Discover the top 5 AI-powered customer engagement tools transforming B2B interactions in 2024.

In 2024, AI-powered tools are revolutionizing how B2B companies engage with their customers. Discover the top 5 platforms, driving digital transformation through personalization, automation, and omnichannel engagement. Learn how AI is shaping the future of client relations and customer satisfaction.

Table of Contents:
1. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
2. HubSpot’s Service Hub
3. Twilio Flex
4. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement
5. Zendesk Sunshine
Conclusion

As per the 2024 forecast, B2B firms are headed towards investing in AI-based self-service tools for customers to improve effectiveness and deliver a superior, integrated customer experience. While social technology progresses and expands throughout the business world, the opportunities that AI allows to forecast people’s actions, navigate encounters, and enhance client experience become inestimable. Choosing the customer engagement platform plays a vital role in sustaining a competitive advantage, whether it serves the purpose of digital engagement, account engagement, or it is an aspect of customer engagement strategy.

This article will showcase the Top 5 customer engagement tools in B2B AI-based tools and their significance within today’s business environment and their ability to support sustainable growth.

1. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Continuing its past performance, Salesforce has maintained its niche on the digital engagement platform, especially on marketing cloud account engagement software. Originally called Pardot, this is a sophisticated automated marketing platform that enables businesses to manage client relations effectively as well as provide intelligence data. The AI engine Einstein is at the heart of Salesforce’s customer engagement suite to provide lead scoring, behavioral, and predictive analytics for customers. A recent Gartner report noted that Salesforce stands out as a strong player in the customer engagement platform, particularly in terms of omnichannel engagement.
For instance, enterprise B2B eCommerce firms like Dell save time and money and improve conversion rates by 20% by using AI known as “Einstein” to predict leads’ outcomes in the sales pipeline. In 2024, the company is still well-positioned as it offers reliable integration and helps marketing and sales teams leverage real-time data to drive decisions.

2. HubSpot’s Service Hub

Specifically, the Service Hub software has appeared as a necessity for businesses that want to develop their customer engagement strategy. Supporting chatbots and ticketing systems for the basis, the platform augments the level of support automation yet keeps in touch with end-users in the digital format of interaction.
For B2B organizations, HubSpot’s digital contact tools allow for creating a consolidated customer profile, hence a 360-degree view. AI improves this process by directing tickets and creating customer satisfaction ratings, thus integrating dynamic customer reach strategies.
HubSpot has been used by companies like SurveyMonkey to connect their customer service with other departments to enhance the customer satisfaction level by 25%. As more companies embrace an omnichannel approach connecting with customers, HubSpot’s AI capabilities provide the scalability organizations require for managing customer communications while also meeting customer needs across all connected platforms.

3. Twilio Flex

Twilio Flex is a new fully programmable engagement platform specifically for contact centers, and it is an empty canvas for B2B businesses seeking to design very unique customer experiences. It employs AI in analyzing the conversations, the sentiment of callers, and what agent response to give based on the present conversation.
One of the biggest strengths of Twilio Flex is that it enables organizations to maintain interactive engagements across different contact points: SMS, chat, voice, and emails. For instance, Shopify, a B2B business, employs Twilio Flex in handling customer communications across various touchpoints, irrespective of where the interaction was initiated.
AI integration in Twilio Flex also assists with fielding common questions or basic interactions so that customers do not have to interact with human representatives for basic transactions. Today, Twilio Flex is steadily evolving, and existing features would include, for instance, the usage of analytics that gives organizations specific recommendations for enhancing the efficiency of the customer care services.

4. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

Microsoft Dynamics 365 still stands as one of the most all-encompassing dynamic customer engagement tools on the market, especially for large organizations that may require a more robust approach to sales and marketing automation. It applies artificial intelligence to offer prognostic analytics to help businesses prepare for their customers’ expectations and fulfill them. Businesses can leverage Dynamics 365’s AI primarily for automating routine processes while benefiting from valuable insights enhancing the client outreach strategy.
For example, Coca-Cola Enterprises employs Dynamics 365 to monitor and control their client relationships, which leads to a decrease in customer attrition of 15%. The relationship insights feature is an artificial intelligence-based solution that assists B2B organizations in enhancing their customer interactions at all stages of the sales process, including lead generation and nurturing, sales, and aftercare.
With what Dynamics 365 provides as a platform for digital engagement and account engagement, coupled with the fact that businesses need customer engagement tools that are integrable with their CRM and ERP systems, Dynamics 365 is to continue being a perfect solution for every business.

