Subscribe
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Today we’re going to delve deep into the digital revolution that’s reshaping businesses worldwide: chatbots and AI-driven customer support. From the aisles of e-commerce to the intricacies of banking, chatbots and AI are revolutionizing how companies interact with their customers.
In this episode, we’ll explore the topic of AI – why it’s important for your business, when you should think about utilizing it, and how best to incorporate it and use it to drive value and results in your business.
By the end of this episode you will understand why AI can be one of the most valuable tools in your business tool kit, and some areas where you can think about using AI today. Take a listen!
Here’s a glance at this episode:
- Understand why AI is important to your business, and why you should embrace it
- Learn when the best time to utilize AI (answer: the sooner the better)
- Uncover a few easy ways to get familiar with AI that can impact your business immediately
- Learn the main buckets in your business where AI can have the biggest impact
Mentioned in this episode:
Work/Connect with me:
Canyon Ranch Fall 2023 Retreat
Jessica Miller
[0:01] Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the It’s Your Offer podcast. This is Jess Miller. I hope you’re all doing great on this summer morning.
Jessica Miller
[0:12] I am coming to you today to talk to you about a topic that I am sure you’ve heard about, and that a lot of people are talking about, but I’ve yet to talk about it on the podcast as it relates to your business, and as it relates to your offers. But I thought now was the time because it seems to be one of these things that’s buzzing around and that is the topic of AI. I’m sure if you’re listening to this podcast, you’ve heard about AI, you might have even gone into some of the different programs and played with it. But you might be sitting there thinking about how do you incorporate this into your business? Do you incorporate it into your business? Is it something that you should you ignore? Is it something you should be afraid of? Is it something you should embrace? And a lot of people have a lot of different opinions about AI, especially as it relates to marketing their business, or growing their business, or creating offers, or creating different pieces of material and assets.
Jessica Miller
[1:15] And so I wanted to come on here and share my thoughts about AI, really to share how I think it can benefit your business, why you should think about it, and in my opinion, and maybe even embrace it, when you should use it, and how to use it. I know a lot of people have their own opinions, but sometimes I think those things can be very vague. And I’m all about, you know, how do you take what is out there available to you and really utilize it in your business to the best of your ability, especially as it relates to making your offers more valuable, and more consumable, meaning that people want to buy it and want to use it in their own world. So as I mentioned, I have been looking at AI for a while, I’ve been watching what people are saying, I’ve been playing with it on my own. Just about every program or system that I use now whether it’s you know, ClickUp, or Riverside, or whatever it is in my business, they have some sort of integration with something related to AI, or some chat function that is going to help you create content or material for your clients.
Jessica Miller
[2:38] In the beginning of my research, I heard a lot of doomsday type messaging like oh, my gosh, AI is here. It’s going to replace humans. It’s going to replace copywriters, it’s going to replace content creators, and we should all sort of fear AI. But I’m here to suggest that number one, AI is here, and it’s here to stay. I don’t think we’re going back to a time when we don’t leverage technology in this way to create, help us create, and to create information for our businesses. Second, I believe that AI can be a huge asset. And instead of fearing it, or shying away from it, I think we have a huge opportunity to embrace AI for what it can do to help us create more things of value for our clients and really help us bolster our intellectual property. In other words, how can we use AI? And why should we use it in a way to help us optimize what it is that we are creating out there in the marketplace? And I believe that if AI is here to stay, and you want to stay competitive, you want to work more efficiently, you want to be able to leverage this technology in a way that really benefits your business and your customers, you need to embrace AI in the capacity that it is going to best help you thrive in your business.
Jessica Miller
[4:18] So why is this important? AI is another tool out there like any other tool, and it is important as business owners that we learn to be as efficient and as productive, all while creating an environment for ourselves that feels good. And so why do I think embracing AI is really important? Because I believe that if you use AI technology with those guardrails in mind, you can create something very powerful in your business. Also, if you think about the competitive landscape, people are utilizing AI and thus being more efficient and more productive as we speak. And so one of the ways to stay competitive is to learn how to do that as well in a way that, you know, meets your needs in a way that feels good to you, is an integrity, and is something that you can feel good about.
