What Is Chatbot?
A chatbot is a software service that enables you to directly communicate with a user of your website through text or text to speech.
It provides a direct communication channel between your business and your customers. Thus, contributing to a more personalised style of communication. It is a real interaction between your business and your customers.
So how Does Chatbot Actually Work?
Chatbots use Artificial Intelligence that allows them to comprehend human conversations through voice or text. Chatbots convert these words or texts and reply to customer requests or queries through pre-set answers.
Based on how they work, chatbots can be divided into two main categories namely
Rule-based chatbots- as the name suggests, is governed by pre-set rules. That is, the user must adhere to a certain type of query that will result in one of the pre-defined answers.
Also Check Out Web Design and Development Services
AI-Based Chatbots
AI chatbots are more sophisticated. These chatbots understand the particular question and arrive at an appropriate answer. The more you train these chatbots the more they learn to respond to a complicated text.
Advantages of Using Chatbots
Increase in Sales
One of the main benefits of chatbots for business is that it most definitely increases sales. Chatbot offers immediate response to customer queries.
When there is an immediate response, customers tend to make on-the-spot purchases thereby increasing sales.
The use of chatbots provides an opportunity to resolve customer issues immediately.
According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, 82% of customers expect an immediate response when they have a marketing or sales question and 90% of customers expect an immediate response for customer service questions.
The same survey revealed that customer’s patience wears out within 10 minutes.
Big Money Saver
A big chatbot benefit is that it is a big money saver. A chatbot is AI and not a working human being that has to be paid a salary at the end of the month.
If you have not invested in chatbots then you most definitely have to invest your money in a customer care team that will look after customer relations.
This is definitely a higher investment than an investment in a chatbot that does not require a monthly salary.
Moreover, investment in chatbots is a one-time expenditure, unlike an in-house customer support team that will result in recurring expenditures.
For small businesses and large, it is advisable to invest in one-time chatbot software.
Appointing a workforce under the customer relation team leads to other additional expenses like health care for workers. Chatbots negates these additional expenses.
Instant
Chatbot responses are instant and immediate. Customers do not have to wait for a customer care team to receive the call. This saves a lot of time which impresses customers.
You May Also Like It’s Word Press for Websites
Lead Generation
As chatbots enable quick responses, it kindles an interest in a product or service. It creates lead generation, which is the process of attracting and capturing the interest in a product or service which finally leads to sales.
It allows businesses to foster customer relations until they lead to actual sales.
Versatility
Chatbots are software programs that may be programmed to cater to more than responding to customer queries. Chatbots can arrange meetings between customers and business representatives too.
Personal
Although you may think that chatbots are ultimately AI’s then how can they be more personal than a live call to customer care. Well, this one of the main benefits of chatbots.
They can be used to give a more personal interaction and experience to customers. This area of making chatbots more personal is not completely researched yet but will prove to be an important aspect in the future of marketing.
With advancements in technology, it is now possible to study user behavioural patterns. With this information in hand, chatbots can provide a more personalised experience to users.
Integrating Chatbots on Other Platforms
Your business Chatbots can be integrated into other popular social media platforms. This is a unique marketing technique that can generate lead generation for your business.
A survey published in Bain and Company revealed that customers who engage with companies over social media are more loyal and they spend up to 40% more with those companies than others.
Also Check Out Digital Marketing Services
Global Use of Chatbots
Chatbots are programmed to communicate in various languages. This is a special and unique feature of chatbots.
Unlike human customer care which has limited language knowledge, chatbots can communicate in more than one language thereby interacting personally with more customers.
Interactive Sessions
It is obvious, that it is necessary to keep your customers engaged and this is just what chatbots do. One of the advantages of using chatbots is that it can keep your customers engaged in conversation.
You May Also Like Google My Business Benefits for Your Business
More Appealing to Customers
It is true the chatbots are more appealing to customers than human interaction.
An online survey conducted by Business Insider claimed that 44% of US consumers want chatbots over humans for customer relations.
A well-programmed chatbot that is free from bugs, provides satisfying answers, and works on all types of devices, appeals more to customers than human interaction.
Chatbot Never Tires Out
The biggest chatbot benefit is that it works 24X7, unlike humans which work for a limited number of hours. This helps to solve customer queries throughout the day and even through the night.
A chatbot never tires from your business.
So, Do You Really Need a Chatbot Service for Your Business?
Chatbots are becoming increasingly sophisticated and revolutionary software to own.
However, if you own a business and are on the brink of deciding whether to place a chatbot or not and worried if chatbots may not treat your customers well, then think again.
Though chatbots are AI and are finally machines, chatbots are an effective marketing tool. Highly programmed chatbots can work as well as a human agent, if not better.
Sophisticated Chatbots can run through customer’s profiles, browsing history and analyse and formulate the right responses for each customer.
History shows how online technology improved customer convenience with the development of apps and websites.
Similarly, chatbots improve customer satisfaction and customer convenience tremendously. We have just seen some of the advantages of chatbots above.
The idea is to consider what kind of chatbot will suit your business and ways in which you can provide an effective chatbot service to your customers.
If you are a service or product-related business, implementing chatbot technology can be highly effective. This is because of the high amount of customer queries that come in each day.
All questions regarding billing, repairs, installation of appliances, and similar related questions and queries can be handled productively by chatbots.
A survey by Gartner suggested that 25% of companies will use virtual customer service assistants or chatbots. The survey also concluded that companies recorded a reduction of up to 70% in calls, chat, and email inquiries after implementing Virtual Customer Assistance.
Chatbots and virtual assistance customer services are the technology of the future. It’s here to stay.
Also Check Out Graphic, Logo And Brochure Designing Services
