How Technology is Empowering 21st Century Consumers

Today’s consumer is an entirely different breed compared to the consumers of yesteryear. With technology at their fingertips, customers expect brands to not only meet their needs but to anticipate them. The advancement of technology is mainly responsible for this age of empowered consumers.

To optimise the conversion of your potential consumers, we’re breaking down some of the leading tech tools for bettering your business and your customer service.

Hyper-Personalisation

Statistics show more than 78 percent of customers ignore offers that aren’t personalised.

Consumers are fully aware of the access businesses have to their data and therefore expect that knowledge to be used to their advantage.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning analytics provide companies with insight on their customers’ wants, needs and expectations to create individualised experiences every time.

Now that consumers have gotten a taste of their favourite brands catering to their interests and desires, personalisation has become the norm.

This, in turn, has shifted the power from brand to the consumer in the sense that a customer will gladly move on to a competitor should a brand display decreased attentiveness.

Omnichannel Service

With the advancement of personal-use technology, handheld devices such as mobile phones, tablets and even voice assistants enable consumers to perform a range of tasks on new channels every day.

Because 90 percent of consumers expect consistent business interactions across channels and 98 percent switch between devices on the same day, brands have no choice but to meet their customers wherever they are.

Adjusting your efforts to appeal to each customer’s preferred channel can be accomplished in a couple of different ways:

•  Video chat: Face-to-face interactions with customers beyond company walls allow for greater personalisation and service.
•  Screen sharing: Customer issue resolutions improve when service reps can view a visualisation of the problem and guide a customer through the complex process.

Shift to Mobile

There’s been a significant and steady rise in e-commerce over the past few years.

More than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices today, and mobile adaptability is a necessity for B2C brands as people become increasingly reliant on their smartphones.

E-commerce mobile applications, in particular, provide consumers with convenient platforms for connecting with brands, researching products and facilitating purchase orders.

Businesses have begun to implement emerging technologies via a mobile interface to provide consumers with more engaging and personalised experiences.

Virtual reality (VR) & augmented reality (AR)

The integration of Artificial Intelligence, VR and AR technologies into mobile apps is a growing trend to provide shoppers with immersive shopping experiences.

Consumers can test out many products and offerings through virtual visualisations before making a purchase. These technologies also contribute to improved relationships between brands and their consumers and provide a more in-depth look into their brand processes.

Improved Communication

Along with the demand for improved experiences comes the need for two-way conversational interactions between businesses and consumers.

Creating these opportunities through automation, client and business to business scheduling tools have resulted in enterprises providing improved customer service in a variety of ways.

Chatbots

Most customer support teams don’t have the manpower to respond to the 24/7 influx of requests technology has facilitated, but chatbots have revolutionised B2C communication.

Up to 60 percent of phone support time for customer issues can be avoided through the use of chatbots, according to Oracle’s Mark Hurd.

These intelligent bots are capable of providing customers with answers to queries, product recommendations and more through easy-to-use messaging apps.

With the abilities to juggle multiple conversations at once, gain knowledge from customer interactions and identify consumer emotions, chatbots are an excellent customer service asset.

Live Chat

Visit nearly any e-commerce website, and you’re sure to be prompted with a live chat messenger.

This platform for instant communication allows brands to engage with consumers and address requests before they become actual issues.

Search

By 2020, voice search will account for 50 percent of all searches.

As intelligent home assistants grow in popularity, the convenience of voice search empowers consumers to search their queries handsfree and in their natural language form.

40 percent of millennials already use voice search for online shopping, so there’s certainly an argument for businesses of all industries to prepare themselves for this new era.

Another trend that’s recently picked up speed is the use of visual search.

E-commerce businesses, in particular, are integrating image search technology on their websites so shoppers can easily take photos of products around them and use them to search for various sites selling said products.

As the age-old saying goes, “the customer is always right.” In today’s world of constant advancements in technology, we face an endless stream of developments that are bound to affect the relationship between businesses and consumers.

Thanks to the trends mentioned above, we can expect 2019 to be a robust year for the consumer.