Jessica Miller
[5:20] I believe on the very basic level, that utilizing AI technology allows you to do some things that I feel are really important in your business. And this is true, regardless of what level you’re at, whether you’re somebody that you’re just starting out, or you’re somebody that is a more established business owner, I believe that AI can benefit your business in these ways.
Jessica Miller
[5:43] So number one, I think it can provide a tremendous amount of time savings. If you’re looking to gather information, collate information in any way, find inspiration for something that you’re creating, get over a mental block of writer’s block or content creation where you need something, and this could even take the place of someone being on speed dial for you to help you get over those mental blocks, AI can be an incredible time saving. You could go in there, you can give it context, you can give it prompts, and in return, it’s going to give you information in a very, very, very quick way.
Jessica Miller
[6:30] The second way is that you can save on utilizing personnel in the most efficient way. Now, let me elaborate on what I mean by this. As you know, I am a very, very high touch coach. Anyone who’s ever worked with me, knows that I like to touch my clients. I will go above and beyond to speak directly to them to sort of get in there with them and help them get the results that they want by touching them. I believe that human capital, human personnel, human touch, is one of the most valuable assets that we can have in our business. And for me with the consulting and coaching work that I do, because I am such a big part of my business, I believe that my time, my personnel asset is one of the most important things in my business. So when I can utilize any type of technology to help really streamline and automate and deal with the things that are more repetitive, and shall I say, more low value, to free up me and my human capital on my team to actually touch my clients in a meaningful way, I am all in. As much as I love the personal touch, I think it is super important that we use that resource in a very intentional and high-quality way. And frankly, there are so many things in my business that are not, they don’t need that human touch. In that capacity. It could be you know, first when somebody reaches out, it could be to deliver an FAQ, it could be any type of information that can be automated, that is not overly complex. So the personnel savings that come are where AI allows me to allocate my human resources into high value activities. Okay, so that’s the second thing.
Jessica Miller
[8:31] The third thing is it’s instant flexibility. The beautiful thing about utilizing AI is that it can work around the clock at 2am. When I want to order, I’m pretending, or actually I’m not pretending because this is true, eyeliner, you know, from Victoria Beckham, and I go to her site, and I can click on a chatbot. Or I can go to a place on her website, where there is AI working in the background to give me products that are valuable to me that answer questions that I need answered in that moment, when it’s two o’clock in the morning, and somebody doesn’t need to be on the other end of that screen. It is hugely valuable. It does the work that I needed to do without having to physically be involved. And that is huge. So whether you’re starting out or you’re more established, why is this important? Because there are places in your business that you can streamline, automate, and increase efficiency that are going to make your business so much more valuable. And not only just for you, more importantly for your client. The client experience is so much richer when you have this technology working on your side.
Jessica Miller
[9:50] So the next question might be when do I use this? You know, do I need to wait? Do I need to be at a certain level? What does that look like? And I wanna offer, you can use it anytime. When should you use it? Right now. The best answer would have been yesterday. If you’re someone who is just starting out, I implore you to get familiar with AI, to get familiar with, where and how you can integrate this in your business, to get familiar about where it can offer you, you know, cost savings and a place where you can leverage the technology in a way that allows you to grow and allows you to then seize those opportunities to bring on more systems or bring on more people where it makes sense for you. It also allows you to get familiar with this so that as you’re growing, you can know where to, you know, dial up or leverage AI in a larger capacity.
Jessica Miller
[10:48] From a research perspective, and a segmentation perspective, you can learn so much about your clients through AI, you can find out information around crunching the data with AI, things that are going to help you make some great decisions as you’re just getting off the ground. For all of you that are established, AI is absolutely an essential thing in your business. As you grow, you know, you cannot be all things to all people, you cannot be everywhere all the time, there gets to a point where you’re at a scale that you cannot do it all. The places where you can invest in AI, to both, you know, bring in traffic, speak to leads, you know, give information to people that they’re requesting, segment your audience so that they can get you know, the right products tailored to them at the right time. Those things take your current infrastructure that is working, and just takes it to the next level. It also allows you to make better hiring decisions, it allows you to use your personnel better, it allows you to use your time better, it also allows you to look at the data that you’re collecting and make good business decisions from that all through the power of AI. So to answer the question of when, it is right now. As I mentioned, AI is not going away. There are so many positive things about it, and utilizing it in your business in some capacity is essential, regardless of the level of business you’re in, or how long you’ve been in business. My argument is, now is the best time to get on board.
