Latest news with #customertrust
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
How AI Is Reviving Customer Trust In E‑Commerce
As shoppers demand speed, clarity and confidence, AI-powered infrastructure is helping brands reduce ... More friction and rebuild trust — one checkout at a time. When generative AI exploded into public view just over two years ago, few industries embraced it faster than e-commerce. From customer support chatbots to automated fulfillment tools, retailers rushed to integrate AI anywhere it could speed up decisions or reduce friction. And it's easy to see why. In today's crowded online marketplace, trust doesn't come from flashy chatbots or even catchy marketing. It's earned when a customer clicks 'buy' and then receives exactly what they were promised — on time, intact and without confusing emails or hidden fees. When that promise is kept, trust grows. When it's broken, everything can change overnight. In fact, according to data from global research firm Baymard Institute, nearly 70% of online shoppers abandon their carts before completing a purchase, often because of slow checkouts, surprise shipping costs, or technical glitches. That means three out of every five buyers leave right when brands are closest to sealing the deal. But now, a host of AI-powered infrastructure tools — largely invisible to customers — are helping to eliminate customer distrust. In dropshipping, it's one thing to list trending products, but inventory mishaps or pricing mistakes can ruin a customer's experience. That's where AI engines like those used by dropshipping platform company Autods come in. They monitor supplier stock in real time, recommend hot products before others jump in and even generate UGC-style product videos to help sellers promote items, all without costly video shoots. Perhaps most critical are the built‑in guardrails to pause listings when data seems off. As Lior Pozin, CEO of Autods and recent Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, told me, 'automation without fallback logic, alert systems and customizable guardrails is a disaster waiting to happen.' With such guardrails in place, Pozin explained sellers only offer what's actually available, avoid mispriced items and sidestep poor reviews caused by avoidable shipping delays. Lior Pozin, Autods CEO While platforms like Autods aim to reduce risk before the sale ever happens, the exact moment of purchase — where a slow payment field, or payment integration issue, or even a broken coupon code can make a shopper leave the checkout page even if everything was working perfectly until they got there — presents another challenge. For instance, the report by Baymard Institute estimated that 48% of shoppers abandon carts when shipping costs are added late in the process. Enter companies like checkout optimization platform provider PrettyDamnQuick, which use real‑time signals, including cart total, shopper location and past behavior, to dynamically adjust shipping options, upsells and delivery promises. PrettyDamnQuick's CEO, Avi Moskowitz, explained that 'the moment of purchase is where trust is either cemented or lost,' adding that 'every glitch avoided is a sale saved and, over time, builds confidence.' He noted that the company's clients report higher average order value and reduced churn, proving the point that protecting checkout infrastructure actually boosts revenue. Even when the checkout succeeds, fulfillment introduces its own risks and often, frustrations. Free shipping has become a baseline expectation: 80% of consumers look for it, and 66% expect it on every order, according to Baymard Institute's cart abandonment rate statistics. The stats also further showed that nearly half abandon their cart if extra delivery costs appear at checkout. And even free shipping only works if it arrives when it's supposed to. As a report by McKinsey revealed, most consumers are willing to wait four to seven days for free shipping, as long as it's reliable. If deliveries duck out of promised windows, dissatisfaction, purchase returns and refund requests often follow. That's where AI logistics tools like Shipium come into play. The company optimizes delivery routes, warehouse assignment and carrier choices — all in service of on-time, low-cost fulfillment. The payoff is fewer late deliveries, more predictable costs, and, most importantly, happier repeat customers. Baymard Institute estimates $260 billion in lost orders across the U.S. and EU could be recovered by improving checkout flows alone. Free shipping — even with slightly slower delivery — can push cart completion rates and boost average order values by more than 10%. And it's in areas like this that automation and AI can decisively turn things around. As Moskowitz noted, AI and automation are becoming essential allies for teams facing the chaos of modern digital retail. 'Today's environments are too complex and too fast-moving for manual rule-setting or reactive troubleshooting,' he told me. 'But with AI,' he continued, 'we can dynamically segment shoppers, personalize the checkout in real time and test dozens of hypotheses simultaneously, all without bogging down dev resources. That means less reliance on hard-coded logic and more adaptability to what's actually working.' However, Pozin cautioned that automation can go too far, creating risk rather than value for users. This, he said, often happens especially early on, when some sellers blindly automate everything without understanding how it works — a sentiment that Moskowitz also agrees with. 'Automation handles scale and speed — humans bring the strategy. That's the balance,' Pozin noted. The truth, according to these ecommerce experts, is that customers don't care whether you use AI or not. They care about whether you can deliver on your promise. And if you're able to use AI to do that more effectively, then they'll feel it when everything works. If you're a retailer thinking about AI, the advice from Moskowitz is that you shouldn't start with chatbots or fancy front-ends. Start by asking: Do we catch inventory or pricing errors before they go live? Does our checkout experience crash-proof your sale? Can we guarantee delivery within promised windows, whether cheap or free? If the answer is no, that's where your ROI truly lives; in reliability and simplicity that actually make trust stick. The point isn't blind automation. It's building systems so dependable, the customer barely notices until something goes wrong. 'When you automate — but add guardrails, monitoring and adaptability — you do more than save time. You build a brand that delivers, every time. And in the end, trust is what turns one-time buyers into lifelong customers,' said Pozin.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Advice emerges as a key aspect of bank customers' experience
