Introduction:

We have another amazing article written by Vlad Orlov who works at Responda, his bio is at the end of the article too.

7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Chatbot And How Do You Get Started With One

Why does my business need a Chatbot? This is the million-dollar question both small and large firms ask in the face of digital transformation. Well, first is the need to be accessible to your clients 24/7 and provide helpful feedback.

But apart from that one main advantage, does an online business need to integrate dedicated chat software into its customer service systems? The answer is yes, they do.

Stats show consumer retail spending using Chatbots will reach $142 billion by 2024. This means more customers will use Chatbots to make service inquiries, compelling businesses to ramp up their use. The next part explains the role Chatbots play in a business and how to set up Chatbot software.

What is a Chatbot?

It’s an artificial intelligence software that simulates human conversations using texts, voice commands, or both. The software uses Machine Learning language to copy human conversations and respond to verbal requests.

Chatbots not only receive commands, but they also comprehend language because they use AI. They get more intelligent as they interact with users. Typically, Chatbots are embedded into a business’ messaging, voice applications, mobile apps, and websites to respond to customer’s questions.

This convenience makes Chatbots appealing to businesses that don’t always have the resources to keep customer service representatives working round the clock. Examples of Chabot technology applications are virtual assistants like Facebook messenger, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and WeChat.

Benefits of Chatbots

Let’s look at how Chatbots contribute to a business:

1. Increases Customer Engagement

Social media platforms do a great job of engaging customers. Research shows companies that use these platforms realize a 20% increase in revenues. Apart from social media platforms, businesses can integrate Chatbots into the customer service systems to make the engagement a little more interactive.

With traditional customer service platforms, customers get lots of information. Chatbots, on the other hand provide information based on the user’s input. This means customers are hardly bombarded with loads of content, hence likely to use the platform longer, which can also be effective in customer acquisition.

2. Customer Support is Always Available

Customer service plays a critical role in any business, and providing 24/7 service enhances customer satisfaction.

Typical customer service representatives can only work for a specific period (usually regular business hours). This means beyond normal business hours; customers hardly get responses to their questions.

Conversely, bots can respond at any time of the day. In addition, they can be programmed to provide automated responses to repetitive questions and forward complicated questions to an actual representative. This way, businesses save time and customer reps solve more important cases.

3. Boosts Lead Generation Strategies

Adding Chatbots to customer service platforms is invaluable to a business’ lead generation strategies. The software helps marketers understand their audience, which is critical to market targeting.

Chatbots can perform surveys, quizzes, and ask questions whenever customers engage them. Such data enables marketers to get a better idea of the best and least-performing products. One effective way of integrating Chatbots into a company’s lead generation strategy is to use a Facebook Messenger Chatbot.

It makes it easy for the customer to explore products and services and interact with your business. If a customer can talk to a brand directly, they’re more likely to convert, e.g., buying your product or service.

4. Minimizes Cost

With Chatbots, businesses don’t have to hire as many customer executives. They provide an advanced way of handling customers’ problems at a lesser cost. The cost of hiring customer reps is undoubtedly higher than using Chatbots, yet they don’t provide round-the-clock service.

Note that Chatbots don’t replace humans per se; rather, they solve repetitive queries and leave customer reps to handle complex issues.

5. Messaging is Trendy

With the advent of messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp and more, customers are more inclined to communicate via text than any other media.

What’s more, these three apps remain solid communication tools as most smartphone users don’t want to download new apps. With Chatbots, businesses create platforms for customers to communicate via text without downloading new apps.

6. Promotes Personalization

Chabots are designed to answer repetitive questions, which makes responses similar and monotonous. However, when Chatbots are integrated into other systems, businesses can fine-tune them to provide personalized responses.

The Chabot can tap into the customer relationship management database including email marketing software to determine if the person visiting the website is an existing or a potential customer and respond accordingly. Existing customers may find responses like ‘welcome back,’ or ‘would you like to check your order status,’ and more.

On the other hand, new visitors will probably be directed to the most popular items on the website or the company’s history. Apart from delivering personalized experiences, customer service Chatbots relay essential information.

The bot can track if the customer has tried solving the problem alone and inform the agent about any web pages or help center articles they have visited. Therefore, agents can address the problem directly without repeating answers the customer has already seen.

