We may deny but we can’t ignore the importance of free dinner at a posh restaurant or a free holiday trip to Hongkong. Ironically, it feels good to be recognized by your employer or your favourite service provider. This is a well known fact to companies and they never leave a stone unturned to reward their customers whenever they realize we have spent enough for them. It’s a good customer retention practice and it holds true cash value. However, we are living in the era of fraudsters and without proper protective measures, it falls under their radar.

The Problem

Almost every loyalty program faces instance of program fraud. This is a serious breach and invites a lot of trouble. A few of them are mentioned below.

• Increased cost to replace points
• Lowered NPS that leads to customer dissatisfaction
• Loss of loyal customers`

Secondly, there are cyber crime cells but there are even more smarter fraudsters who finds a new way to open fake rewards account. Every now and then reward points and miles are getting sold online. According to a report by software security provider McAfee in 2014, cyber crime costs the global economy more than US$450bn annually.

On the other hand, the face of customer loyalty programs changing continuously. Almost every customer expects to be seen as a unique customer with personalized needs. Thus, companies have to adapt solutions that assure them customer loyalty along with security. This is the scenario where AI comes to rescue.

The Solution

According to experts, AI is the only way out by implementing which companies can secure customer loyalty and reach an audience of millions. AI runs on algorithms and it can differentiate customer’s needs and preferences in real time. It helps data analysis in personalizing customers and create real time data that works far beyond numbers. It uses state-of-the-art technologies like voice recognition, natural language understanding and dialogue management to create personalized intelligent assistance. These assistants are highly secured and communicates with human beings in realtime to complete a task.

The world economy is slowly turning digital and it has changed the what customers expect from their service providers. AI implements services like voice banking and virtual chat assistants that provides immense scope for customer loyalty.

AI also augments employee performance since digital assistance cuts down a lot of human effort. This advanced approach also ensures safe handling of reward points without damaging customer experience. It has the ability to predict future instances of fraud before they occur by reducing the amount of human intervention. Thus, it creates less friction for the customers and delivers result within the given period of time. The good news is – AI is ever evolving and there’s no chance of it becoming outdated.