We are living in the age of artificial intelligence.
The driving instruction we take from our online maps, the social media feeds we browse incessantly, and even the app you use to order your favorite pizza are examples of artificial intelligence.
AI helps businesses automate their daily tasks, gather sales and customer data, and perform many other operations. It takes the guesswork and human error out of critical decision-making and helps you understand your data more intimately.
Most small businesses operate with limited means and resources. In several cases, survival becomes more important than growth. However, with AI by your side, you can hope to compete with big kids on the block by creating efficient business processes that allow you to spend your resources in areas that scale your business.
This article is a discussion to talk about four such ways where AI can help your business grow.
1. An AI-Charged CRM
A CRM is a Customer-Relationship Management software program. These programs allow businesses to optimize their communication, sales, and operations. It brings all of your customer data into one place and helps you predict patterns and trends to improve your decision-making.
A CRM with AI is a CRM on steroids. It doubles the efficiency, power, and capability of what a CRM can do. With artificial intelligence at its core, your CRM can take your lead generation to its fullest, ensure that you never miss a customer query, bring more purchase-focused consumers to your doorstep, and give a goal-oriented overhaul to your communication and sales.
Thanks to advancing technology, acquiring an AI-powered CRM is not as expensive as it used to be. Salesforce is a well-respected CRM across industries with pretty affordable pricing plans available. It also has Einstein – its analytics and AI assistant.
You can use Einstein to access precise data, gain actionable insights, and create a more productive end-user experience.
2. Branding With AI
Branding is how you give your business a particular visual representation. Using colors, symbols, text, and other visual cues, branding allows you to communicate your business’ core values to your customers. Logos, websites, business cards, and social media are popular forms of branding assets that companies of all sorts and sizes use every day.
But just because everyone is doing it hardly means they are doing it right.
AI-powered tools and technologies help you infuse intelligence into the whole branding process. For example, an online logo generator allows you to create professional logos in minutes. Color tools enable you to generate the most suitable color palettes for your brand. Typography tools help you shortlist fonts and styles that you want to use on your logo, website, and marketing material, etc.
These tools make these processes easy and ensure that the result is more accurate and on-point. Branding done right ensures that people can remember your brand and recall how it looks. When faced with choices, they’ll be able to recognize the feelings your detailed visuals had evoked. And if you have done everything correctly, customers are likely to act on the positive feelings they associate with your brand and choose it over others.
3. A Customer Services Chatbot
Missed communications are the most common way a small business loses clients.
Most small businesses do not have the assets to establish a full-time, robust customer services department. Therefore, unopened emails missed deadlines, and delayed queries are constant problems SMBs fight daily.
A customer-service chatbot is the easiest and most popular way to tackle this issue. Most of the time, when you go on a website and a chat window popups where a customer service agent is offering you their help – that’s an AI bot.
These customer services bots make effective use of AI capabilities. As a result, they ensure uninterrupted communication and consistently deliver accurate, most recent, and most relevant information.
4. Error-Free Scheduling
Scheduling is another big area where AI can help you save big on resources and ensure efficiency all around.
Since most SMBs deal with a smaller workforce, even a minor error in employee schedules can mean a disruptive day and waste of assets, not to mention legal troubles if the error creates an unfair working environment.
Scheduling software that uses AI makes sure that overtime is minimized, your best workers are always around, and you are never under the risk of breaching any labor laws. It also reduces your time spent scheduling and uses complex data to create high-quality schedules that help the business, employees, and customers.
What’s Next
The cost and the complexity of the technology used to be the two biggest hindrances against implementing AI into SMBs. Thanks to advancements in SaaS, both these factors are not threatening anymore. Using AI-powered systems has become easy, convenient, and affordable.
So, start looking for the best AI tools to equip your business with today and see your sales soar.