How AI helps to unsilo teams to better understand customer behaviour amidst exponential growth in the number of digital channels today.
The explosive growth in the number of channels and the sheer scale of digital consumers – 5 billion people online broadcasting their needs, thoughts and feedback – have created chaos and confusion for modern enterprises trying to understand where and how to engage and support customers.
Sprinklr has helped 10 of the largest 12 brands on earth with an AI-powered operating system for the digital edge that allows every customer-facing team member and business unit to share context, collaborate, and create simplicity amidst this chaos.
Scott Harvey, Chief Customer Officer, Sprinklr, shares his insights in an email interview.
How has the explosion of channels over the last 20 years and the sheer scale of digital consumers created chaos and confusion for modern enterprises trying to understand customer behaviour and how to better engage customers?
Scott Harvey (SH): 20 years is a great frame of reference. A small website – TheFacebook.com – launched in February 2004 as an online directory for students at Harvard University. The platform formerly known as Twitter wouldn’t emerge for another two years and the iPhone for three.
The universe of channels that enterprises could tap to engage with their customers was much smaller. Brands were very focused on traditional marketing via print, broadcast, direct mail, etc. Cutting-edge enterprises were expanding email marketing and online display.
Contrast this with today. There are more than a dozen social media platforms that boast more than half a billion (with a B) active monthly users. More than five billion customers are online every day broadcasting their needs, thoughts, and feedback.
The challenge for brands today boils down to – how to identify signals in all that noise, and how to respond and engage on the channels and platforms that will drive customer action.
How does unsiloing teams help organizations ‘show up where their customers are’, for better customer experience?
SH: The proliferation of channels we discussed has led to an environment where marketing teams employ huge numbers of point solutions to manage engagement across this expanding universe. The result is what we call ‘point-solution chaos’ which leads to challenges like disjointed customer experiences, issues with democratizing data, challenges to demonstrating ROI, and deepening departmental silos.
Sprinklr is the unified AI-powered platform that brings everything together in one place. We connect to more than 30 digital channels, from social media platforms, ratings and review sites, chat apps, and many more. It is also the only platform that can connect every customer facing employee, from marketing, to sales, to service.
Every employee that needs to engage a customer can do so across every critical channel, all through a single platform, which we call unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM).
From your experience with customers, how are brands globally innovating with AI to transform customer experience?
SH: Brands are leveraging AI to transform customer experiences through personalized interactions, enhanced support systems, and operational efficiencies. For instance, AI analyzes real-time customer data to offer personalized recommendations and targeted marketing, making interactions more relevant and convenient. This approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also boosts sales by matching products to individual preferences.
In customer support, AI-powered chatbots like those used by Jumia provide immediate and accurate responses to inquiries, ensuring round-the-clock availability and faster query resolution. This automation frees up human agents to handle more complex issues, further improving service quality and customer satisfaction.
Moreover, AI enhances operational efficiency by automating tasks such as document processing and data extraction through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. A global technology company added OCR to Sprinklr’s conversational AI platform, allowing it to act as a smart translator for images with text. By automating document processing and data extraction, AI reduces manual errors and speeds up processes like invoice handling or order fulfillment. This not only improves operational efficiency but also ensures accuracy and consistency, leading to smoother transactions and enhanced customer trust.
By leveraging AI’s capabilities in personalisation, support automation, operational efficiency, and customer insights, brands can elevate their service delivery to meet and exceed customer expectations in today’s competitive landscape.
What more can AI-powered innovations do for brands in the region?
SH: We are only beginning to scratch the surface of implementation of the latest AI innovations like generative AI. Recently, we announced the launch of Sprinklr Digital Twins. Sprinklr Digital Twins are autonomous and intelligent AI versions of a brand, specific teams, or individual employees that can power conversations, make decisions, design workflows, and execute tasks at scale with unmatched speed and efficiency.
AI-powered technologies like digital twins will have a major positive impact on customer service as they can resolve complex service requests better than any conversational AI bot on the market today. For large enterprises, digital twins will transform how teams work with easy-to-implement copilots that will help boost productivity, drive collaboration, and improve decision-making.
