Using conversational AI and RPA to deliver superior customer experience

In this era of hyper-automation, customer experience is becoming the biggest differentiator for organizations. Product companies used to design products to deliver a better experience and more value for money as compared to their competitors. That used to be, and largely, still is – the differentiating factor. However, in the age of the internet and omnipresent connectivity, a large proportion of focus has shifted to how customer experiences the brand prior, during, and after the acquisition stage of the journey. 

In a market where product differentiation based merely on available features is becoming very narrow and pricing is becoming commoditized, brands both product and service-oriented have realized that ultimately, what experience they deliver to their customers and prospects may be the ultimate key to high sales and market share. The role of digitalized Omni-channel, with speed, efficiency, and accuracy becoming the core traits that must be offered to customers. Companies are seeking well-balanced offline to online strategies as the consumer journey shifts from offline to online. Companies that use these methods are winning the digitization race, gaining more customers, and increasing sales.

There is a wide range of conversational AI applications currently being experimented with or actually being deployed at scale across all industries. From customer service to marketing to security, these algorithm-powered intelligent programs are helping organizations connect with customers and employees in a wide variety of formats and ways. In fact, conversational AI has become a centerpiece for many organizations’ digital transformation in the wake of the global pandemic.

Conversational AI, as one of the most promising methods, is a technology that enables humans and computers to communicate clearly and effectively through speech or text. Conversational AI, while being complex in the background (evidenced by the time it has taken to reach this stage of maturity), works by recognizing a user’s speech or text patterns, predicting their intent, and responding with an adaptive, automated script. While, there are many platforms, the best conversational AI platforms today can create truly natural, human-like interactions. Conversational AI’s rise in popularity is based on its “friendliness” factor – being flexible to work with (and enhance) other technologies, and also by enabling a frictionless, human-like, end-user experience.  

Chatbots were brought into CX as part of this digital approach, and they are one of the most advanced and promising forms of human-machine connection. Conversational AI has been transformed by a combination of diverse AI types such as natural language processing, machine learning, and semantic understanding.

Unstructured data in the form of guided dialogues guide conversational AI, although it may also be passed off to a human worker if necessary. Conversational AI enables the delivery of a tailored customer dialogue at scale across many channels, resulting in a seamless customer journey.

Simultaneously, RPA appears to be emerging as a potential option that employs robots to automate repetitive operations and manual processes with the goal of speeding up CX processes while lowering operational costs. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) Robots are guided by structured data inputs in a bottom-up, process-centric way. Even if customer contacts are routine, they are never the same in each transition. It also lacks the ability to respond swiftly to changes or handle exceptions.

Combining Conversional AI with RPA, which mimics user actions and conducts task-based activities, might be termed a self-serving engagement model. In such a case, RPA may effortlessly interact with chatbots and assist the chatbot in completing a CX task, accessing, or storing information. The requirement of prompting RPA “bots” to further commence and complete the process can be satisfied by the bidirectional data flow between chatbots and RPA.

As a result, RPA and conversational AI can be regarded ideal partners, as each picks up where the other leaves off in the process. When both are used together, CX can provide speedy, tailored encounters and customer assistance at scale. This integration's super-intelligent design will not only help consumers get their questions answered faster, but it will also provide the company an edge over its competitors by providing great digital branding.

While dealing with sophisticated requests and queries in real-time, an RPA-enabled chatbot can interface with not one, but numerous back-end enterprise systems. Chatbots combined with RPA and AI will provide your customer service a competitive edge by streamlining processes, increasing productivity, and lowering operational expenses.

The convergence of conversational AI and intelligent automation is part of an extended omnichannel experience meant to facilitate faster, more personalized, and responsive customer service

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New Normal - Borderless Workforce

The world has changed, and it has changed very rapidly indeed in the last 2 years. We all agree that the COVID-19 outbreak is a world-changing event that will have long-lasting implications for the global economy. It has been a once-in-a-generation global impact event. While there is no doubt that the pandemic is amplifying the adoption of new technologies, technological advancements were already changing the world over the past two decades, from living standards to the very nature of our work. It takes a world-changing event like the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate certain trends so dramatically and workforce-related changes have been, perhaps, the most profound.

“Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win” – Max McKeown

See, even before the pandemic struck, some features of the state of technological progress aka digital transformation were especially salient.

First, technology was already disrupting production processes, especially through the rapid scale-up of digital platforms.

Second, technology created seismic shifts in the mix of skills required to succeed in the labor market. these include cognitive skills such as critical thinking, as well as socio-behavioral skills such as managing and recognizing emotions that enhance teamwork or selling better. Earnings are higher for those who have a combination of these skills.

Third, digital technology changed the terms of work. Rather than “standard” long-term contracts, digital technologies have given rise to more short-term work, often via online work platforms. These “gigs” make certain kinds of work more accessible and flexible.

A hybrid virtual approach in which some workers work on-site while others work from home promises greater access to talent, enhanced productivity for individuals and small teams, cheaper costs, increased individual freedom, and better employee experiences. There are three major obstacles in implementing remote working:

1.            Securing the infrastructure for remote working

2.            Implementing new work policies in a structural way

3.            Balancing the work and private lives of Employees

With 40% of companies encouraging increased flexibility in terms of the country or office to work from over the next three years, and over 36% increasing the number of international remote workers not necessarily affiliated with a local office, the workforce of the future appears to be far more fluid and globalized.

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence -it is to act with yesterday’s logic”- Peter Drucker

With such conditions, businesses' appetites will be piqued for one thing: A borderless Workforce.

Why?

1.            Is it More Effective? - Employees working remotely in various regions of the world save operating costs like salary, administrative expenditures, and business travel expenses. With a global workforce, you can provide round-the-clock support and significantly reduce your turnaround time. 

2.            Does it create new market opportunities? - Local skills may be unlocked and new possibilities can be created by a more globalized workforce. Striking for a borderless global workforce allows your organization to access high-quality personnel from all around the world, increasing your chances of being recognized in any market.

3.            Is it more sustainable? - Remote working decreases commute time and business travel, improving a company's environmental, social, and governance credentials. It aids in the prevention of brain drain from developing markets on a global level, and it aids in the creation of stronger social cohesion in smaller towns and rural regions on a local level.

As organizations start to reopen, they are finding that their workforce is not keen to give up remote work. Companies can no longer say that they cannot operate remotely (a common reason to avoid remote work pre-2020), but with an ongoing global pandemic, they also cannot ask employees to come back to the office full-time. The most popular solution is the thing that every organization seems to be grappling with now — the hybrid model.

People refer to the hybrid model a lot; it involves some combination of working remotely and from an office. So far, the hybrid model looks different for every organization, but there are a few clear themes. Whatever the specifics, however, companies that choose to incorporate a hybrid model will all face some challenges ranging from culture-specific to seamless collaboration to the kind of talent that is available. Borderless workforces break down geographical barriers and develop a culture of cooperation and complete adaptability, allowing businesses to grow at an unprecedented rate while leveraging global talent to solve business problems.

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How to Keep your Sales Funnel Growing and Healthy

The world has changed, and it has changed very rapidly indeed in the last 2 years. It takes a world-changing event like the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate certain trends so dramatically and B2B sales are no exception. Let us take a moment and remember what it used to be like when B2B buyers actually picked up the phone and called you. Now, let’s skip ahead to the real world of today where a vast majority of decision-makers skip the sales team altogether when making a purchase decision. By the time they are ready to make a decision to purchase and if you have not been engaging with them, you’ve lost the sale. That’s why B2B inbound marketing is so essential in lead generation. Inbound marketing strategies generate far more sales leads than other marketing efforts. Customer journeys and mapping them are an essential part of this effort.

