What is a chatbot?
A Chatbot is a computer program which mimics human speech. Chatbots are most often present in customer service applications, where they assume the role as a Customer Support Agent and answer questions. As companies increasingly rely on chat channels to provide faster resolution of customer cases and timely support, chatbots have quickly become key elements in any business strategy involving messaging.
Here are some statistics that show customer attitudes towards chatbots and the future prospects for this type of service:
Examples of chatbots for business
Chatbot for FAQ resolution
This type of Chatbot is most commonly used in the E-Commerce field. When a customer visits an online store and has questions about specific products, shipping costs, and return policy, the chatbot can answer all customer support related questions, thus providing a smooth user experience without the need for human intervention.
Chatbot for feedback and customer data collection
After the customer places an order in an online store, the chatbot can initiate a conversation to ask for feedback about the user shopping experience. The bot could ask questions about site navigation, product satisfaction and referrals. The collected information is useful for improvements in various aspects of the business.
Chatbot for personalized recommendations
If a customer is in an online fashion store, the chatbot could use their order history and site behavior to suggest products of interest to them. For example, if the customer bought summer dresses, the bot can offer them accessories or new clothes in a similar style.
Chatbot for lead qualification
A B2B company could use a chatbot on their corporate website to qualify potential leads. When a visitor expresses interest in the company's services, the chatbot can chat with the visitor to gather information about the potential customer's interests, needs and even budget. Based on this information, the chatbot can qualify the visitor and “pass them along” to a salesperson as a potential customer for further communication.
Business benefits of using chatbots
Increased customer support productivity
According to Tidio's analysis of chatbot trends, it is clear that they can resolve 73% of customer inquiries within 5 messages or less. The ability to independently process customer requests increases the productivity of customer service agents tremendously.
Cost efficiency
Chatbots provide impressive profitability and return of investment from a business perspective, and the main reason for this is: They can handle a large part of the simpler tasks, which saves the need to hire additional staff.
Feedback request
Chatbots can be programmed to ask for customer feedback at the end of the interaction with a short survey sent in the chat itself, or a rating from 1 to 5 with the option to leave an additional comment from the user.
Reducing work intensity
Chatbots are great at dealing with common smaller issues and answering more general questions. This self-service option allows the agents to focus on more complex cases and inquiries that require human intervention.
Customer engagement increase
71% of consumers believe chatbots help them get faster responses. But that's just the foundation. They can ask for feedback, offer relevant goods and services, send proactive messages. This increases customer engagement.
Assistance in training new employees
Companies can use chatbots to train new hires – they're always available to answer common questions during onboarding when managers aren't. This also helps to get into the company culture more easily.
Lower staff turnover
Yes, chatbots can help with that as well. Automated tasks and simplified workflows have a positive impact on employee satisfaction, and internal surveys and feedback via chatbots increase employee engagement.
Here are some interesting statistics that demonstrate the key intervention of chatbots in businesses worldwide:
Customers benefits of using chatbots
Fast service 24/7
Almost half of online users expect a response within 5 minutes, and 40% of them believe that real-time support is a key factor for quality service. Chatbots are built for real-time assistance through automated responses that satisfy a large number of customers.
Personalized Customer Experience
Different chatbots can be set up for different types of customers – new, loyal and potential (with products left unpurchased in their carts). E-Commerce chatbots are an excellent tool for identifying customers, sending personalized messages and even using names to address site visitors.
Increased customer engagement
Compared to emails, chatbots have a much higher response rate. On average, they achieve an engagement rate of around 10% (measured by Click-Through Rate for all website visitors). In contrast, email marketing reaches a modest 3% engagement rate.
Multi-language service
In case your customers are international, chatbots have the ability to provide service in different languages. At the beginning of the conversation, they can ask about the customer's preferred choice of language. AI-based chatbots can also recognize the language on their own based on the data entered by the user.
Convenient option for Self-Service
Often customers are left frustrated when they cannot find the information they need or resolve a case on their own without contacting an agent. Offering the assistance needed to help get information or solve a problem quickly and easily, chatbots are an excellent solution for this.
Proactive customer service
Chatbots can be used for proactive support and relevant suggestions. By monitoring user activity on their websites, businesses can use chatbots to answer frequently asked questions or remind clients about an unfinished order.
Best practices for using chatbots in business
We conclude this article with a few recommendations for using chatbots in business, while also recommending to avoid activities which would negatively affect the user experience with your chatbot.Check out the DOs and DON’Ts when using a Chatbot for customer:
We are happy to announce that our expert team of developers is currently developing Chatbot feature for the InfoServ CRM system, which will be available to all customers who want to implement this Self-Service option in order to improve customer service.
Expect more details on the topic very soon. Until then, see the rest of the software solution's capabilities for yourself by requesting a free demo HERE.