In today’s dynamic business landscape, understanding the customer journey is crucial for effective sales and support strategies. Recognizing the steps your customers take before and after making a purchase can significantly enhance their experience, ensuring repeat business and positive referrals.
With the rapid advancement of AI, the traditional customer journey is undergoing a transformation. From the way consumers research their purchases to the technology driving search engines, everything is changing. Here’s how your sales and support teams can adapt to the evolving AI-powered customer journey.
Transformations in Search with AI
The evolution of search engines is now heavily influenced by AI. Historically, keyword-based searches and SEO (search engine optimization) were the norm, with users typing specific terms and search engines providing relevant results. Businesses could easily attract customers by focusing on the right keywords.
However, AI is reshaping this landscape. Google's AI, named Gemini, uses large language models (LLM) to understand and respond to user queries by analyzing vast amounts of text and recognizing language patterns. Similar to ChatGPT, Gemini fetches information from the internet to provide answers. Importantly, Gemini continuously learns from interactions, becoming more accurate over time.
While Gemini is currently a standalone tool, Google plans to integrate this AI technology into its main search engine through Project Magi. This integration will shift from keyword-based searches to conversational queries, enabling users to ask questions and receive precise answers without having to wade through multiple search results.
This transition to conversational search is a significant change, and businesses must adapt to remain competitive.
Redefining the Customer Journey
The traditional customer journey includes five key stages:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Purchase
- Retention
- Advocacy
Customers typically begin by researching products and then interact with various brands before making a purchase. After the purchase, businesses can foster repeat business and advocacy through excellent customer support.
With the rise of AI and changing customer behaviours, the customer journey is becoming more intricate. Consumers now use multiple channels and devices, making the purchasing process more complex. They also conduct extensive research before making decisions, with 62% using Google’s Shopping tab to compare products from different retailers.
The integration of AI in search engines and evolving customer behaviours present businesses with an opportunity to refine their engagement strategies.
Adapting Sales Strategies to the AI Era
Sales teams must embrace these changes by adopting a diversified ‘allbound’ strategy. While SEO and advertising remain important, they are now components of a broader approach that combines both inbound and outbound sales techniques. This strategy ensures that businesses can reach prospects while naturally attracting them with high-quality content.
An allbound strategy may involve creating custom content such as FAQs and informational sheets that are accessible to both humans and AI search engines, drawing prospects to your website. Simultaneously, outbound efforts like personalised calling campaigns, facilitated by platforms like Aircall, allow for the tracking of analytics and insights, enhancing customer interactions.
This comprehensive approach allows for a seamless integration of inbound and outbound techniques. Prospects who engage with tailored content can be targeted for personalised calls, while outbound callers can utilise this content to demonstrate their expertise.
Leveraging AI for Sales and Support Teams
AI is transforming not only how customers search but also how businesses operate. Sales teams can leverage AI to enhance customer interactions and streamline repetitive tasks, allowing more focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.
AI can provide deep insights into customer behaviour, identifying cross-selling and upselling opportunities by analysing large data sets. It also increases productivity by automating tasks, such as AI-powered transcription, making it easier to share insights from calls and supporting the allbound model.
For customer support teams, AI can turn extensive data into actionable insights, helping to replicate successes and learn from past interactions. AI analysis of conversations can highlight common issues, allowing support teams to prepare for frequent queries and improve the overall customer experience, driving retention and advocacy.
In summary, while AI search engines streamline the customer journey, AI tools simplify the work of your sales and support teams.
Enhancing Sales and Retention Through AI
With AI technologies and evolving consumer behaviours driving significant changes, it’s essential to harness these advancements. Implement the latest AI features to boost productivity and develop an allbound strategy to maximise every customer touchpoint.
By doing so, you’ll be well-positioned to deliver outstanding experiences that drive sales and customer retention, even as the customer journey continues to evolve.
Ready to revolutionise your sales and support strategy? Sign up for a free trial of Aircall today and discover how our solutions can help you close deals faster and retain customers longer.
