It’s natural to feel enthusiastic when we hear about new technological advancements. Often, though, these technologies have little effect on our daily life. Only a handful are game changers, with the most being minor amusements.
AR has a wide range of real-world applications, and customer experience is one area where it is currently being used extensively. AR applications are being used across the customer journey by forward-thinking companies to create more engaging encounters with their customers.
Customers’ perceptions of the actual world are being transformed by augmented reality (AR), which allows them to see virtual items, locations, and pictures overlaid on top of what they see around them in the physical world. AR customer experience strategies allow organizations to effectively interact with customers at every stage of the customer journey.
Brands now have an almost limitless number of ways to communicate with customers in three dimensions through their mobile devices, thanks to advances in augmented reality (AR).
Despite the fact that the mobile augmented reality (AR) industry was valued at 6.87 billion dollars in 2020, it is expected to grow to over 26 billion dollars by 2025. Augmented reality (AR) applications enhance pre-sales, sales, and post-sales value, which serve as a strong new approach for firms to leverage the customer experience.
How Does AR Improve Customer Experience?
This technology allows consumers to digitally incorporate clothing and accessories onto themselves using the camera of their smartphone device. These elements help buyers make better-informed decisions about whether a product is right for them in terms of fit or style.
In addition, when a person has access to a smartphone or tablet, augmented reality (AR) may be used to add visual components, colors, and displays to the real environment.
AR has a great deal of potential to transform the consumer experience. Incredibly, it’s a technology that allows marketers to take advantage of this fantastic potential to engage with their consumers in three dimensions while also doing so through mobile phones.
The customer journey is now an engaging visual experience using cutting-edge visual effects. It serves as a powerful tool for persuading customers to buy your product, deepening your relationship with them.
Benefits of Using Augmented Reality in Customer Experience
Increased Sales
Everyone has experienced this at some point, after putting on a new piece of clothes for the first time and learning that it doesn’t fit. Conversion rates might be lowered due to concern about such a scenario.
Consumers need to know what they’re buying and take all necessary precautions to obtain exactly what they’re looking for. Return rates will rise if customers take the risk of purchasing and are disappointed.
Customers are more likely to get addicted to your site because of the inherent interactivity of AR and the produced content output. And the more time they spend on your e-commerce site, the more likely they are to buy stuff!
In addition, improved engagement implies that, even if customers do not purchase anything during their visit, they have formed a connection with your brand and product, making them more likely to recall you in the future.
Augmented Reality in Ecommerce
Customers of e-commerce sites may use augmented reality (AR) to try out items or services before they buy them, in the comfort of their own homes and at their own pace. With the help of augmented reality, your consumers are more likely to choose the perfect product every time they shop.
In addition, customers may get a glimpse of how a product will appear in their own area in real-time via preview placement.
AR helps internet buyers better grasp what they’re purchasing and how it will benefit them. Apps like these are available for anything from apparel, cosmetics, eyeglasses and anything else you can think of.
However, due to the difficulty in predicting how things would seem in person vs on a computer or smartphone screen, certain product categories might be impossible to sell on ecommerce sites.
That’s why augmented reality apps are increasing, especially given the growth of online shopping and thus cant be left out of any ecommerce marketing strategy.
Customer Satisfaction
A company’s FAQs, manuals, and training materials may be accessed on a smartphone using AR-based self-service, which encourages consumers to solve problems more successfully on their own.
Enhancing self-service efficiency and customer happiness are obvious benefits of delivering enhanced customer service. Contact center traffic, technician visits, and no-fault-found returns will all be reduced, leading to enhanced customer experience and satisfaction.
Boost Marketing Strategy
Using augmented reality, every advertisement may be transformed into an interactive one. As part of a successful marketing strategy, you must attract the attention of your customers and sustain it.
As of the right moment, augmented reality is the only technology capable of doing that. Because the technology is both fascinating and educational, it has a higher level of customer involvement than more conventional techniques.