5. Zendesk Sunshine

Zendesk Sunshine is an open CRM platform designed to offer digital interactions using artificial intelligence and machine learning. As the solution for B2B companies, Sunshine provides modular design of customer-facing applications and integrates tools and services into the platform with the AI-based core.
Some of Zendesk’s advanced functionalities include Answer Bot and AI analytics that assist corporations in addressing numerous common customer inquiries at once. AI is used for routing tickets or moving tickets from one agent to another, and machine learning models are used to predict CSAT scores.
Sunshine is suitable for businesses that need to coordinate conversations across various channels, such as social media, email, and chat. An example of Sunshine in action is how Slack uses Zendesk Sunshine to enhance its support for enterprise clients. Loyal customers have been maintained by Slack as the company has invested in AI technology that helps recognize customer preferences.

Conclusion

In 2024, AI customer engagement technologies are no longer a peripheral solution but a strategic requirement for B2B companies interested in remaining relevant. From Salesforce Marketing Cloud to HubSpot Service Hub, Twilio Flex, to Microsoft Dynamics 365, each of these tools presents unique benefits according to the business. However, they all share the common focus of driving value to clients through the use of AI in increasing engagement and automating processes for sustainable business growth. Therefore, including these platforms as part of your company’s approach to customers will be mutually beneficial for your B2B enterprise and the clients. It is therefore expected that with the dynamic nature of the marketplace, AI will further advance the ways of improving client interactions by providing solutions geared towards satisfying the needs of the client at every interaction point.

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With ever-changing business environments, marketing and outreach methods are constantly under re-calibration and to keep up with the shifting times, marketers are ensuring better capitalization for new market opportunities.  While marketers constantly seek better ways to be ahead in the game, customer engagement has been at the top of the list. According to Forrester, 56% of marketing leaders say that improving customer experience is a top priority for supporting their company’s business strategy.  Thus, customer engagement and showing customers how much they mean to them have become a top priority in the industry. By creating seamless experiences that build trust, brands are on their toes to get the desired experience. 

What does Customer Engagement mean?

As the name suggests, customer engagement is something that delivers connected experiences to your customers instead of single, one-off, or fleeting transactions. Customer engagement is an ongoing interaction between a company and a customer wherein the company provides customer service and satisfaction.  While customer engagement means different in different industries, in the B2B industry, it is a crucial business tool that generates new leads, helps reconnect with existing consumers, and increases profits. 

What makes B2B customer engagement different from others?

Sometimes, customer engagement is confused with customer satisfaction and experience, however, there is some overlap. With both having distinctive aspects, customer experience is the perception that consumers form based on everything they see, hear, or learn about your company. Whereas, customer satisfaction is how much your audience or consumer like or dislike your product, service, or experience. Although both are essential when interacting with consumers, customer engagement also involves paying attention to building a rapport and providing a tailored solution. Moreover, for B2B, the target audience is different from that of a B2C. In B2B, processes and operations are streamlined to cut down on costs and boost revenue and growth, making purchasing decisions more logically. 

A refreshing perspective on B2B Customer Engagement in 2022

Customer engagement has always been prevalent, be it providing hyper-personalization or developing the brand to its utmost best. However, with constant changes in marketing trends, customer engagement strategies too, are evolving, especially post the pandemic. With over two years of staying indoors and working remotely, digital selling is one of the major changes adopted by B2B companies.  According to experts, almost 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will likely occur in digital channels. The trend of focusing on human-centric communications within remote customer engagement is at its peak, but so are the hybrid interactions.

Customers, today, are preferring human-centric communications within remote customer engagement. This shift from physical to digital channels means that organisations need to amend their strategies to engage customers in the forthcoming times.

Benefits of Customer Engagement 

Every company needs increased sales and global brand recognition and customer engagement is one of the gateways to that. Traditionally speaking, customer engagement has been the backbone of building relationships and with the advent of digitalization, it has been easier to maintain that relationship.  With an effective engagement strategy, customer engagement boosts loyalty and customer retention. When genuine interest is shown in customers, they’ll be more likely to buy from you again. By becoming the holistic answer or solution to the customer’s problem, you can be their go-to solution provider. Furthermore, with consistent customer engagement and giving them what they seek, there will be a significant increase in users. Eventually, with the brand familiarity, they will fall back to you for the solutions, leaving you with a strong customer base. 

