Impact of AR in Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Article by Chaitanya Hiremath Founder and CEO of Scanta

Humans are the only intelligent beings on earth that have evolved tremendously with time and their undying urge for creating new avenues of interaction and communication has brought us to an era where one can communicate infraction of seconds across the globe. It might appear difficult to acknowledge that it was just a few decades back our mode of communication was limited to letters or telephones which itself had a number of limitations one of which was notbeing present at every corner. Social media was an unthought-of reality and nobody could have envisaged that just in a matter of a few years, one can interact socially by just logging in a machine and communicating to the public at large. The 21^st century is truly the age of technology where the medium of communication has expanded to anomalous levels. One can not only use video chats to reach out to the loved ones on earth but can also communicate with astronauts in outer space. We have moved from letters to instant modes of communication in less than a decade. The technology has contributed tremendously to this transformation and this has not only affected personal lives but businesses as well. There is a change in the way businesses interact with their customers.

The trendiest technology that can be discussed here is- Augmented Reality (AR). This technology brings about a new realm to the communication system which is more realistic and interactive in its essence. For example, one use case for AR would be using a tablet to add life to a car manual by augmenting descriptive imagery and information. It is being anticipated that AR holds huge potential when it comes to impacting customer service and customer relationship management Interactions.

1. To Train Customer Support Agents: The businesses wherein the end result are selling a product, it can effectively utilize augmented reality in its principal functioning. The representative of the said business can be trained so to demonstrate the product without having the actual product in place.

Implying that the product can be augmented in real life with a schematic representation of each tool, working, procedure and performance of the product thereby reducing the cost of inventory at each location.

2. This feature would also help the customer support agents to understand the products better as they would be better equipped with its knowledge after having seen it from all the dimensions. This would lead to a better service from their end, enabling them to resolve all the queries in a more refined and riveting fashion.
3. To Assist Customers with AR Integrated Smartphones and App: Businesses can bundle various fragments of AR in an app which can further be used by customers to send the details of the issues they are facing. For instance, the customer can hold the product with the problem in front of a smartphone which can identify the defects real time and transmit it immediately to the concerned team. This helps both the sides in identifying the exact issue which makes the resolution faster with less back and forth.
4. To Increase Internal Collaboration: Today, there are multiple companies which have people working globally, from different nations as a team. However, the language barrier still persists which often leads to lack of coordination between teams. AR is capable of bringing about the paradigm shift in communicating across different location, in different languages in real time.AR can show the problem virtually while there could be a simultaneous translation of the text into their native language thereby cementing the internal collaboration between the teams.
5. To Become a Better Facilitator between customers and Brand: For any business, it is very important to be able to demonstrate ones services or brand’s image in the best possible ways. If companies are unable to place their brand in an appropriate way, the growth comes as a very difficult task. Thankfully, AR is supplementing the on-going traditional method of branding thereby making an enticing impact on the customers. Be it for apparels or real estate, AR proves that it can help make a lasting impression on customers in an immersive fashion. The technology is being used to assist potential customers to visualize the product in a hyper realistic manner. This is helping in attracting more customers and simultaneously increasing conversion rates.

Wrapping up, it would not be wrong to conclude that Augmented Reality is going to be an integral part of the customer support and relation owing to its very nature of being hyper-realistic and immersive in nature. The technology is going to prove phenomenal by transcending the communication barriers; making agents across the nations help each other irrespective of their language. Certainly, it is not going to cultivate results overnight; however, it is going to prove really beneficial in the future by bringing in exciting ways to assist customers more efficiently.

About the Author:

Chaitanya Hiremath is an Indian origin entrepreneur and the founder of Scanta, a venture which aims to disrupt the way people live, learn and communicate by joining augmented reality with machine learning technology. He has been the first Indian origin entrepreneur to ever win the Shark Tank Showcase and the prestigious Draper summer pitch, 2018 in San Francisco.