Delivering an improved customer experience with AI
March 14, 2022
March 14, 2022
Across many industries, companies using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in marketing and customer experience (CX) are simply outperforming those that don’t. The AI impact is real and quantifiable.
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14%
Lift in overall marketing ROI.
40-50%
Increase in conversions using AI to coordinate next best actions.
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200%
Increase in upsell through personalized communications.
15
Point increase in Net Promoter Score for overall journey satisfaction for companies adopting AI into marketing.[1]
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Now, as we consider how applying intelligence to commercial models makes sense for life sciences, CMOs and CXOs at today’s leading manufacturers are often left wondering, “What’s the tangible value AI can bring to my organization to help me build differentiating customer experiences and ultimately win in competitive markets?” “Can we utilize AI the same way other industries have?”
These are fair questions that we have heard. We hear about how AI is reshaping life sciences but it’s often in the context of R&D or other non-commercial functions. Perhaps you’ve heard how AI is drastically reducing the lengthy drug discovery phase. Or maybe you’re familiar with how AI combined with extended reality is allowing manufacturing teams to visualize the optimal floor layout.
But when it comes to AI’s potential to create growth opportunities in marketing and next level customer experiences, where exactly are we?
It may not feel like it, but we are further than you might think when it comes to leveraging AI for marketing and enhancing the customer experience. Today, conversational AI is being deployed by marketers and sales reps to create deeper and more personalized interactions with their target HCP populations. Marketers are also using Next Best Action/experience algorithms to help both sales and marketing teams drive more impactful interactions.
But when it comes to modernizing commercial by tapping AI’s massive potential in customer experience, we know our industry has more complexity, and as a result, has plenty of room for growth.
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The question is: for today’s life sciences marketing and CX leaders, what AI-powered world is possible?
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We don’t need to look far to envision a life sciences organization using AI to power truly bespoke and ultra-engaging customer experiences. In a statement that will surprise no life sciences marketer: other industries are ahead in using AI to enhance their marketing presence and customer engagement. Yes, we have our own barriers when it comes to innovating, and for good reason. Still, even within the bounds of our industry, there is so much more value to leverage through AI. To get an idea of that value, let’s look at a few examples in other industries. These use cases were developed and implemented by Accenture and our clients.
A major tech company is using natural language processing and machine learning to understand customer sentiment to recommended and automatically craft email communication layouts and contents. Using an AI model that’s trained on over 500k unstructured data requests from inbound customer emails, this company is delivering a customer experience that’s not only curated to each individual, but it’s also continuously learning and delivering even more relevant communications. By using NLP and ML (both are different types of AI), the company saw a 35% increase in measured customer satisfaction and a 40% decrease in required time to produce and deploy communications.
A leading telecommunications company built an intelligent bot using AI to anticipate which customers are going to contact the service center, and then pre-emptively contacted them about their issue. The company completely revamped their customer experience by proactively reaching out to their customers! The AI bot learned what customers needed help with, and when they were most likely to reach out based on past behaviors. Less than a year after deploying this AI-powered solution, inbound calls were down by 1.5 million, digital channel engagement was up 26% and customer satisfaction hit an all-time high.
A major cruise line used AI to build hyper-relevant experiences for thousands of guests at a time, based on what activities they previously completed while on-board. Instead of bringing documentation and waiting in long lines to board, guests used an AI-powered program that curates a unique itinerary. The result is that guests complete most pre-departure steps online—reducing wait times by 90% (from 10 minutes to 30 seconds).
The common thread across these AI CX applications is that they include the development of interactions based on the unique needs of the firm and even the business unit. The lesson here is that through creativity and a strategic approach, we can find applications for life sciences marketing and CX that will advance a brand(s) into the market.
It’s true that the case studies above didn’t start producing results overnight. However, they cement the idea that you’re much closer to tapping the true potential of AI than it may seem. Here are three actions to either start or advance your AI marketing and CX journey:
Imagining the Possibilities
With the blueprints already published across multiple industries, your marketing organization has the potential to start re-shaping the customer experience, today. Our industry is one of complexity and numerous hurdles, especially when it comes to personalized engagement, but that does not have to be the case when seeking real results from AI.
[1] https://www.accenture.com/us-en/services/applied-intelligence/solutions-ai-marketing