional response. Generative AI tools also can summarize the conversation history to quickly bring the advisor up to speed on the customer issue or streamline notes to pass to the CRM.
Messaging empowers customers and the business, creating a two-way communication that’s insightful and helpful. Advisors like messaging for its many benefits and the ability to handle multiple conversations at one time easily. Customer satisfaction often starts with the advisor—a happy advisor will provide a pleasant and informative experience with customers, which in turn keeps customers satisfied. Satisfied customers will be repeat customers, growing your customer base and ultimately your profits.
A Perfect Match
The strategic implementation of messaging can significantly elevate CX for your business. Finding a messaging platform that leverages the power of generative AI elevates the customer experience from good to great. From instant and hyper-personalized communication to consistent experience, lower costs, and improved CSAT, a sound messaging platform offers a wide array of tools to enhance CX, loyalty, and operations. Adopting a technology-forward strategy for CX allows you to provide the type of experience customers are expecting from all their interactions. Including messaging in that strategy provides flexibility and convenience, while generative AI provides the intelligence and accuracy needed to ensure the customer experience remains positive. Together, it’s a winning combination that’s sure to delight customers and keep them coming back to your brand.
Learn how Concentrix can help you explore generative AI-infused messaging for your business to up-level the customer experience while improving your bottom line.
1 “State of the Connected Customer,” 6th edition, Salesforce, 2023.
Jim Strong
Director of Product Management
