How Industries Across B2B and B2C Use Conversational AI

Conversational AI offers two primary benefits for businesses: personalization and scalability. These are especially helpful for customer-facing teams—such as Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success—who need to engage contacts in conversations that drive them towards the next best action, but simply do not have the capacity to do so on their own.

Delivering unique messages takes time and energy. And when businesses have thousands of contacts to engage with, outreach becomes a drain on resources. This is true of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) organizations.

Let’s explore how different B2B and B2C industries use Conversational AI to scale personalized communication and drive more revenue opportunities.

Use Cases for Conversational AI Across Industries

B2B and B2C industries plainly have their differences. For instance, B2B organizations tend to have longer sales cycles than B2C companies. Because of this, they focus heavily on guiding acquired leads through a customer journey which hopefully ends in closed/won. B2C companies often (but not always) have shorter sales cycles, which means prompt responses to incoming leads offer a competitive advantage.

Of course, Conversational AI isn’t just used to attract and acquire new customers. It’s also used to keep existing customers engaged and spending.

But enough speaking in generalities. Let’s drill down into some use cases.

1. Post-Event Follow Up for B2B Tech

The technology industry is flush with thought leadership events and webinars. These are great methods to attract interest in your offerings while offering quality information to the audience. But what happens after the event wraps makes all the difference.

For example, a B2B SaaS technology company puts a lot of effort into hosting virtual events and webinars to attract an audience and educate them about your offerings. A successful event can bring in hundreds or even thousands of attendees. This creates a challenge for Marketing and Sales teams to determine which leads are sales-ready. The best way to discover and elevate sales-ready leads is to directly ask them if they are interested in speaking with Sales; which is simply not possible with high lead volumes.

This is where Conversational AI comes in. Acting as an extra pair of virtual hands, an AI Assistant can deliver a personalized touch to every lead at scale. Better still, the AI Assistant can deliver these touches via email within minutes after an event when your business is still top of mind for leads.

Technology company using Conversational AI to promptly deliver personalized outreach to hundreds or even thousands of event attendees, pre-qualifying sales-ready leads, and accelerating opportunities between Marketing and Sales.

2. Driving Customer Health and Expansion for B2B Telecommunications

Another way Conversational AI helps B2B companies is by engaging existing customers in two-way conversations at scale. AI for telecommunications can help identify an opportunity to expand an existing engagement or address low product usage.

For instance, the Customer Account Manager might notice that their client has dramatically reduced their product usage. She makes three phone calls to the client, hoping to chat through any issues they might be having. Unfortunately, these calls go unanswered and the Account Manager gives up. Is this customer about to churn? How much time can a busy Account Manager follow up? Luckily, Conversational AI never gets tired, never gives up, and has near-unlimited scalability to follow up via email until that connection is made.

On the flip side, an AI Assistant for telecommunications can also be deployed to deliver personalized communications to customers with especially high product usage. This customer might be ready to expand their relationship with you and a personalized touch from your AI Assistant could be all it takes to take the next step.

3. Personalized Messaging at Scale for Higher Education

Higher education is an interesting specimen. It’s a business-to-consumer industry that experiences routine surges in interest ahead of each semester. While these spikes in interest are predictable, that doesn’t mean it’s without its challenges.

By augmenting Admissions teams with Conversational AI, it’s possible to offer a unique message to every prospective student. This is perfect for delivering the first point of contact for possible applicants just starting their search, accelerating interested students through the admissions process, and every step in between.

4. Keeping Automotive Service Customers Coming Back

One final example is how Conversational AI helps the Automotive industry. Obviously, dealerships sell cars to interested buyers. But even if that customer has a good experience and is likely to purchase from that dealership again, the truth of the matter is that their next purchase is years out. To keep auto customers coming back, many dealerships invest in routine automotive services.

Car owners tend to put off necessary tune-ups. This is where Conversational AI helps both drivers and automotive dealers. By sending personalized reminders via email or SMS, AI Assistants proactively and persistently motivate drivers to come in for repairs and maintenance. This keeps the car in working order, which delights customers, and earns predictable revenue for dealerships. It’s a win-win.

Interested in seeing what Conversational AI can do for your business? Explore our Customer Stories and Case Studies to see how Conversica AI Assistants help businesses attract, acquire, and grow revenue at scale.