You can amuse, impress, and enlighten your audience all simultaneously. Expect engagement rates many times greater than usual because of this. A next-generation marketing experience may be created out of any market mix. The possibilities are endless when it comes to repurposing any item. And these are simply a few that may be used; the only restriction is your own creativity!
Enhance Workplace Collaboration
Undoubtedly, an engaged team is more productive and creative than a disengaged one. No matter how far apart employees are geographically located, bringing them together at a single table encourages natural interaction and a sense of community in today’s workplace.
Through augmented reality (AR) technology, teams may interact and cooperate more effectively without the need to be physically there while benefiting from the collaborative component of co-existing in the same place.
Human interaction is always a challenge for distant employees, even if they can participate in meetings through phone or video. When it comes to work management for a remote team, this may be a useful tool for anything from making a shared to-do list to putting together a whole presentation.
Technical Support
Using AR visual support, businesses may avoid the back and forth between customer and agent engagements during technical support conversations. With the use of AR technology, the customer will be able to acquire real-time information with visual support.
Is the printed user guide a thing of the past, or is it still commonplace? The AR digital owner’s handbook is now available to walk you through all you need to know to get the most out of your new device.
With an interactive user manual, if you are selling a product with a learning curve before it is simple for new consumers to use, you may be able to help them better grasp how your product operates.
User actions are responded to in an interactive user manual, which provides on-page context help while using a piece of software, a website, or an application. For example, it is common for many AR user manual applications to scan a product and display the buttons in real-world context utilizing animated arrows and a combination of text and graphics.
Adding Value Via Interactive Packaging
The pre-sale stage is the beginning of AR’s influence on customer experience. In fact, augmented reality’s most promising applications are found in retail. The notion of interactive packaging is a great illustration of how this might be done.
For consumers, AR provides an immersive and beneficial experience through interactive packaging. Pointing a phone’s camera onto a product’s package brings up eye-catching images for customers.
The interactive packaging, for example, can provide important and practical information. In addition, businesses can employ AR to provide consumers with various fun facts and engage with them. In contrast, several international businesses have chosen a more playful approach by allowing consumers to play AR games while having their favorite snacks. The possibilities are endless.
Virtual Product Try Out
Virtual reality (VR) is being used even by several fashion companies, such as Gucci and Tommy Hilfiger, to allow buyers to experience items. This digital transformation allows consumers to digitally superimpose clothing and accessories onto themselves using the camera of their smartphone device.
These elements help buyers make better-informed decisions about whether a product is right for them in terms of fit or style. This kind of CX program might help firms stand out in a crowded retail market by providing consumers with the information they need to make better-educated choices while also protecting them against hazards like the pandemic.
It eliminates the guesswork and helps clients make a purchase decision by allowing them to test out the goods via AR. Furthermore, by allowing your customers to try on various things all at once, you increase your chances of making a sale.
Employee Engagement
When looking over items, making a purchase, or submitting a complaint, many customers prefer to chat with a real person. Make sure your service representatives are properly trained in this regard. AR has the potential to expedite and enhance training.
For example, consider a company that offers a broad choice of goods. Every product must be explained in detail by the company’s customer care reps. A superficial knowledge of product ranges isn’t adequate.
That degree of competence can only be achieved by hands-on training. A staff person doesn’t have to physically touch every item to give that experience via an AR application. With augmented reality models, you can teach your employees a fraction of the time it would take with a genuine product. Time and money savings for warehouse workers might lead to speedier order fulfillment, less staffing needs, and fewer customer complaints about late deliveries.
Conclusion
Customer relationships are changing as CX becomes more of a differentiator. Leading companies have hailed the introduction of augmented reality (AR) into corporate operations as a game-changer.
A smartphone with augmented reality (AR) provides benefits beyond novelty, such as personalized marketing, sales, and technical support. We expect to see more inventive solutions that excite consumers as firms adapt to this unique feature and advantages concealed inside AR, pushing the bar even higher for what a genuinely exceptional customer experience should be like.
