It’s never been more challenging for businesses across industries to maintain a competitive edge. With access to a global marketplace and myriad choices when shopping for products and services, customers can often afford to be very picky about the businesses they choose to patronize. Providing an outstanding customer experience is more important than ever before—and technology can help.
From direct customer assistance through 24/7 communications tools to enabling human team members to deliver more timely, personalized service, there are multiple technology tools that can help companies provide an outstanding CX. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council detail both public-facing and internal tools that support businesses’ efforts in building loyal customer communities.
“Businesses should adopt knowledge graphs to gain daily, contextual views of customer identities, preferences and interactions across platforms. By connecting fragmented data, companies can deliver personalized experiences while ensuring secure access and protecting sensitive information, striking the perfect balance between customer convenience and data privacy compliance.” – Craig Davies, Gathid
1. Conversational Analytics Tools
AI-driven conversational analytics tools analyze customer interactions across voice, chat and other communication channels to uncover insights about preferences, pain points and trends. By leveraging this data, businesses can deliver more personalized experiences, improve customer satisfaction and stay ahead of competitors in understanding and addressing customer needs. – Harshal Shah
2. AI-Powered Chatbots And VAs
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are customer-centric tools every business should leverage to stay competitive. They offer 24/7 customer support, personalized interactions and quick query resolution, improving customer satisfaction and engagement. Paired with AI-driven analytics, these tools can help businesses predict customer needs and optimize service delivery. – Gireesh Kambala, Teach for America
3. Customer Data Platforms
Businesses should adopt AI-powered customer data platforms to unify and analyze customer data from multiple touchpoints. These tools provide actionable insights for personalizing marketing, improving customer retention and delivering tailored experiences—key differentiators for maintaining a competitive edge. – Mohit Gupta, Damco Solutions
4. AI-Powered Personalization Engines
AI-powered personalization engines help businesses stay competitive by analyzing customer behavior to deliver tailored recommendations, dynamic pricing and predictive support. These tools enhance engagement, increase conversions and improve retention by ensuring a seamless, customized user experience across digital and physical touchpoints. – Kinil Doshi, Citibank
5. In-Context Customer Sentiment Analysis Tools
Fundamental to customer centricity is gathering insights on your products at scale. Tools such as UserVoice and Canny can help businesses access customers’ voices, in context and in-app. Combine these insights with a broader analysis of the jobs to be done, as well as the problems and solutions, to build a compelling product with a competitive advantage. – Vibhor Kapoor, NextRoll
6. AI-Enabled Automation Tools
AI-enabled tools can help improve customer support by automating repetitive tasks and offering 24/7 availability. However, the most effective AI integrations amplify human connection, empowering teams to focus on relational aspects of customer care. By balancing AI’s efficiency with human-driven support, businesses can create personalized customer experiences while maintaining efficiency. – Craig Crisler, SupportNinja
7. Voice AI Technology
Voice AI technology has emerged as a transformative customer-centric tool. By integrating advanced voice recognition and natural language processing capabilities, businesses can offer more intuitive customer service experiences. This technology supports real-time voice interactions, understands complex queries and provides personalized responses, significantly reducing response times and elevating customer satisfaction. – Rohit Anabheri, Sakesh Solutions LLC
8. Omnichannel Engagement Platforms
Omnichannel customer engagement platforms allow businesses to unify communication across email, social media, live chat, SMS and in-app messaging, providing a seamless and consistent customer experience. Adopting this technology ensures that customers feel valued, enhancing loyalty and satisfaction. – Volodymyr Dudas, CodeLions
9. CRM Platforms
Most customer relationship management platforms include analytics and automation features. These tools enable firms to optimize marketing efforts through tracking customer behavior and predicting their future needs. – Ramanakar Danda, CNH Industrial
10. ‘Horizontal’ AI Agents
Businesses should implement AI agents horizontally to enhance customer focus and efficiency. These agents integrate across departments, automating tasks, personalizing interactions and providing data-driven insights to improve the customer experience. By breaking silos, they enable seamless collaboration and faster, consistent decision-making across an organization. – Greg Ombach, Airbus
11. Customer Journey Analytics Platforms
Analytics platforms for customer journeys can offer actionable insights into customer interactions with a brand across various touchpoints. Utilizing these tools allows businesses to boost personalization, increase satisfaction and cultivate loyalty. – Asad Khan, LambdaTest Inc.
12. Unified Customer Communication Hubs
Implement a unified customer communication hub powered by AI that connects email, chat and social DMs into one interface with shared customer context. Unlike siloed tools, this creates a continuous conversation history across channels, enabling faster responses, more issue clarity and faster response times. Customers hate repeating themselves or being provided the same canned answers over and over. – Joseph Ours, Centric Consulting
13. Website Heatmaps And CTAs
A key customer-centric tech strategy businesses should adopt is integrating website heatmaps and calls to action within their CRM systems. This strategy allows companies to gather valuable insights before meeting customers, enabling the creation of tailored offers and responses. It’s especially critical for B2B companies, where high-value products and long sales cycles demand precise strategies to maximize conversion rates from website visits. – Adrian Stelmach, EXPLITIA
14. Knowledge Graphs
Businesses should adopt knowledge graphs to gain daily, contextual views of customer identities, preferences and interactions across platforms. By connecting fragmented data, companies can deliver personalized experiences while ensuring secure access and protecting sensitive information, striking the perfect balance between customer convenience and data privacy compliance. – Craig Davies, Gathid
15. Augmented Reality
In the retail industry, augmented reality tools allow customers to virtually try products before purchasing. For example, when shopping for furniture, a customer can see how an item fits in their space using their phone. This boosts confidence, enhances the shopping experience and reduces returns. AR helps businesses offer a personalized, competitive edge in the digital era. – Gaurav Bansal, Uber Technologies, Inc.
16. Real-Time Customer Feedback Platforms
Businesses should adopt real-time customer feedback platforms to maintain a competitive edge. These tools allow companies to capture, analyze and act on customer insights instantly, enabling rapid adjustments to products, services or experiences. By addressing issues proactively and aligning offerings with customer needs, businesses can build loyalty and stay ahead of competitors. – Timothy Kang, Fayston Preparatory School
17. Automated Response Workflows
One of the services customers value most is proactive communication. If a customer has to follow up with you multiple times, there is something wrong with your process. Leveraging AI tools to set up automated response workflows that provide regular status updates for customers is a small but invaluable strategy for any business. – Mohit Prateek, Anakin Technologies, Inc.
18. Omnichannel Customer Engagement Platforms
Businesses should adopt an omnichannel customer engagement platform to stay competitive. This tool integrates communication channels into one system, ensuring a seamless experience and tracking interactions across touchpoints. AI-driven analytics and automation enhance engagement and streamline tasks, improving responsiveness, cohesion and customer satisfaction. – Pradeep Kumar Muthukamatchi, Microsoft
19. AI Outbound Customer Service
Voice AI outbound representatives can revolutionize customer interactions in niche software as a service segments. They can manage detailed onboarding and surveys, tailoring interactions based on customer information. This facilitates proactive contact, allowing human representatives to concentrate on intricate issues and enhancing customer satisfaction, retention and productivity. – Tarun Eldho Alias, Neem Inc.
