This challenge has emerged from a significant evolution of customer expectations in recent years. With the suite of choices presented to a customer in-store, online, or through the channel, expectations have magnified to the point where the modern customer journey no longer ends at the point of purchase. Instead, demands for consistent, tailored experiences during and beyond the checkout are now expected. 

Historically this has been the preserve of multinationals with tens of thousands of customer service staff, but today how can smaller businesses, with limited resources, keep up?  

The trick is first understanding those customer expectations, and second identifying the areas where technology can empower you to punch above your weight. 

The evolution of customer experience

Businesses everywhere are recognising that today, experience is everything. 

In fact, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services while 83% of small business marketing organisations believe that experience is their key differentiator from competition. 

Just a few years ago, improving customer experiences was a lengthy, resource-intensive task. However, with modern customer relationship management platforms and AI innovations, that no longer has to be the case. 

For SMBs facing significant hurdles in balancing cost efficiency with delivering personalised customer experiences, these innovations are crucial. 

Recent research shows that across UK organisations, 79% of those using AI say it’s already improving their productivity. This shift underscores AI's critical role in enhancing both employee satisfaction and customer experience. For instance, AI, by automating repetitive tasks like data entry, allows customer teams to focus on more creative and strategic activities they enjoy. 

In other words, it means more time spent delivering a personalised experience to the customer. This kick-starts a virtuous cycle, leaving both customer and employee happier. It’s worth looking at this in a little more detail. 

How AI streamlines customer interactions and resolutions

In customer service and sales, AI can revolutionise how businesses interact with customers. Because, as we’ve showcased, one of the key challenges SMBs face in this sphere is providing great service without incurring prohibitive costs. 

As just one example, implementing AI can streamline the problem of prolonged resolution times or repeated inquiries for the same issue by assessing questions and intelligently routing a customer to the right person (or even sharing a solution without human input, for simpler requests). Strategic implementation of AI in this way can create the perfect recipe for employee engagement.

At the learning platform HowNow senior leadership has seen firsthand how integrating AI like this can transform their work environment. HowNow deployed AI integrations called Officely and Bob with Slack, enabling the firm to streamline operations and create a satisfied, high-performing digital office. 

The automations work to share internal announcements, recognise achievements, and highlight learning opportunities. Officely’s AI also recommends optimal in-office collaboration days, while the "HN Love" Slack channel automatically showcases employee accomplishments and real-time customer praise, enhancing overall employee engagement.

In other words, for customer-facing teams at HowNow, AI isn’t just helping to streamline workflows but also bolster motivation by revealing the impact their great work is having on customers. 

Looking ahead, AI features will become even more useful. Trusted autonomous AI agents are an advanced form of AI that can understand and respond to customer inquiries without human input. These can further help growing businesses to scale their customer support, delivering personalised, accurate, and rapid responses to customers while freeing up human agents to focus on high-priority or complex challenges. 

The future of customer service excellence

Before the advent of AI, long wait times and repetitive inquiries were all too common. A classic example is the dreaded loop of long call transfers, where customers embark on a frustrating game of being switched from one representative to another, each time having to repeat their issue from scratch. This is guaranteed to not only test customer patience but sour them on the company they’re engaging with.

AI systems today are capable of overcoming those hurdles by understanding and addressing customer issues rapidly, minimising the impact of human frustration and mood fluctuations, and ensuring that every customer interaction is handled consistently and effectively. 

However, it all comes back to having the right platforms, like those driving seamless communication, which can simplify AI’s implementation. By subtly embedding AI into workflows through familiar messaging tools, smaller firms can streamline workflows and boost business performance. 

With competition growing and larger companies piling on the pressure, this AI assistance and the incredible customer experiences it enables are the route to a new competitive edge for small yet mighty businesses.