How businesses can use AI to improve customer service and CRM

AI in customer relationship management

Happy customers are returning customers. So, it goes without saying that your customers should always be kept happy. And how to do that? Customer relationship management (CRM) is essential for every business. One way every business can improve its CRM strategy is by implementing artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is one of those buzzwords floating around right now describing new technologies that can help many different areas of business. So, how can AI specifically assist with CRM?

AI for better customer assistance

As one of the more common applications of AI in business, chatbots are being used to provide assistance to customers. The beauty of using chatbots to manage customer queries is that they can be taught to respond in specific ways and they can handle millions of queries at once.

Chatbots can be used to answer the more generic questions which customer service centers receive like, “How do I return a product?”, “Where is the closest branch?” and “When is the newest version of the product being released?”. Then, when the questions become more difficult for a chatbot to answer, a customer service representative is able to step in and handle the query. In this way, CRM is actually improved as an increased volume of queries are dealt with in shorter periods of time.

Process automation

AI has long been viewed, somewhat negatively, as machines taking over the work of people. But David Autor, an economist at MIT has suggested a new era of automation emerging. Here the division of labor is not blue-collar versus white-collar but rather routine versus nonroutine work. In this way, artificial intelligence is automating routine processes which would have been completed by a staff of workers in the same way as the machines of the industrial revolution automated physical work. This trend is already happening. Examples include computers replacing junior lawyers for legal discovery and cub reporters for compiling scores and financial reports. These days, computers really can do the work of staff members – and do it without stopping for sleep, coffee or cigarette breaks.

Data analysis and report creation

Who are your customers? And when last did they visit your website? These are all essential details to know. AI can scrape large amounts of data and turn it into highly readable reports. This has been proven to be true time and again as computer-written reports, articles and books are increasingly being produced and are found to be accurate, well-written and indistinguishable from human-written work. This saves time among staff and provides essential details for customers. If the data reports that a customer hasn’t purchased in a certain amount of time, an email or SMS can automatically be sent reminding them of special offers and discounts.

If you’re interested in learning more about how CRM is essential for every business in every industry, read our detailed guide which explains how simple it is to use Clickatell SMS for CRM marketing. It demonstrates how it’s possible to use SMS to send surveys to customers, cut call center costs and offer after-hours support to customers.