Shortages in vital resources have led to employee burnout and the organization’s failure to catch up with or satisfy customer expectations. In essence, businesses have failed to improve customer experience in the face of rising customer dissatisfaction.
While it is true that the employees of a company are its lifeblood, the company would be nothing without its customer. Customers, especially in the B2B space, are fed up with the poor experience they are receiving. They are becoming increasingly emboldened not to accept it any longer.
According to SugarCRM’s “The 2022 CRM Impact Report,” B2B customer churn is rising. Fifty-eight percent of sales and marketing decision-makers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and Germany say that customer churn increased last year. Worryingly, 55 percent feel their company has no idea which customers are likely to go, leaving them unable to control the problem.
Getting new customers is expensive. It takes a long time, a lot of effort, and a lot of expertise. Because the cost of churn is so high, it makes sense to keep existing customers satisfied.
Customer churn is a mission-critical activity for sales and marketing leaders in the post-pandemic environment. While some churn is unavoidable, businesses must equip themselves with the tools necessary to best plan for and manage it.
Also Read: Digital-First Customer Experience – Three Challenges Enterprises Face
The Value of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI), where customer interaction analytics and Machine Learning offer companies an accurate perspective on consumer behavior and churn patterns, is one strategy to reduce customer churn.
Businesses can learn and improve from their customers’ historical, social, and behavioral data using AI. AI insights, unlike traditional analytics, can readily scale and develop with data. Upskilling and maximizing the potential of AI is now business-critical for companies. While churn is unavoidable in every industry, that doesn’t mean companies can’t take steps to prevent it.
Businesses can use AI to reduce churn and retain customer loyalty in three ways:
Determine Which Customers Are Planning to Leave
Companies must first determine which customers are attempting to leave to address customer churn efficiently. Machine learning enables businesses to filter through massive volumes of data and categorize information depending on who is most likely to leave. AI allows organizations to predict and address issues before customers leave by detecting these indicators.
Examine Why and How Churn Happens
Understanding why customers leave is the next step in reducing churn. Customers rarely express their intentions openly; few unsatisfied customers protest, but most will quietly go. AI can pinpoint specific points in the omnichannel customer journey, mainly where customers are most likely to abandon ship.
Employee turnover and customer retention, for instance, are linked. Customer service suffers when employees quit because of a lack of knowledge or rapport, making consumers feel undervalued. Customer goodwill can be eroded by increased errors, poor problem-solving, lost efficiency, or failure to satisfy basic expectations, but which is the primary cause of departure? Natural Language Processing and sentiment analysis on emails, customer reviews, and phone conversations can be used by AI-powered tools to determine what caused them to leave. Businesses can then reduce friction by optimizing products, updating technologies, and retraining customer service.
Also Read: CMOs Reduce Customer Churn Rate
Build a Strategy to Prevent Churn
Since involuntary churn often occurs without the company or the consumer understanding it, AI analytics is critical for gaining visibility and preventing disruption. Businesses can be alerted to payment issues or even fraud by tracking consumer behavior in real-time across channels.
AI can provide valuable information for a successful customer retention strategy. Businesses can then use data to create interventions, such as enhancing product offers or modifying marketing methods. Brands can persuade more customers to stay with them with this level of personalization in the experience.
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