A Customer Journey model for visualizing every stage of the journey a customer goes through while making any purchases. Optimizing Sales Funnel accurately is a critical task to achieve the goal of taking your target audience to the finish line in the way they need to be served. If you already have one, you need to understand the holes in your funnel that leak and never convert.

According to Envision Creative’s Founder and CEO, David Smith (https://www.envision-creative.com/blog/attract-engage-convert-retain-customers-economic-change/) – “In times of economic crisis, many brand’s first instinct is to pull back on marketing and advertising, which is a natural reaction. While everyone is doing their best to be cautious, it’s important to remember that maintaining a presence through thoughtful, (and sensitive) marketing communication is even more crucial during these times. While taking a broad approach to reduce or even eliminate your marketing initiatives might save funds in the short term, these actions may be at the cost of damaging your brand’s awareness with your ideal target audience during a time where top-of-mind awareness is critical. ”

Understanding a sales funnel before creating it is important to create one that best suits your business model and focuses on your target audience. With a clear business vision and marketing strategy, you can increase the awareness of your brand that attracts customers. At this point, onwards a business is required to have different stages in their funnel that engages and convert their prospects to sales. According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchase_funnel) – “The purchase funnel, or purchasing funnel, is a consumer-focused marketing model that illustrates the theoretical customer journey toward the purchase of a good or service. In 1898, E. St. Elmo Lewis developed a model that mapped a theoretical customer journey from the moment a brand or product attracted consumer attention to the point of action or purchase. St. Elmo Lewis' idea is often referred to as the AIDA-model, an acronym that stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action”. It has not changed too much in the last 120 years although the methods, which support the process, have largely been affected by the digitization of our culture.

The first common stage of any Sales funnel is creating awareness about your brand in the market that catches the attention of customers. At this stage, your prospective customers are arriving on your websites, social media pages, word of mouth, or any other traffic source with requirements in their mind that they expect to be solved. This is the widest stage of the funnel where customers observe what you are offering or just in simple terms “Just Looking”.  An ideal right place and right time scenario would be customers directly deciding to buy what you are offering, but practically it never happens!

Depending on your business model, there can be multiple stages post attracting your customers. However, all of them contribute towards engaging your prospective customers into your brand. If the customer has reached this stage of your funnel, it is a sign that they are interested in what you are offering and are probably evaluating and comparing it. At this stage, your product should be pushed to the customer to woo them. With established expertise, you can help your consumer to make an informed decision and proceed towards the final stage of your Sales Funnel.

At the final stage of your sales funnel where your prospects are about to get converted to actual sales, your customer is fully aware of your brand and the solutions you are offering for their requirements. While the customer is ready to select the best brand from their comparison, making the best attractive offers can be a good final step that will convert your prospects into your customers and become part of your business ecosystem.  However, there is more to this stage that you need to do! Since your customer has chosen your brand over a lot of other available options, it becomes critical and necessary to earn their trust and commitment towards your brand. A post-purchase survey or a follow-up email can help you understand the feedback of your customers that will help you to attract more customers in the first stage of your sales funnel.

Once your build your sales funnel, it’s also necessary to measure the success and effectiveness of your funnel. The key funnel metrics that can help you collect quantitative and qualitative data such as Cost per acquisition – cost on marketing to acquire new customers, Customer lifetime value, conversion rates, and conversion rate per channel can be utilized.

Creating and optimizing a sales funnel is hard time-consuming work but a necessary step to ensure your survival in a competitive marketplace. Building a Sales funnel is not a one-time activity. Sales funnel cultivates over time by adjusting every stage approach with the feedback you receive from your metrics. A satisfied customer will give your repeat business as well as refer you and there are high chances, they might get into the funnel again due to the competitive nature of the market. Thus, it becomes necessary to keep your funnel stages updated at regular intervals of time. A good flow of customers right from the top all the way to the action stage will ensure you have a healthy business.