Part 1 of 3 Intelligent CRMs
Customer loyalty and retention require a comprehensive plan intentionally designed around every step of the customer journey. Every touchpoint is either building loyalty or eroding it.
So where does AI fit?
In part one of this three-part series, we’ll focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and how intelligent technology can support a stronger customer loyalty and retention strategy.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: there is a lot of conversation, curiosity, and pushback around AI.
Some resistance is expected. New technology often creates uncertainty. What’s more interesting is that many younger consumers are also craving more authentic human interaction.
Their entire lives have been documented on social media. Photo-op signs to document each milestone month or year of life, followed by signs for each first and last day of school, and everything in between.
Instead of families watching a television show or movie together on the family TV, each person has their own tablet or cell phone and corresponding headphones so everyone can watch what they want and watch it alone. It’s no wonder people want more human interaction!
That matters.
AI in the form of intelligent CRMs should be part of the conversation for your business and specifically your customer loyalty and retention. But it is not the end of the conversation. It’s the beginning.
Let’s unpack this and cut through some noise about CRMs and the way they can help with customer loyalty and customer retention.
The best “Intelligent” CRM systems are a necessary tool to help predict customer behavior and maximize opportunity for revenue growth.
A CRM should not be used as a substitute for human interaction. It should handle the tasks it does well—organizing data, identifying patterns, answering routine questions, and helping teams anticipate customer needs—so employees have more time to create meaningful connections, personalize experiences, and build trust. It can also help measure the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) of a comprehensive customer loyalty and retention strategy.
Here’s what a CRM can’t do. It can’t make a personal connection with your customers. Even the best “Intelligent” CRM systems can’t make people feel seen, heard, valued or special. That can only be accomplished on a human to human level.
A classic example of this is some of the brands and websites I frequent, send me an email on the first day of the month I was born, wishing me a “Happy Birthday”. Some even offer a special discount. As someone who was born right in the middle of the month, I have not even begun to think about my birthday at the beginning of the month. It would mean much more to have a call or an email, from a company I am loyal to and spend my money with, wishing me a Happy Birthday on my actual birthday.
A CRM can’t shake someone’s hand. It can’t make eye contact. It can’t be there at just the right moment to celebrate a special impromptu moment in time. It can’t reach out to take a picture on a customer’s camera phone to capture their moment.
A CRM can help you gather information to help you create a special moment or memory for a customer, but it can not replace you or your staff to deliver that experience.
The bottom line is, the question should never be, “What’s better, AI or Humans?” The conversation should always be, “How can AI and humans make each other better?”
Part 2 of this 3 part series will focus on Chat-bots.