Jessica Miller
[12:31] So how do you do that? I know of some, you know, very early business owners who haven’t touched it. I know people who are making seven figures who haven’t touched AI. And I’ve seen the opposite, someone who’s just starting who’s all in on it and getting you know, getting familiar with it and playing with it. And also people that are established and doing that. So the how, the first thing about the how is get in there and play with it. It’s not going to hurt you, it’s not going to, you know, do anything crazy. I think one of the best ways to get familiar is just to go in and start playing with it. There’s so much information out there, whether it’s on YouTube or different programs that show you how to utilize AI in a positive way, you know, and to really use it to your advantage. There are people out there who have put together program after program after program about how to use Chat GPT or some of the other AI functions to get information that you want that you can buy at a very reasonable price. If you actually want to teach yourself, there are also people out there who will do it for you if you’re not interested in doing any of that. But the best thing you can do is go and wade into the water. And I would suggest picking a project or some sort of deliverable where you want to try and leverage some of the AI.
Jessica Miller
[13:49] So for instance, let’s pretend that you’re going to write a social media post and you need some inspiration around the copy. You’ve got some ideas, you want to go into Chat GPT, for example, and put in some prompts and get some information. That’s a great way, right? It’s a very concrete deliverable: I want to get some copy for this social media post. That’s a great example. Maybe another example, if you’re more established as a business owner, you want to, you know, put a chatbot on your website and you want to learn how to leverage AI in that chatbot to communicate with your potential customers. Again, it’s very concrete. So you want to utilize it in that space. You want to learn how to, you know, leverage it as it relates to that chatbot on your website, in that specific capacity.
Jessica Miller
[14:38] So I think starting with something very finite and going and playing with it is really a great way to get involved. I want to share with you some of the ways that I have been seeing by customers and also that I have been leveraging AI in my business. And this kind of goes into the same concept of how do you use this what makes the most sense. What am I seeing, as it relates to people’s offers, their growth, and most importantly, creating more with less? And how can you use AI in your business to do that? So one of the ways that I think is awesome to use AI is in the sales part of your business. So how can you leverage AI and some of the technology to do things like help people book appointments with you? So if you are a brick and mortar, how can you help people easily book an appointment to go to your salon, or to your spa, or to get you know, an appointment with you as a dentist, anything like that, where it makes it easy for someone to get on your calendar, or easy for someone to say I want to book an appointment, and then that gets shunted over to somebody on your team to then reach out to them. That is an awesome way to leverage sales. You want to touch this person when they are interested, and you want to make it easy. Even if that’s happening at two o’clock in the morning, it’s a great way to pull that through.
Jessica Miller
[16:07] Another way is if you’re in a business where you can give people a quote of some sort. So in other words, they’re coming to you, they’re looking for help and to buy something and you’re saying, “Hey, here’s the information.” That is an awesome way to leverage AI in a sales capacity, and I think it’s very powerful. Another way, which I’m sure many of us have also experienced is in the customer service part of your business. So how can you make it easy for people to be serviced?
Jessica Miller
[16:37] So number one is, are they looking for information? Can you utilize AI to have a conversation with them that is helpful and meaningful to get some of the most frequently asked questions that people have answered? And most importantly, answered when they want it answered. There’s also different things around customer service like text, text response to missed calls. So they have AI where you can utilize a response where if somebody calls you and you’re not available, someone can text you back as an example. That’s a way to utilize AI. And it’s the interface behind that once they’re texting the person back, what is that conversation that’s happening? How can the technology respond to the person’s needs, and once again, move them to where they want to go: whether that’s booking an appointment, or giving them information or whatever it is that they need in that moment.
