Customer experiences are defined by the feelings and perceptions that people have towards your brand. If shoppers can expect a quality experience on your website, they’re far more likely to become paying customers. And if they really enjoy the experience and the products, they’ll become repeat customers and advocates for your brand to their own friends.

This is how companies build brand loyalty and communities of devoted shoppers who always come back to provide new business. Brand loyalty is one of the best ways you can grow your business with sustainable results. You can lower your acquisition costs by optimizing your existing audience base, which saves an abundance of money and increases your profit margins.

What’s the best way to build brand loyalty and convert online traffic into paying consumers? A memorable customer experience makes all the difference between brands that are good and brands that are great.

The importance of great customer experience

When we talk about customer experiences, what are the things we’re really calling out? Customer experience is such a broad term that needs to be more narrowly defined. As marketers and online shopping providers, it’s incumbent upon us to provide the types of experiences that improve customer satisfaction so that the ultimate goal of brand loyalty is achievable.

A shopper is motivated to purchase a product from your website based on how easy it is to engage with the site itself. Over 50% of mobile shoppers will leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load the page, and 30% of shoppers will abandon the site altogether if it’s not mobile friendly. You need to make sure that your site is fast to load and responsive for all types of screens and devices.

But you can get a leg up on your competitors by adding additional services to the site experience. By incorporating chatbots and virtual shopping assistants to your site hierarchy, you give people who are interested in finding products they need the option to receive helpful advice and recommendations. This service goes a long way towards increasing conversions and a verage order values, which are key stepping stones towards the ultimate goal of building a community of brand loyal customers.

How chatbots improve your customer experience

#1 Customers get instant answers

Real-time customer interaction is one of the principal perks of AI-powered chatbots. Customers can interact with the chatbot at their convenience and receive insightful, guided recommendations that help them appreciate the shopping experience as much as possible.

For example, the Norwegian game-based learning platform Kahoot! uses chatbots with machine learning technology to interact with users all over the world. Their platform services clients in multiple countries who speak different languages, and the machine learning capabilities of chatbots helped them provide exceptional customer service to all customers. They addressed frequently asked questions and gave users the answers they needed.

#2 Customers get personalized recommendations

Automated customer support is a great resource for businesses as it frees up resources to address more strategic requirements for the brand. That being said, automation is equally as beneficial on the consumer side as the machine learning capabilities of automated solutions allow the technology to customize responses to customer questions based on the needs of that particular user.

Take for example the consumer electronics retailer Elkjøp, which implemented an AI-powered chatbot to automate customer support. Since they conduct business in multiple countries across different time zones, the chatbot allowed them to provide 24/7 customer support and deliver the quality of service that their customers expect in perpetuity. This helped solidify their reputation and increased brand loyalty.

#3 Chatbots streamline the customer service process

Sometimes, the most desired goal for customer service is to streamline the process as much as possible while maintaining the highest quality of support. When brands can deliver exceptional service without overstretching their internal resources, they develop a winning formula that promises lifetime value from existing customers.

That was the approach taken by Adecco, Norway’s leading staffing and recruitment firm. Adecco built a recruitment chatbot to handle their staffing and hiring recruitment for multiple clients. The chatbot helped filter through the applications to highlight the most qualified candidates and address any questions from those applicants throughout the hiring process. Ultimately, Adecco reduced the number of enquiries requiring human support by 75%.

#4 Chatbots gather data that you can use to optimize your website and your business

Ideally, automated support solutions like chatbots will help your brand achieve growth targets and scale to new levels. When implemented and optimized for maximum effectiveness, they can help companies shift resources so they meet the demand for even greater growth.

Dressmann, one of the largest fashion conglomerates in Scandinavia, deployed chatbots across many websites under their brand umbrella to increase the quality of service. This helped them increase onsite engagement by 34%, and that higher volume of engaged shoppers allowed them to improve onsite shopping journeys, increase conversion rates, and drive up order values for even higher revenue dollars.

Building brand loyalty by improving the customer experience

Customer experiences are what shoppers remember from their interactions with your brand. If you provide quality experiences that are memorable, you’ve delivered on the expectations of customer service and support. Your shoppers will appreciate and remember your dedication by coming back to give more business to your brand.

At Kindly, we help brands grow their businesses with tools that promote brand loyalty and improve the customer experience. We believe that brand loyalty is one of the markers of success for any organization, and that an actively engaged community is a telltale sign of a brand with a long future ahead. That’s why we work so hard to live up to our own expectations and deliver the types of quality service that achieve desired results.