This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. More consumers are looking to their banks for advice as their overall financial health deteriorates, according to a J.D. Power report released Thursday. More than one-quarter of bank customers are 'very interested' in bank advice or guidance. That number is particularly pronounced among younger generations. More than one-third of customers under the age of 40 are currently seeking advice. Customers are most interested in short-term solutions, according to Jennifer White, senior director for banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power. 'We see a shift in consumer thirst for content that is around short-term solutions, things like, 'Ways to help pay my bills on time?'' As consumers become more anxious about the economy, they're looking to their financial institutions for guidance, creating an opportunity for banks to build lasting relationships. Providing financial advice drives trust and in turn satisfaction, according White. 'There's many factors that influence satisfaction, but the factor that has the highest weight in driving customer satisfaction is the level of trust that a customer has in their financial institution,' she told CX Dive. Trust is driven by several key factors, including a bank's ability to resolve a customer's problem, a customer's confidence they have the account right for their situation, and a bank providing a customer support and guidance during a challenging time. Customers' thirst for short-term solutions reflect that increase in vulnerable customers, White said. More than 2 in 5 bank customers are considered financially vulnerable, meaning they have trouble paying their bills on time, are unable to cover living expenses for a minimum of six months and are seeing their credit deteriorate. The best banks don't treat guidance as an afterthought and make it available beyond branch locations, according to J.D. Power. Customers are most satisfied with retail banking advice from Bank of America, followed by U.S. Bank and Chase. 'Most of the institutions that are at the top of the list have embedded advice or guidance throughout their ecosystem,' White said. 'They're combining in-person experiences with digital engagement.' Perhaps that's offering a personal financial management tool or even a banner interruption that educates customers on scams, White said. But even if customers don't follow bank advice, the act of offering it grows customer satisfaction. 'No advice results in the lowest overall customer satisfaction,' White said. 'Advice that isn't acted on is still higher than that, but advice that is acted on is the highest.' Recommended Reading Lyft boosts bottom line with premium rides, economy options Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NYC laundromat with ‘affluent clientele' drags pizza joint next door to court over odor
A Chelsea laundromat claims its stinky neighbor is costing it plenty of dough. Laundry Project 23 on West 23rd Street handles 'a large volume of high-end clothing items belonging to affluent clientele' and rakes in $100,000 a month, but says the recent opening of Pizza Studio has upended its business. Since the pizza shop 'began testing and operating their pizza oven, the odors and fumes have been entering our laundromat premises, contaminating the air and clinging to customers' clothing,' owner Dong Hong Choi said in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit. 'Clothes hanging on the rack and bags of cleaned clothes quickly absorb odors when exposed to the smell,' the company claimed. The business said it suffered 'contamination of customer property, disruption of its business operations, loss of customer trust, reputational harm, and exposure to significant financial liability due to potential customer claims.' The situation has gotten so crusty the laundromat is demanding their next door neighbor shut down. They want a judge to bar Pizza Studio 'from operating its pizza oven and conducting any cookingoperations that emit odors into Plaintiff's premises,' Laundry Project 23 said in court papers. Choi previously demanded a sitdown with Pizza Studio and the landlord as soon as he 'was informed that a duct for their pizza oven would pass through the ceiling area shared with our laundromat,' he said in court papers. The Pizza Studio allegedly agreed to take responsibility for any issues — then allegedly failed to ensure the ductwork it created for its shop was fully sealed, allowing odors to 'infiltrate' the laundromat. And there's been a domino effect — the pizza place also leaves its front door open when cooking, making odors even worse, Laundry Project 23 claimed. The odiferous situation is 'unreasonable under the circumstances, especially considering that simple, reasonable steps – such as properly sealing ductwork, installing odor mitigation systems, and closing the doors during pizza oven operation – could have prevented the harm substantially,' the laundromat insisted in legal papers. Pizza Studio did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sonos puts faith in software updates to restore trust
This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. Sonos is still working to rebuild customer trust following a disastrous app release in May 2024, executives said on a Q2 2025 earnings call Wednesday. A slate of recent updates were focused on improving stability, speed and usability, according to interim CEO Tom Conrad. Social sentiment is on the rise, while inbound support inquiries are down. 'My view here is simple: Our software must be responsive, reliable and intuitive,' Conrad said during the call. 'No exceptions.' Sonos has been working hard to win back customer trust through a seven-point plan released last year, but leaders still see plenty of work ahead and are focusing on software improvements for better customer experience. The company released nine software updates in the last 120 days, with more on the way, Conrad said. 'For the balance of the year, we are focused on using software to drive differentiation and experience improvements,' Conrad said. 'And we do this not just to repair our relationship with our customers after the missteps of last year, but also because our flywheel is powered by software.' Conrad, a Snap Inc. and Pandora veteran who sits on the Sonos board of directors, was tapped to help the speaker company fix its app last year and eventually took on the interim CEO role in January. Then-CEO Patrick Spence departed the company after taking ownership of the app issues, saying his 'push for speed backfired' during an earnings call last October. The app released in May 2024 suffered from user interface issues, including the lack of volume numbers. Sonos' seven-point plan called on the company to commit to an 'unwavering focus on the customer experience' and appoint a quality ombudsperson to make it easier for employees to escalate experience concerns to executives. Conrad's efforts so far have included reorganizing the company's product and engineering staff around key priorities, leading the company to layoff 200 employees, Conrad said on a February Q1 2025 earnings call. At the time, Conrad expressed confidence in the smaller, more efficient team's ability to improve Sonos' core experience. Sonos also ended its relationship with IKEA, and the companies will stop releasing new products together, Conrad said on the earnings call Wednesday. Sonos' exit from the partnership is another part of his effort to focus on improving the aspects of the business that matter the most. Revenue was up 3% year over year in the second quarter of 2025, and the company saw a strong response to a targeted promotion aimed at its install base, according to CFO Saori Casey. 'We believe this is a testament to the progress we have made improving our core experience and restoring our customers' trust,' Casey said during the call. The company reported a net loss of $70.1 million for the second quarter of 2025, up slightly from the $69.7 million net loss reported in the second quarter of 2024, according to a company earnings release.
