Some offer to create YouTube thumbnails for your social media content, while others offer to help with customer support and sales. There’s a lot out there, but the fact is that these services do help. In fact, they make running a business infinitely easier. So, what’s the problem? Well, even though AI has been fantastic for creators and entrepreneurs, it’s not the same for customers.
People have already gotten fed up with the bot problem that’s been plaguing the internet. Did you know that, according to Imperva’s Bad Bot Report, nearly 50% of all traffic comes from non-human sources? Combine that with how Vice believes that the dead internet theory is being revived, and it’s just a right mess.
So, how do you ensure that you can win support from customers when they’re fed up with AI slop? Let’s find out.
#1. Accept that AI Isn’t For Everyone and Don’t Overuse It
Something worth remembering right off the bat is that it isn’t your place to persuade people to like AI. So, if you were thinking about justifying AI use in your business, don’t bother. What you can do is simply choose to implement AI services in ways that aren’t too overbearing.
For instance, do not replace human customer support with AI bots. Instead, consider using AI to build your business website and the basic pages on it. As Hocoos explains, this is very much possible with template-based website builders. You just answer a few questions about the kind of website you want, and a few minutes later, it’s done.
That’s the kind of low-footprint option you can consider if you feel like your customers aren’t big AI fans. That said, if you are using AI in other areas, at least ensure it blends in seamlessly with the rest of the user experience.
Another example of incorporating AI in a non-intrusive way is product descriptions and assistance. So if you run an online boutique, it’s not too on the face to use AI to suggest outfit pairings or product recommendations. Your customers would still be interacting with humans, but AI would help out here and there in an inconspicuous manner.
Of course, it’s always good to understand the logic behind this. The reason to take these steps is that many customers lose interest and disconnect emotionally when things feel overly automated. It’s actually a fascinating angle that researchers ought to study more.
Someone might visit a store, make a purchase, and exist with the bare minimum amount of eye contact and conversation. However, fully automate the purchase experience and the same customer might talk about how uncomfortable it feels when humans aren’t involved.
As a business, you will need to accept these little incongruities and account for them in how you present your products and services.
#2. Ensure That Customers Still Experience the Human Element
Say you use an AI service to handle scheduling-related tasks. Your AI service might do a great job and provide instant service. However, you can always add a little human element to create a sense of realness behind any interaction people have with your business.
There are plenty of ways you can do this. If someone has just booked a service or product from you, go ahead and send a handwritten message thanking them for their purchase. Does that seem a little too much if you operate on a large scale? Yes, it probably does, but as a small business, you can afford to try out these strategies.
If you happen to be growing into a large business, you can also consider adding team or staff bios to your website. You could also share behind-the-scenes moments on social media to show people that your company isn’t made of faceless robots.
This is why it’s so important to drop the corpo-jargon, especially on your social media accounts. But, don’t just take it from us, go look at the Instagram accounts of major companies. You’ll be surprised to see tons of memes and light-hearted content being created and shared by their teams.
Never make the mistake that you need to maintain a 110% professional image. A little bit of humor and ‘humanness’ goes a long way to counter any AI usage you indulge in. Research shows that 90% of customers prefer dealing with a human being over a chatbot. In the study, 61% felt that humans had a better understanding of needs, and 52% found human interactions less frustrating.
Thus, try your best to make each customer feel like they’ve been seen and heard. You’ll need to keep their sentiments very much at the forefront of your mind. Not only will this make them want to come back, but you’re likely going to benefit from their word-of-mouth advertisement.
#3. Directly Ask Customers for Feedback
Sometimes, you simply need to face things head-on instead of trying to be all tactful. There’s no shame in inviting customers to share their feedback on AI use. Try to find out which areas they prefer to deal with humans and conventional solutions, and which areas exist where they can tolerate AI.
Don’t be that company that uses AI but then tries to hide it or downplay its usage when asked about it. Sometimes, a little transparency can go a long way to maintaining trust. So, if you had AI help with something, go ahead and include a tag that indicates so. A small note like “Assisted by AI, reviewed by a human” is a super simple but nice way of being honest with customers.
When you do end up using AI, make it very clear that you aren’t replacing humans. Hopefully, your customers will notice that their experience also improves with good AI implementation. Now, you do want to be particularly careful if your AI tool or service will be dealing with client data.
According to data from Statista from over 23,730 respondents, only 26% of consumers trust brands to use AI responsibly. These findings seem to echo what Salesforce found when it reported that less than half (42%) of customers trusted ethical AI use in businesses.
Long story short, there’s nothing wrong with using AI in your business. To be honest, much of the frustration that people have with AI is that it tends to feel shoehorned in. At the same time, AI also lacks the authenticity that humans do. There’s also the fact that your customers probably use AI in a big way on their own time.
So, when you use AI, you don’t have to feel guilty as if you were pushing something that people don’t want. As long as you are honest and upfront about AI usage and keep the human element alive, it’s all good.
