CRM and AI: how intelligent is customer relationship management?

Marketing, sales, IT and service decision-makers came together at the annual Swiss CRM Forum with the motto "Artificial intelligence in CRM" to find out about the latest trends in customer relationship management and customer experience management and to exchange ideas among like-minded people. 

The results of the BSI survey on trends show, among other things, that the great interest in AI and marketing automation is being overtaken by the reality of data silos.

Great interest in AI

The survey underpins the great interest in AI in the context of customer relationship management: two thirds of experts stated that they believe AI could relieve and support them in their day-to-day work. However, only 6% of survey participants have implemented AI projects in their company to date.

Just as many believe that AI is just a buzzword with no added value. "We have observed that a large majority are very open to the topic of AI. There is a general interest and a willingness to engage with the topic," explains Charlotte Malz, Marketing Manager at BSI and initiator of the survey.

Many touchpoints - little integration

Data is a prerequisite for the success of AI projects. This data must be available centrally in a system so that it can be processed further. The catch: the number of touchpoints that customers can use to get in touch with companies is constantly growing - but in very few cases are these touchpoints fully networked, which prevents a holistic customer view. According to the survey, 91% of respondents now use social media in their customer interactions; 68% rely on customer portals and 43% on mobile apps. More than a third also operate a physical branch network and a web store.

WhatsApp as well as video and live web chat are also enjoying increasing popularity. Wearables and beacons, which are currently only used by 6% of the companies surveyed, could provide added value in the future when developing new service models, ecosystems or platforms that are also based on a good database. 

The catch: silo structures

However, only 6% of the companies surveyed currently offer omnichannel in the sense that the touchpoints are seamlessly connected so that data can flow unhindered. For the majority of companies (72%), the touchpoints are only partially connected, while 21% still operate completely in silos.

After all, two thirds of survey participants already work with customer journeys; one fifth plan to actively design the individual steps of the customer journey in future - an important prerequisite for a seamless customer experience, the number one trend topic.

Priority 1: Customer experience

Charlotte Malz has also observed the continuing trend towards customer experience management: "Customer experience management is right at the top of the list of priorities. The CRM community has recognized the importance of this holistic approach to designing processes from the customer's perspective," says the expert. "The survey showed that customer experience management is now understood to mean that data management, touchpoint management and customer journey management are integral components of this concept," says Charlotte Malz.

The topics of marketing automation, customer lifecycle management, analytics and personalization based on individual customer interactions are also on the agenda of many of the companies surveyed. "However, the prerequisite for all these approaches is a good database and end-to-end touchpoint integration as well as working with personas and customer journeys. Without this, the concepts remain just promising-sounding buzzwords," says the marketing expert.

Complaints and loyalty management are also part of a holistic customer journey - topics that, as in previous years, marketing experts are less intensively dedicated to than acquiring new customers.

Marketing automation - the answer to hyper-personalization

Almost half of the companies surveyed already use marketing automation in conjunction with CRM to provide their customers with personalized services, content and offers that are curated and relevant to them. 23 percent are considering the use of marketing automation. 17 percent are currently operating in isolation, i.e. without a CRM interface, and 11 percent do not yet use automation in marketing.

"Marketing automation is the answer to the megatrend of hyper-personalization, where the approach is no longer based on customer segments, but on the individual activities of individual customers - and in real time, if desired. For example, customers who click on a certain link, open newsletter articles, etc., receive different landing pages, content or invitations than customers who do not react to an action," says Charlotte Malz, describing the concept. 

Great opportunities for SMEs too

Marketing automation in conjunction with AI is also the great passion of Christoph Bräunlich, AI expert at BSI and speaker at the Swiss CRM Forum. "The participants showed great interest, particularly in the topic of transfer learning and the practical implementation of machine learning (ML) and AI in a marketing context," says the AI expert.

Transfer learning makes complex data models, such as those used by Facebook or Google, usable for smaller companies without requiring a great deal of computing power. "In the past, machine learning was only possible with immense effort and in-depth knowledge of complex tools. In combination with the simplicity and methods from transfer learning and ML processes, AI will achieve a breakthrough in marketing automation - even for smaller companies. To achieve this, the ML tools used must be able to access company data directly - for example from a CRM system - in order to generate maximum added value from the customer's perspective and gains in efficiency and effectiveness from the company's perspective," explains Christoph Bräunlich.