Hype stocks have become a constant, when the goal is to take advantage of a trending topic on social media to be capitalized as a marketing strategy. In fact, it is not possible to give up this movement; meanwhile, the available technological solutions can and should be much better utilized to attract consumers, turn them into engaged and loyal customers.
The big leap of the moment, necessary for online business, is about appropriating innovations to promote personalization in customer relationships. The fact that it is an e-commerce does not mean that the consumer is willing to engage in mechanized interactions, robotized, cold.
None of that. Centralization and automation of contact channels cannot be synonymous with impersonal communication. The advantage, currently, is that the available artificial intelligence resources already allow the development of solutions that embody the relationships between company and consumer, promoting a complete and assertive customer journey.
It is not about the famous technophobia of "machines will replace people". Robots can and should replace operational work, liberating human intelligence for strategic tasks, of creativity and intelligence as such. But robots can and should be designed for interaction with consumers that captures and responds to the specificities of each consumer.
An example of personalization in service, provided by artificial intelligence, it is what can reconfigure the concept of store. Whether physical or virtual, standardized service will give way to personalized relationship, enabled by algorithms and increasingly deep and fast data analysis, practically in real time.
Purchase history, interactions on social media, the words used by the consumer both in their speech and in their searches, how this consumer behaves in the store – all of this provides information for technology to return answers to the customer that meet their personal preferences, specific, in order to satisfy your longings and desires.
In this way, retail will be able not only to meet what the consumer demands, як, mainly, to anticipate this request and need. It happens that the collection, data storage and analysis, through artificial intelligence, expand exponentially; the generative capacity of technology enables segmented responses, personified, made to measure
The trend is that, in a not too distant future, retail stores become as personalized as user profiles on streaming or music platforms are today, for example, that already offer these consumers menus of movies and music that not only meet their preferences but also keep such users connected and loyal.
In this sense, presentation of launches, discounts and promotions can be tailored to each customer. The customer's behavior at each moment can also be understood.
That is to say, despite the search history, purchases and views, artificial intelligence tracks any changes in taste or even the consumer's feelings at that moment of interaction. In this way, a chatbot with artificial intelligence detects some variation in mood in the face of frustration for not having its needs met, for example.
Investment in technology providers that offer an ecosystem of solutions (management, customer service, sale) is shown, значить, essential for the retailer to fully incorporate a digital transformation. After all, there is no point in segmented and personalized actions if, at the moment the customer needs to continue their journey, the system is not structurally prepared to handle demands and flows.
By César Baleco, founder and CEO of the Irrah Group, technology hub for business management and communication
