In today’s highly competitive business landscape, engaging and retaining customers is one of the most challenging business endeavors. You need to find effective ways to satisfy your customers and provide them with outstanding experiences, so that they don’t find someone else (your competition) who can give them what they need.

Quite a lot depends on customer service and the way you interact with your customers, which is why more and more technological advances that can improve customer service keep hitting the market. Here are the top innovations that are pushing the boundaries of customer service and completely changing the way people interact with brands.

Chatbots

According to a survey by Oracle, 80% of businesses will be using chatbots by 2020. If you want to stay competitive and relevant, you should definitely jump on the bandwagon and start using chatbots to enhance your customer service.

Chatbots can significantly improve customer service because they are powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence) and use machine learning to better understand customers’ needs and preferences, providing them with personalized service that people actually expect.

The best chatbots are built on platforms that use NLP (Natural-Language Processing), which enables these revolutionary computer programs to learn natural human language and recognize speech patters and different behaviors, so that they can effectively communicate and provide customers with exceptional service.

SnatchBot is a cloud-based bot-building platform that uses outstanding NLP. The platform is very intuitive and user-friendly, has enterprise-grade security, and you can use it to build and deploy your own chatbot for free, with no hidden costs down the line. If you’re a complete beginner, you can use one of the many pre-built bot templates from SnatchBot’s Bot Store and launch your bot in no time.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence plays a huge role in customer service, going way beyond chatbots. Various AI-powered tools can help businesses learn more about their customers and considerably enhance customer service, making it much easier for customer service agents to provide fast, proactive, and relevant responses that will lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

AI can improve decision-making processes and help businesses save a lot of time and money through automation. By automating repetitive tasks, AI can help organizations increase the levels of efficiency and productivity. This is more than important for customer service teams, as they can save plenty of time by means of automating routine customer inquiries.

With more free time on their hands, they can easily do what they do best, that is, effectively communicate with customers and prospects and make sure not only that they always leave satisfied, but also that they keep returning.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is no longer a futuristic concept that we used to see only in sci-fi movies. It is finally here, and businesses are increasingly using it to their advantage in order to boost their customer service efforts and amaze every person interacting with their brand.

VR is completely changing customer experiences, as it provides an immersive experience that instantly grabs people’s attention and taps into their senses and imagination. There is literally no other technology that can provide experiences that are quite like the real life.

With a VR headset, your customers can browse through your product catalogues, try your products or services, regardless of their geographical location. They can take a walk through a real estate property, hotel or restaurant, and have an immersive experience that will absolutely delight them.

Big Data Analytics

According to a report by Salesforce, 57% of consumers are willing to share personal data with brands in exchange for personalized offers and discounts. The same report shows that 52% of consumers are likely to switch to a different brand if a particular company doesn’t make an effort to provide them with personalized service.

This is where big data analytics can be of immense help, as it enables businesses to gain a clear insight into their customers’ interests, expectations, preferences and consumer behavior, so that they can effectively address their pain points and deliver personalized service.

By leveraging big data to gather and analyze information about their target audience, they can provide tailored solutions to any potential issue and quickly resolve the problems, all with customers’ personal expectations in mind. Improving customer service that way helps businesses build strong, long-lasting customer relationships and inspire trust and loyalty, ultimately driving more sales and increasing revenue in the long run.

Omni-channel Service

Omni-channel service is one of the innovations that certainly every single consumer greatly appreciates. It can be quite frustrating to start conversing with a customer service agent on one channel, only to be forced to repeat everything you just said to another agent when you transition to another channel.

Consumers want a quick problem resolution and a seamless experience across all channels, no matter what devices they are using, which is precisely the meaning behind omni-channel service.

For instance, when it comes to chatbots, you need to make sure that your customers are able to use your chatbot across all your service channels, because that is what will enhance their experience with your brand. Ideally, you are searching for a solution with a single API for integration or with just a simple one-click process. This way there is little to no need for hiring developers to help you integrate and maintain your omni-channel service and there are fewer long-term costs.

The final goal is to deliver exceptional customer service and form meaningful connections with everyone interacting with your brand through all networks. Be careful, this kind of approach generates a lot of data and you can easily get lost in that if you don’t plan ahead.

If you want to expand your customer base and grow your business, you need to make sure that you continually evolve, which is exactly what these modern innovations can help you do. They will help you completely transform the way people interact with your brand, providing them with wonderful experiences that will lead to increased trust and loyalty and push your business to much greater heights.