If you’ve heard of AI – and who hasn’t? – but are still unsure how it could impact you and your franchise, then this is the article for you. There are stacks of other articles out there about AI but few that provide practical advice on the ways that franchisors are already using it and how you can actually use it in your franchise right now. That's the aim of this article and the series that follows it.
“There’s going to be ‘AI haves’ and ‘AI have-nots’, and if you are an ‘AI have-not’, then you might as well just rip out all the computers in your office and throw away your phones because that’s how impactful it will be,” according to billionaire and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban.
As far as we know, Cuban doesn’t own any franchised businesses but Global Franchising claims that AI already “represents a chance to pull ahead of late adopters or competitors that are doing nothing at all while keeping pace with those that have already figured it out”.
And they quote Gus Guimarães, CEO of Qubo Technologies and Systems, as saying, “The separation between early and late adopters of AI is starting to show up in quarterly results across various industries – both inside and outside of franchising – as companies that embrace big data grow faster and reap higher profits, while companies without a plan suffer, with some going to the wayside.”
Scary stuff for those without an AI plan. But who are AI’s early adopters in franchising, how are they using the technology to make more money, both for themselves and their franchisees – and how could you do the same?
Graphic Source: The Keen Folks
It’s kind of ironic but I find when dealing with my telecom provider that it’s so much quicker and easier to use their online chat function than to try to get in touch with a human by phone. One of the reasons is that my provider’s chat function uses a chatbot to first find out why I’m calling and then provide answers to common questions or issues. This frees up the humans in their customer service centre to get involved only when my issue is more complex than the chatbot can handle.
Chatbots are one of the most common AI applications in franchising. They are available 24/7, can handle multiple customer inquiries simultaneously, let you order instantly and mean that you don’t have to wait in endless queues for some sort of response. Text-driven chatbots have been around for a while but a more recent innovation has been the introduction of Natural Language Processing (NLP) which enables computers to understand and respond to human language. It allows franchisors to automate customer service through chatbots, voice assistants and other conversational interfaces.
Domino’s was one of the very first companies to launch a Facebook Messenger bot that takes orders over chat. Since then, Domino’s has leveraged the use of other popular channels like Alexa and Google Assistant as well with the aim of being ‘the official food of everything’. Contextual messaging enables them to:
The use of chatbots is no longer only available for large franchises like Domino’s. There are now a range of chatbot platforms that can be used on your website, social media or app.
Take a look at:
or talk to us about the chatbot solution that’s right for your franchise.
I said above that it’s easier to contact my telecom provider by chatbot than by phone, but that may not be true for long if they catch on to Conversational AI – and if Conversational AI gets more human-like, which it’s close to doing.
Google recently announced they were shutting down Duplex, a groundbreaking new technology when it was introduced in 2018 for conducting natural conversations to carry out ‘real world’ tasks over the phone. The only trouble was that these tasks may have been advanced at the time but in this age of breakneck AI innovation, they’re not everything they could be – although they sounded pretty good to me. (Click here to listen to some of the ‘conversations’.)
“As we continue to improve the Duplex experience, we’re responding to the feedback we’ve heard from users and developers about how to make it even better,” a Google spokesperson said. “By the end of this year [2022], we’ll turn down Duplex on the Web and fully focus on making AI advancements to the Duplex voice technology that helps people most every day.”
In the meantime, Google has a couple of alternatives that may be helpful in improving your customer acquisition, and enhancing the customer experience, Conversational AI and Contact Center AI. But Papa John’s, the world’s third-largest pizza chain, found that conversational AI is not sufficiently advanced to make customers feel comfortable with talking to a machine, so they compromised and use Cognizant AI to help their human call centre agents streamline the customer ordering experience.
Personalisation is a key trend in franchise marketing, and AI can help franchises deliver personalised experiences to customers. AI algorithms can analyse customer data such as purchase history, preferences and social media activity to provide personalised recommendations, promotions and offers.
For example, McDonald’s spent US$300 million to acquire Israeli artificial intelligence start-up Dynamic Yield, which personalises products based on customers’ former selections. McDonald’s aim to utilise the technology to customise its drive-through windows to meet changing conditions, including trending menu items, time of day and weather. Taco Bell and Starbucks also use AI to provide personalised recommendations to customers based on their previous orders and preferences. Orangetheory Fitness, F45, CorePower Yoga, GymGuyz and many other franchises use Mindbody AI to create personalised recommendations to clients on fitness and wellness.
The Four Types of AI Marketing
“Of all a company’s functions, marketing has perhaps the most to gain from artificial intelligence,” according to an article How to Design an AI Marketing Strategy in the Harvard Business Review.
The article talks about the four types of AI marketing (see HBR diagram at left) and recommends that businesses pursue what they call a “crawl-walk-run” approach – starting with basic task automation before moving to more advanced uses of machine learning.
End of Part 1
Watch this space for the next in the series and don’t hesitate to subscribe to my free email newsletter if you haven’t already. I offer a free Initial Consultation for those wanting to discuss their specific needs and possible solutions.
