By its very nature, the service industry is heavily geared toward creating deep, personalized customer experiences. That’s especially relevant for meeting modern consumers’ desire for customization. And make no mistake: Shoppers want to feel like they’re being treated as individuals.
One surefire way to quench this endless thirst for personalized, seamless experiences that are focused on delivering exceptional levels of client satisfaction is to invest in the latest tech tools. The right technology has the capability to take any service business’s competitive edge up a notch. That way, the business can stay ahead, foster stronger buyer relationships, expand its reach, and fuel customer loyalty.
Truth be told, most service industry companies are dabbling with bleeding-edge technology right now. However, there are three service-based industries I feel deserve a bit of a spotlight at the moment for their fascinating and creative use of tech. These are the beauty and salon services industry, the financial services industry, and the hospitality industry. Even if you’re not involved in any of them, you can learn quite a bit from their adoption of emerging tech solutions.
1. Automating the customer journey: How beauty and salon services are restyling manual onboarding processes.
Beauty shops, salons, and hairdressers have historically gravitated toward manual marketing, onboarding, and client-engagement processes. This makes sense, given how tactile and physical their relationships are with customers. Yet many clients—particularly those from younger and digitally savvy generations—want to be able to use tech devices to select services, book appointments, and more. They’re not accustomed to calling a salon to speak for minutes with a receptionist during normal business hours. On the contrary, they want to be able to research potential hairstylists or manicurists and set up a visit online when it’s convenient for them.
Fortunately for these savvy consumers, tech-forward industry professionals like Chrystal L. Graves, salon owner and founder of All Hair Academy, are rethinking how to use tech throughout the customer experience. As a hairstylist-turned-entrepreneur, Graves has spent time mapping out places in the customer journey where tech could be helpful. Her brainstorming led to a groundbreaking, comprehensive online onboarding system that transformed the guest experience at her salon. The onboarding system went beyond merely arranging appointments to asking consumers about personal particulars and preferences like allergies, music choices, and even if they wanted a chatty stylist or someone to let them meditate during their cut and style.
Eventually, Graves started to incorporate more tech into the salon experience, even adding Healium VR as a virtual reality element for reconditioning treatment clients.
“I use technology to enhance the guest experience. It’s so personalized for each person that it makes them feel seen or heard better,” she says. “This is an ever-evolving industry, and you want to be ahead of the curve, not behind it!”
2. Reducing barriers to financial confidence: How the financial services industry is investing in AI to educate and inform clients.
Consumers aren’t always confident about what financial decisions make sense for their needs. An Unbiased survey from earlier this year shows that only one-third of consumers feel confident when dealing with money matters, particularly those related to retirement, pensions, and stock trades. To improve this dearth of financial literacy, people like Karen Barrett, Unbiased’s CEO and founder, want financial services organizations to take more of a consultative approach.
Said Barrett to Yahoo! Finance, “While nearly half of U.S. residents find financial topics complex, an even greater amount feel too intimidated to seek financial advice… many cite that they do not seek input from a financial advisor due to perceived cost, lack of assets, or because they do not know where to turn.” To rectify this problem, a few forward-leaning financial services institutions are adding AI-driven chatbot-style “recommenders.” The recommenders come in various forms and serve in assistive capacities.
Take BlackRock’s Aladdin, for example. It’s a portfolio investment management platform that’s entrenched in AI. As mentioned in a KPMG article, Aladdin has broad capabilities, including being able to adjust its models for climate-based and sustainable investment opportunities. While Aladdin certainly isn’t the only tool that’s enabling people—and professional advisors—to take less risk with their money, it’s a showpiece for how AI could alter the way the average consumer feels about wealth management.
3. Dabbling in “servitization”: How hospitality providers are bunking up with new tech.
We’re seeing a lot of so-called servitization in business, whereby a product takes on a service angle. If the concept seems fuzzy to you, just think of Netflix. It’s delivering a product through a service lens so consumers get a bigger experience than just being able to view the show or movie they want. Essentially, they enter into a service agreement with Netflix to build a more comprehensive, individualized relationship with the media giant. They’re no longer just purchasing a thing. They’re buying a full-scale service.
A branch of “servitization” is happening in hospitality with the advent of connected, smart hotel rooms. Traditionally, a hotel room was just a place to spend the night. It (hopefully) had at least one bed, a bathroom, a TV, and access to a desk with a comfy chair (if you were lucky). But smart hotel rooms are different. They’re connected via the Internet of Things, making an overnight stay a very different experience than it used to be just five years ago.
An InspireDesign piece talks about this phenomenon by spotlighting a next-generation smart room planned by Marriott. Among the many novel features of the futuristic, personalized room is a digital voice assistant ready to change the digital picture on display, alter the ambient temperature, or even change the view out the window to a different locale. Though still in its planning stages, the Marriott connected room may just be a natural extension of connected, smart houses. And that means Marriott guests could honestly say they “feel at home” when they’re receiving concierge service through a variety of devices.
No matter what type of tech you’re already using, the aforementioned use cases illustrate that there’s always more to consider. Now is a great time to experiment, too. Customers are eager for one-of-a-kind experiences. By delivering them with the assistance of innovative tech, you can sneak into the lead in your marketplace.
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