How to Keep Human Connection in the Age of AI

There’s no doubt about it.

AI tools are a fantastic tool for business owners; from writing our copy and content to distributing tasks among our teams and even taking care of the majority of our customer queries via chat-bots on our websites.

But, the adage ‘people buy from people’ is still as true as it ever was. So how can you keep the human connection in your business while still utilising the AI tools that provide such a boost to efficiency and expedite growth?

We, at Approved Business want to help you to find that balance so here are some tips to help you keep the human connection in your business in the age of AI.

Customer Service

By all means, use a chatbot on your website to help provide your visitors with instant answers to their queries. However, make sure that there are options for those who don’t want to engage with AI or for whom your chatbot hasn’t answered effectively. If it’s a phone call be sure to give details of when the phone will be manned, if it’s an email, provide a time scale for a response.

Make Your Chat Bot More Chatty

Train your chatbot well so that it sounds more human, however, we’d advise against pretending it is a human. Introduce your chatbot as such but maybe give it a name too, if the name aligns with your brand all the better.

Speaking of brand, make sure your brand voice comes across in your chatbot’s language. If your brand is humorous make sure your bot is too. If your brand is more emotional then ramp up the empathy in your bots language and tone.

Empathy is something that can help with your chatbot too, help keep frustrated customers onside with comments like ‘I’m sorry to hear that’ or ‘I understand’ and programming your AI bot to pick up on customer cues that might mean they are stressed and dissatisfied and recommend they talk to a human about it can help resolve problems and deescalate problems.

Get Social on Social Media

Schedule in time each day, even if it is just 10 or 15 minutes to personally respond to comments left on your posts, even if you have a bot do this sometimes. Go even further and comment on the posts of those who regularly comment on yours, your new followers and the kinds of viral posts that your ideal customers would like (if you don’t know this it’s time to look at your marketing strategy and define who your customer avatars are). This way you are building authentic relationships and putting the social into social media.

Embrace Video Marketing

Text posts, newsletters and emails are all a vital part of marketing your business. However, your personality can get a little lost in the text. With video marketing, your customers can see you, hear you and get a much more tangible sense of who you are.

This is especially the case if you post more candid videos, those that are a little rough around the edges as well as the more professional videos.

Consider Candid Content

Think for a moment about how much people love blooper reels at the end of movies and behind-the-scenes ‘extras’. It’s content like this that makes our favourite stars of the screen seem so much more human, more like us and that’s why people love it so much. So creating this kind of content to market your business you achieve the same. This can include pictures which aren’t ‘professional’ shots and videos where you are just sharing something on camera; a great win you achieved for a customer or a business milestone, perhaps introducing your team in an informal style you could be walking around the office or yard rather than something that feels more polished. This makes the viewer feel that they are there with you, that you are a person just like them.

Networking Events

Attending networking events is a great way to meet others this is an excellent way for potential customers to get to know you, to get the word out about your business and also to get support and advice from others.

Conclusion

AI provides solutions to many of the problems small businesses face but it does come with its own set of issues – namely that relying on AI can impact the human connection that customers want.
These tips can help you to keep that while making the most of the AI tools at your disposal.