The Transition to the Conversational Era

Abstract

This chapter explores the evolution from relationship marketing to conversational marketing, highlighting the importance of technological innovation in this transition. Relationship marketing focuses on building strong, trusting relationships with customers, while conversational marketing uses technologies such as chatbots and voice calls to establish ongoing, personalised dialogues with customers. These automated interactions gather valuable data on consumer behaviour and preferences, improving customer service. The comparative analysis shows that, although both approaches aim to strengthen ties with customers, conversational marketing stands out for its use of artificial intelligence to process large quantities of data and provide immediate responses to customer needs in the service sector. The authors show that the shift to conversational marketing represents a necessary adaptation to consumers' growing expectations for rapid, personalised interactions, offering companies a significant competitive advantage in a constantly evolving market environment such as that of services.