Personalization vs. Automation: How Both Actually Work Together

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There’s a common misconception that increased automation in customer service results in reduced personalization. However, when you’ve paired the right AI system with your brand, automation can actually enhance customer experiences through automated personalization — even on a large scale. But how does it work?

AI provides the opportunity to incorporate a customer’s complete history and profile into every interaction, even when support teams are dealing with thousands of customers.

The outcome? Highly individualized engagements that make customers feel valued and understood.

When it comes to implementing automation while offering personalized experiences, it’s not a choice between the two. In fact, the two complement each other seamlessly.

Unleashing AI and Automation for Personalization at Scale

Thanks to AI’s ability to rapidly process immense quantities of data, customer interactions can be enriched with more personalized details. Here are some key ways in which AI enables customers to enjoy tailored customer service experiences:

24/7 Availability:

With AI technology, customers can now receive 24-7 customer service assistance round the clock. Regardless of the day or time, they can engage in one-on-one interactions without waiting. Even during peak times or outside of regular business hours, customers’ needs are promptly addressed.

Customer-Empowering Self-Service:

Customers prefer to solve problems on their own before needing to contact customer service. Knowing this, automation-powered self-service options are a must-have for modern customer service teams. With self-service, shoppers can resolve their issues independently, without ever having to engage with an agent — all while having a positive interaction with your brand.

Reduced Response Times:

AI can handle a higher volume of customer inquiries in less time, ensuring quicker responses and resolutions for customers. By promptly attending to their issues, customers feel acknowledged as unique individuals.

Identification of Urgent Inquiries:

AI has the capability to sift through thousands of inquiries and identify the most time-sensitive matters, guaranteeing that customers in immediate need of help receive prompt assistance.

Proactive Assistance:

Anticipating customer needs not only makes them feel seen and cared for, but also reduces their frustration and saves time. By leveraging a customer’s complete history and profile, AI can identify pain points and offer proactive solutions.

Personalized Upselling and Cross-selling Opportunities:

By knowing a customers’ history with your brand, brands can proactively sell to shoppers based on each customers’ unique data. For example, fashion retailers might consider using an AI-powered chatbot to suggest personalized outfit recommendations based on a customer’s fashion preferences and past purchase history.

See how automation and personalization go hand-in-hand.

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Viewing Customers as People, Not Just Tickets:

Agents can easily become overwhelmed when inundated with requests, especially repetitive tasks. However, by harnessing the scalable power of AI within your customer service platform, certain systems can reduce time spent on repetitive tasks — or eliminate the tasks altogether. By aligning your automation with your brand and selecting the right AI partner, even simple issues can be addressed in a personalized manner, ensuring customers receive the tailored assistance they seek.

How to Provide High-Quality, AI-Personalized Automation to Customers

To ensure your launch of automating personalized customer service operations is successful, follow these steps:

• • Keep a customer-focused approach:

    When implementing automation, prioritize the customer’s experience. Ensure that your language is kind and helpful, and establish customer-centric policies aimed at reducing customer effort and providing a smooth end-to-end experience.

  • Leverage customer data:

    Capitalize on your AI’s ability to process huge amounts of data and leverage algorithms. Incorporate relevant information such as order and account history to build well-informed, individualized interactions. Better yet — work with a customer service platform that offers multiple integrations, so you can flow information from loyalty programs, referral rewards, customer relationships and more directly into their Profile.

  • Maintain consistent processes:

    Create clear processes that maintain consistency across all interactions, which in turn builds trust with customers. When they know what to expect from your brand, they feel more confident in their buying relationship.

  • Choose — and consistently use — brand-aligned language:

    By instilling your unique voice in your AI, customers more feel connected to your brand. To do this well, use a CX platform that allows agents to add, edit, and update your website language at scale. This author-once, publish-everywhere approach enables a single agent to update one data point, and iterate it across your entire website automatically. This prevents scenarios where customer-facing language is inconsistent or confusing.

• Continue to monitor CSAT scores:

  After implementation, monitor your CSAT scores and customer reactions to ensure they feel taken care of. With AI, you should see agents are able to handle a greater number of customer inquiries, while using more personalized responses. Both of these benefits should lift your CSAT scores over time.

• Use intelligent routing to have reps step in:

  AI isn’t meant to replace agents or remove them from the CS equation altogether. Using intelligent routing to determine when to send specific issues to an agent vs. an automated solution is the key to providing white-glove customer servicew while also benefitting from the efficiency-boosting power of AI. Don’t forget to use invaluable customer profile data to help inform your routing rules.

• Integrate with a customer-centric helpdesk:

  Whether a customer inquiry is being tended to by your AI agent or one of your human agents, ensure your customers are receiving personalized service every time by leveraging a helpdesk that provides all customer context. Having a customer’s history with your company readily accessible will provide your support staff with the ability to deliver service that is truly tailored to each individual customer.

See How Personalized Automation Can Empower Your Service Team

As you work toward a winning combination of AI and personalization, be sure to work with vendors that have personalization top of mind. Your AI partner should carefully guide you through planning, implementation, and brand alignment.

If you want to see what an AI-driven CX integration can do for your brand, book a free, obligation-free demo with Gladly, or start a conversation with our AI partner, Thankful.

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