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Companies have been investing in top-notch marketing strategies in today’s digitally connected and always-on-the-go world. Be it hosting events, being active on social media to put out the best content, or having everything curated, they are giving their customers the best experience possible. 

As every company’s goal is to give a memorable and unforgettable experience, it is also necessary to have long-lasting customer engagement whilst creating seamless experiences that build trust. According to Forrester, 56% of marketing leaders say that improving customer experience is a top priority for supporting their company’s business strategy.

Customer engagement ideas and strategies are a key aspect of your business and thus strategizing this relationship for B2B will continue to evolve in the coming years. So, here are some strategies that you could use to help achieve that;

Understanding your Audience 

Making it obvious, knowing your audience in any spectrum gives you the first hand to attract them sooner than later. Knowing your target audience is a getaway to better customer engagement and retention. 

While there is no set standard template for a successful customer engagement strategy, you can always begin with an effective client engagement technique like mapping the customer journey. This way you can touch base on all the important touchpoints, bottlenecks, and challenges that your customers might encounter, thus identifying potential engagement opportunities. 

Account-Based Marketing Strategies

Every brand needs curation and with account-based marketing, you give you the best and biggest existing customers in an attempt to sell more. Account-based marketing strategies can help you increase the worth of your existing customers. With ABM’s personalised approach and attention to detail, customers are easily drawn toward your brand and likely to allow you to specifically nurture your primary decision maker, along with all relevant prospects. It also structures your marketing efforts on key accounts to drive the most revenue. 

Testimonials and brand promotion

Never underestimate the power of direct referrals and word-of-mouth endorsements as they are more critical when making B2B sales than ever before. Even though growing technological advancement can be confusing, B2B buyers, even today, rely on testimonials and referrals while making purchasing decisions. Using genuine testimonials in your marketing materials, thus, is an important aspect for any B2B company. You can also look for various other ways to encourage your existing customers to promote your brand. 

Automated user experience and its promptness 

Engaging B2B customers has now become a casual communication, thanks to the AI-powered Chabot that lets you connect with your customers in an instant, making customer engagement strategy immensely easier. It analyses your data and can talk to customers via texts, WhatsApp and social media.

The use of automated user experiences has accelerated even more with the advent of the pandemic, wherein this sort of conversational marketing moved from a quick fix for a temporary problem to a long-term solution. And the best part of automated user experience is that it always acts based on the customer’s needs. 

Interactive user groups, events, and activities

Speaking traditionally, groups and events have been able to build a true community and yield a brand. This, even today helps in promoting your brand. Not just that, it also reduces the likelihood of customer disloyalty. Webinars, special virtual events, or face-to-face meet-ups are a great way to relationships between businesses and have become one of the top B2B marketing strategies. Such events give a valuable opportunity to interact with the prospects directly, answer their questions and address specific pain points.

Presence on relevant social media channels

During the Covid-19 pandemic, online communities have seen a resurgence, as in-person conferences and peer-to-peer networking opportunities saw a decline. This is when you tap into the world of social media and make sure to be present on relevant social media channels. 

Social media platforms are an excellent tool for effective customer engagement strategy. For instance, for a B2B company, LinkedIn can prove to be a pertinent platform to present your products and services. Along with attracting a bunch of like-minded people, it also helps you to reach entirely new target groups. You can also create a customer-exclusive online community with a private Facebook or LinkedIn group, or on a messaging app like Slack, or build one from scratch on your web platform. 

Newsletters

One of the oldest forms of outreach is newsletters and interestingly, they continue to be a part of the customer engagement strategy. Newsletters are still very much a part of many B2B companies and are heavily used. A well-made newsletter is an excellent tool to keep mindshare among customers and leads.  Another interesting thing about having newsletters in today’s era is that they can be customised according to the target audience. With the help of automated marketing style systems, you can build personalised newsletters based on individual customer profiles. This aids in grabbing your customer’s attention at once and generates reading interest.  Visit Our SalesMarkBlog Section to Uncover the Sales Strategies That Ignite Your Sales Journey!