Jessica Miller
[17:34] AI is great for triage. There can be a conversation back and forth between people, as far as helping them figure out what services they need, or what products might be the best fit. It can segment based on how people answer, they could segment people to put them into, you know, one conversation versus another. So it’s very tailored, it’s not the general sort of, you know, the original sort of chat bots and things like that, yeah, it was just a terrible back and forth. AI is much more sophisticated. It can actually speak to people in a way that is beneficial, and they can again, get them to where they want to go. You can use it in the very traditional sense that a lot of us know it for which are things like creating content, or giving inspo or creating copy or things like that, where if you have the right prompts, and you have these things that you’re putting in there as your own IP, you can then very easily fill in the blanks and create content in a very meaningful way.
Jessica Miller
[18:36] And I have to tell you, as somebody who loves to create content, but I get really bogged down in sort of that writer’s block, when I’m just trying to get started that beginning part for me is the hardest. It’s been really awesome to be able to just put some of these prompts into some of these different mediums and get back what I want. I tend to use Chat GPT most often, and it’s awesome. I can go in there and like how do I want to say this thing, whatever it is, or I’m trying to come up with a good title, maybe for you know, a blog. How can I say this? And it’s awesome, just gets you over that writer’s block. And I find that it’s super-efficient, the inspiration and the kind of wordsmithing that I get from things like Chat GPT is really, really powerful. And it helps me then create more quickly.
Jessica Miller
[19:31] So there is, that is literally just scratching the surface of the things that we can do with AI now. And again, it doesn’t have to be overly sophisticated. It can be very, very sophisticated. But depending on what your needs are and where you’re at in your business and your goals, you can really generate a lot of momentum and conversion and money in your business by doing some of the simplest things. And one of the things that I have noticed with my clients is, as I work with them and kind of walk through the steps, we have found a lot of really amazing places where if we’re looking at that customer journey, and we’re looking at their offer, and all the things that touch it, where are these places where we can utilize this technology to really optimize that offer and optimize that client journey for them, so they can really give their business that kick in that momentum that it needs. And again, the efficiency so that they can really streamline their business and, you know, add value where they need to add value for their clients in their business.
Jessica Miller
[20:39] So going back, just to recap, I believe AI is here to stay. I believe it is also an incredible asset to your business, if you’re a business owner who wants to thrive and be competitive and be efficient, and really increase the value to your customers. And I think most importantly, free up you and your human capital in your business, to actually touch people in the most meaningful way. You want to embrace AI, you want to use it in your business, where it makes the most sense, where it meets your needs, and where it feels in integrity for you. Why is that important? Because it really is a way to help your business grow, and to do that in the most efficient way possible.
Jessica Miller
[21:25] When should you do that? Right now, yesterday was even better; you are not late to the game. Really right now is the time to start embracing it, looking at it, and really seeing how and where does it fit into your business? How can you utilize AI? As I mentioned, there’s a variety of different ways, but very high level, I think the biggest buckets where it can be most impactful is in your sales part of your business. How do you make it easy for people to get information, to book appointments with you, to buy product, to do that in a way that is streamlined and efficient? And again, frees up your human capital so that in that sales process, you can use your time and the time of your team in the most valuable way and not on the things that can be automated and streamlined and taken care of through AI.
Jessica Miller
[22:15] Another bucket is in customer service. How can people get the information they need? Whether it’s frequently asked questions, whether it’s, you know, you know, text callbacks, where there’s now a conversation that people are having with text messaging, because a phone call was missed? You know, how can you really increase the value of servicing your customers in a way that meets your needs, and most importantly, meets theirs on their own time? I think that is one of the beautiful things. It’s really customizable to your clients. Triaging, super important. How do you get people to the services that are most beneficial for them? How do you segment your audience? How do you tee up products that they’re going to care about and that are useful? AI can do that in a very strong way. And then of course, there’s inspiration through creation of content, copy anything, that you can utilize the power of some of these AI platforms to give you information and data so that you can get information that you need in order to create content and value for your clients in the best way possible.
Jessica Miller
[23:33] So I want you to go back to this episode and really audit your business. Where can you embrace AI? What is even one small thing that you can do in your business, to utilize the technology that is available for you right now? To make your business more valuable? To make your experience that your clients is having more valuable and to utilize these different mediums in a way that’s going to strengthen your offers, strengthen your customer journey and your pull through, and most importantly, strengthen the results for your clients? Until next week, everyone have a great week.
