With the advent of new technologies, digital tools, artificial intelligence, Big Data, the marketing of the 1980s is light-years away from what is practiced today. The discipline of marketing has been disrupted to take into account the new role of customer relationship.
Artificial Intelligence and Customer Relationship
Customer relationship is significantly impacted by artificial intelligence. Algorithms are employed to collect, store, and process a tremendous amount of customer data. Several practical applications become accessible to a greater number of companies:
- Predictive analysis: It allows for predicting customers’ future behaviors, such as customer churn, and anticipating corrective actions (scheduling appointments, re-engagement, etc.).
- Chatbots – or conversational agents: They automate responses to simple information requests and complaints.”
Content personalization (advertising, email, SMS, etc.) intensifies based on customer profiles and their online and offline journeys.
Facial recognition: It can assist in identifying customers online or at physical locations, for instance…
The Internet of Things (IoT): It also provides us with even more precise data on customers’ real-world usage through their connected devices, smart homes, etc.
Knowing how to leverage data…
Only the companies that can harness this impressive flow of data with human intelligence coupled with artificial intelligence will be capable of adapting their marketing strategies and tactics to their customers’ profiles. With artificial intelligence:
- Prices will be adjusted in real-time.
- Promotional offers will be tailored to the audience.
- Products will be presented to the right people.
- Routine, repetitive, and low-value tasks will be automated…
Digital Transformation
“The relationship between customers and businesses has been significantly impacted by digital transformation. The emergence of digital platforms, the modern marketplace, offers an infinite choice of products and services: Spotify, Deezer, or Netflix provide a wide range of audiovisual content; YouTube offers an endless array of videos; Airbnb or Booking provide hundreds of thousands of rooms worldwide, and so on. This has disrupted purchasing and consumption practices. The internet has given consumers new power: the ability to easily find information about products, brands, and companies, express their own opinions, and see the opinions of others. Now, the customer should no longer be considered just a consumer of the product but rather a partner. This rise in the importance of the customer relationship has resulted in two new functions:
- Crowdfunding (source of financing) or crowdfunding, where consumers participate in fundraising efforts to support concrete projects;
Crowdsourcing (source of ideas) aims to integrate consumers into the creative process of the company. This involves soliciting input from the crowd via online platforms for communication projects or research and development efforts.
Thus, reducing the role of the customer to that of a mere buyer is a risky approach. In the digital age, reducing the customer relationship to a simple transaction conceals the potential contributions of the customer to your business’s success. This evolution also represents a new challenge that should encourage you to adapt to these new avenues of engagement. This adaptation involves altering listening mechanisms to capture, analyze, and respond to customer needs.