7. Compatible with Multiple Channels

Stats on customer service show that 66% of customers have used at least three channels in a single customer service interaction. Apart from common channels like phones and email, customers have turned to other messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp.

Luckily, Chabots can be deployed to all such platforms to answer common questions. And the more places you set up AI-based bots, the more you reduce the workload agents would otherwise take on.

How Chabots are Used

Like any other application, Chabots have a database, an app layer, and APIs for administration. However, they are only trained to use past information, not comprehend the customer’s problem.

Many organizations use Chabots, which have loads of discussions. Developers use the data to analyze what clients ask and develop suitable answers. These kinds of Chabots are rule-based and provide limited choices which might not be helpful to the customer.

For example, a customer asking ‘how to find a product receipt’ and another saying ‘I haven’t received a payment receipt’ receive the same response.

However, as bots receive additional information, they fine-tune their responses to more customer-specific answers. AI-based Chabots are particularly effective at providing tailored reactions because they are equipped with artificial brains.

They comprehend context, understand the language, and learn from the interactions it has with customers. Training these kinds of chatbots is easier and faster than training human customer representatives.

Ordinary customer service representatives are given manuals which they must follow to the letter. Conversely, bots are nourished with a large number of conversation logs which they use to understand what questions and provide appropriate answers.

Examples of Companies that Use Chabot’s

Chatbots have proven to be an invaluable component of a company’s customer service in any online business. Here are some companies that have integrated the technology into their customer support:

Starbucks

The company uses Chatbots to make the ordering process easy via its MyBarista app. It enables customers to order, pay, and tip through messaging or Amazon Alexa.

Lyft

The car company uses chatbots to help customers request a ride using voice apps like Amazon Echo and messaging apps like Slack and Facebook Messenger. The bot provides a picture of the car model and the license plate, as well as the driver’s current location.

Spotify

The app uses the Facebook Messenger bot to help customers find, listen to, and share music. Once you start using the app, the bot suggests songs or playlists based on your mood, favorite music genre, and what you’re doing.

Mastercard

The credit card issuer also has a Facebook Messenger bot that makes it easy for customers to check their account transactions. For example, a customer can ask how much they’ve spent in the last month.

Other credit card companies like Masterpress allow customers to use Chatbots to purchase items from Subway, FreshDirect among other companies.

Things Chatbots Can Be Used For

A survey conducted by Oracle found that 65% of customers prefer using messaging apps to communicate while 90% of them use Facebook to respond to service requests.

The survey also found that the industries that would benefit most from Chatbots would be retail, e-commerce, insurance, hospitality, and healthcare. It explains the tremendous increase in the number of businesses integrating Chatbots in:

1. Performing Specialized Tasks

Activities like ordering food online, hiring a cab, and checking the weather are easy to accomplish using Chatbots. Similarly, the online business can deploy Chatbots to make orders and manage inventory with minimal human assistance.

2. Upselling

Customers who’ve had a good buying experience online or otherwise are more likely to purchase again. Businesses can use Chatbots to target such customers and upsell other products while also increasing customer acquisition. Carts and email marketing do a pretty good job at market retargeting, but Chatbots can do the job even better.

3. Leverage Interactive Marketing

Chatbots promote an active user experience, unlike apps and websites. Apart from interacting with customers on your behalf, a business can deploy them to reach out to a larger audience.

4. Tap into the Millennial Buyer Market

Unlike the older generation, millennials prefer texting to calling. This means if your business model does not support messaging apps, you may be losing out on a significant market.

If you haven’t set up any messaging apps, adding Chatbots to your website and other platforms you may be using is a good start.

How to Get Started with a Chatbot

Integrating Chatbot software isn’t as complicated once you decide the different platforms you want it added to.

The first step to installing a Chatbot is to get reliable VPN (Virtual Private Network) software to enhance your virtual network experience. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide:

• Click on the Chat Widget on the integration panel on your web page
• Select the ‘publish the bot’ icon to publish the Chat Widget
• Copy the code that appears
• Paste it into the website source code
• Refresh the website, and the Chatbot is ready for use

Now that you understand why your business needs a Chatbot, install one today. And if you have one but you are using it on your website only, it’s time you added it to other marketing platforms.

Author’s Bio:

Managing brand partnerships at Respona, Vlad Orlov is a passionate writer and link builder. Having started writing articles at the age of 13, their once past-time hobby developed into a central piece of their professional life.