Three ways AI can be used to delight and spoil a customer.

Bernard Marr, writing in Forbes, says artificial intelligence is helping service-oriented businesses to up their game in terms of customer satisfaction (nay, delight).

He goes a step further to observe that services can even uncover new offerable services using AI and thereby generate additional revenue streams.

Here are three tips from Marr on using AI to bowl over customers.

Intense personalization

The way to go, according to Marr, is to use AI to thoroughly understand the customers and thus be able to anticipate what can delight them and drive them to engage further with the business.

Increasingly customized and personally-oriented services, driven by data analysis and AI, are an unmistakable trend and you ignore it at your peril.

“If your customers don’t already expect a more intelligent, personalized service offering, they soon will do,” writes Marr. “If you aren’t able to offer such a service, rest assured your competitors will.”

Example:

• Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) – The streaming content company analyzes and detects patterns from data related to users’ viewing habits. It is then able to use sophisticated algorithms to recommend the right content preferred by each of its users. This resulting in a highly superior and satisfying viewing (and brand) experience that results in customer delight.

More value for customers

Make customers’ lives easier, better, healthier, and so on, suggests Marr.

The key here is to use AI to develop a deeper, more involved relationship with the customer. This becomes the basis for providing a high value-added service.

Example:

• Vitality Health – The health and insurance provider analyzes customers’ healthy (or not) lifestyles by using data and AI. It then rewards them for healthy behavior – say, for walking a certain number of steps a day. These rewards entitle customers to discounted services, for example, lower premiums for health insurance.

Anticipating a customer’s needs to delight them

Predictive AI models are surprisingly good at predicting customers’ behavior and needs. The more data these models are trained on, the better they get at this.

The customer may not know that she could require a grocery delivery or maintenance service later in the month, but your AI will likely predict it accurately.

Example:

• Kone Elevator (HEL: KNEBV) – By placing sensors in its over one million lifts and escalators installed around the world, Kone gets valuable data on the condition of a lift. AI can analyze this data to trigger a predictive maintenance service that averts a breakdown. The result: continuing customer delight with the reliability of Kone’s lift or escalator.

Bottom line

“The most successful service providers of the future will be those that can use data and AI to provide more thoughtful, responsive solutions for their customers,” predicts Marr.

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