Businesses aren’t always prepared for unexpected events, especially small businesses and startups. That became evident when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
In fact, one report states that 41% of African American businesses in the U.S. failed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some businesses survived—even thrived—during the pandemic because they embraced artificial intelligence (AI) and adjusted their business models.
From boosting sales to improving customer experience, AI technology plays a significant role in keeping businesses future-proof in the new business environment.
Here are five ways AI can help your business thrive and succeed in the “new normal.”
1. AI Shortens Sales Cycles
AI tools and apps can efficiently handle various repetitive tasks. This frees up your sales reps from these mundane tasks and focuses on revenue-generating ones.
At the same time, AI tools and apps provide valuable feedback to your marketing and sales teams to streamline your sales funnel while increasing conversion rates.
Take the case of MovingApt.
Most moving companies would only provide their website visitors with a price range of their services. Because of this, many customers would have to call or email the company to get an estimate.
MovingApt realized that it needs to provide potential customers with an easy and convenient way to get a quote. They decided to add a moving cost calculator on its site. This significantly shortened its sales cycle and resulted in more customer bookings.
2. Improve Customer UX
The overall experience your website visitors get can make or break your chances of converting them into customers.
That’s because they don’t have the same level of patience and understanding when they shop online. One way to ensure you provide your customers with an optimal user experience is to ensure that your website loads very quickly.
Studies show that customers expect your website to load within three seconds. If your website takes longer than this to load, your potential website visitors won’t hesitate to leave your site.
You also need to ensure your website’s UX design makes it easy for your visitors to navigate your website regardless of the device they’re using and move down your sales funnel more quickly.
3. Provide More Efficient Customer Service
Customer service is essential to the success of every business. Customer satisfaction depends on how swiftly and efficiently your business can attend to your customers’ needs.
AI-powered live chat or chatbots boost your customer service efforts by implementing intelligent routing and reducing wait time. As a result, problems and issues are resolved faster and more efficiently.
Social media management tools like NapoleonCat help businesses handle customer care by monitoring and moderating comments and answering queries on your Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages.
You will likely retain loyal customers and create positive brand awareness by addressing customers’ issues with timely responses to your social media accounts.
4. Boost Remote Workforce Productivity
The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses across all industries to make abrupt adjustments to the way they operate. These included providing their employees with more flexible working arrangements such as remote or hybrid working.
Although this shift allowed many businesses to stay afloat, this didn’t come without its challenges. One of them is making sure that their employees are working, especially if they’re being paid hourly or on a per-project basis.
AI-powered tools and apps can help track and monitor your employees’ activities to make sure that they’re getting the job done during work hours without the risk of invading their privacy.
5. Launch More Effective Marketing Strategies
Marketing teams are sometimes faced with limited resources, a lack of creativity, and outdated marketing methods. AI offers a solution to many of these problems by automating some repetitive tasks, generating creative ideas, and providing actionable insights.
AI can enhance content creation and copywriting by using data points and increasing search rankings and engagement with your target audience.
Frase is an excellent example of this.
Frase ensures your content is original and free from spelling and grammar errors. It also provides content creators with keywords to include within the article and how often they should be used.
Conclusion
As small business owners continue to experience the benefits of incorporating AI into their businesses, we can expect this trend to continue in the new normal. That doesn’t mean that business owners should rely solely on AI technology to thrive in this new reality. After all, AI tools and apps are exactly that: tools and apps.
For your business to thrive in this current environment, it’s essential that you provide a positive user experience to your customers. This starts from your website up to your customer service.
You’ll also need to ensure you take care of your employees. This is especially true if they’ve recently shifted to remote working. Provide them with the tools they need to stay productive. At the same time, ensure they take steps to achieve a healthy work-life balance.