Did you ever heard of a voice “Welcome!! feel the advantage.
All our customer executives are currently busy.
Don’t want to wait,
Wish your queries are resolved immediately
Then log on to the website, (Music).”
This human kind of interaction is provided by the companies through chatbots. Additionally, these are changing the way brands communicating with their customers.
In fact, 80% of brands are planning to use chatbots by 2020. One more study revealed that 35% of consumers awaiting for chatbots from their favourite companies.
But the million dollar questions regarding this is,
Can companies really save on the manual support costs?
Will chatbots have a positive impact directly?
Do customers prefer to have the feeling of human interactions?
These are the challenges faced by both chatbot companies and enterprises faced globally. But there is every possibility of reaching there. As a matter of fact, it is like any other paradigm shift which takes time and persistence. This even changes the behavioural patterns of consumers which have a material impact. The companies which adopt the change early will reap the benefits most in the long term.
Likewise, this is like a new age Sorcerer’s Stone. Hence, to reveal the mystery of all this we need to acquainted with the terms of a chatbot.
What is chatbot?
A chatbot or a chat robot is a software program that resembles a human conversation. In either case, this can be through a voice or text. These devices can interact when you log on to the brand’s website or platforms like
Skype
Slack
WhatsApp
Facebook Messenger, or
Even Alexa
These computer programs are customizable and usable in different ways like
Communication through smart speakers
Functioned on smart home appliances
So, for a quicker response, users can have a conversation with chatbots and get the answers instantly. All things considered, it influences the customer by meeting all the expectations.
Chatbots can support customer representatives. And apply to their artificial and emotional intelligence to solve more complex queries.
Moreover, they scan the keywords when customer inquiries. And delivers the answers powered by ML(Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial intelligence).These or integrated with CRM and CMS platforms that symbolizes the brand’s online appearance. This allows them to draw customer information and offer personalized data.
One of the most primitive examples of the chatbot was a software program called Eliza. It was built by professor belonged to Massachusetts Technology school. Named, Joseph Weizenbaum in the year 1960s. Correspondingly, it used to answer the open-ended replies depending on the script. In reality, the simple chatbot tackles the queries and helps customers in
- retrieving the documents based on the keywords
- Suggest make-up preferences
- Recommend products matching to your question
Okay, with attention to the enhanced benefits for the companies like reducing costs. It also helps customer to increase their experiences.
The chatbot that never takes rests
Customer service is all about providing convenience. This includes 24/7/365 week. Another key point to achieve is through chatbot which doesn’t take rest.
Customer can expect to receive the same level of interaction that they obtain from the customer representative. Though chatbot is a software, it recognizes human feelings, emotions like
Joy
Confusion
Fear
Anger
To enumerate, if the chatbot identifies that the customer is vexed. It will transfer to the representative to solve the issue and end the client’s help. Not to mention, chatbots can effectively streamline your customer service and maximizes sales. It provides customers by
- Answering basic queries
- Resolving complaints
- Elevates the experiences of customers
On a daily basis, over two billion messages are received and sent between customers and brands on Facebook alone. It’s not a wonder that businesses are using chatbots to deliver replies to consumer instantly.
Personalization
According to studies, 85% of global executives believe that with AI, there is an enhancement in productivity. It will also help companies gain an edge over the powerful competition. Additionally, If you have a B2C business, then it is always better to deploy chatbots. Coupled with that, even B2B and B2E marketing are also more inclined to witness a gigantic boost.
Hence, chatbots are efficient to strengthen business relationships with customers. They help in organizing history and customer service queries. It’s essential to use technology appropriately. As chatbots are designed to look for the designated keywords and respond, it is important to make this as personalized as possible. Furthermore, there is a thin line between customer satisfaction because they received an immediate response. In addition, customers at times feel vexed as they are talking to a machine.
Think of the times, you called the customer service department and has been routed to voice-activated prompts. This stimulates human conversation and stuck in a loop of not being connected to get the real person on to the call. Maybe, the situation of the voice-activated machine not understanding your prompts. This makes you repeat again. This makes the person feel frustrated.
Comparatively, there are more chances of increased revenue when your users feel valued and special. Be it a website, email, or chatbot conversation. This can make users feel appreciated and their opinions are most valued.
Have conversations that engage
When done correctly, chatbots are a great program to engage new leads and establish a reputation. As brands treat their customers most respected and they are the first. This new technology reaches customers and has conversations which increase the leads on a larger scale. Furthermore, these conversations are much valuable to the business than you might think of. Conversational marketing through smarter chatbots is more helpful than ever. Hence, businesses are finding solutions to strike the balance between automation and human interaction.
This is partially true to set up a series of messages for new subscribers and followers. Although this may be true, that consumers are having greater expectations than ever. As on-demand services like Amazon, Netflix is helping with immediacy. Customers are finding ease with the new technology like Google home and Amazon Echo. All these are contributing to the brands that integrate with common lives.
Conversely, you can use this to tell your story intro messages or inform any latest offerings. Connect with the audience and go beyond customer service text.
Chatbot by serving 24/7 gives relaxation to the representatives. This allows you to converse with your potential viewers at scale. Not only technology increases the traffic to the site but also does all the mundane tasks. This frees up your sales team.
To simplify, there is a huge opportunity in the e-commerce industry who want to connect with their customers online. In fact, 77% of the customers have changed their perception about the business after chatting. If you desire to make an impression, then chatbots like Mobile Monkey and ManyChat are useful. Moreover, they are open-source tools available in the market. Hence, utilizing these advanced technologies assist to alleviate your business pressures.
Builds relationships
Chatbots are mostly powered by Artificial Intelligence(AI), so they will get smarter with time. They have increased chances of interactions. Hence, this is a crucial development of AI and modifies the way a human develops relationships in future.
However, for a human relationship to grow it take years. This increases the strong foundation of honesty, trust and care. Obviously, feelings and emotions are involved. Although this may be true, Chatbots help in developing relationships in a jiffy. This revolutionizes communication between brands and customers. The chatbot deployed with the aid of AI not only performs pre-determined tasks like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri but also reacts to human emotions and interact with them. Amid that, it will suggest
- Movies to view
- Books to read
- Tells a joke
- Shares music
- Conveys birthday wishes
Without connecting with humans directly, they connect with them emotionally. For one thing, these chatbots help in boosting brand loyalty. They never have bad days and feel disheartened by ordinary customers who pass negative comments.
There is, in fact, an app powered by AI called “Hugging face”.Notably, it develops friendship and starts interacting like a bestie within three weeks. The first interactions are more formal. As the days pass by, they begin to interact more like friends. Laughing with you, share thoughts and updating the latest news. When the user feels low, the chatbot asks whether to convey in a compassionate tone. Then it will pass on the information to feel the better.
SMM tool
At the present time, messaging apps are growing in popular than social media sites. People are more inclined to socialise with chatbots. Furthermore, the businesses who are taking benefits of social media sites are trying to inscribe with chatbots. Chatbots have modified the landscape and environment of customer communication. And facebook no has more than 33,000 chatbots enabled on their messenger app. Further, there are equally important among baby boomers and millennials. Having said that, chatbots have transformed the face of SMM(Social media marketing).
At the first place, it becomes a tedious task for a customer rep. to acknowledge all the issues asked on social platforms. As chatbots can speak with the customers they can be fused with the social platforms and extract user’s information via AI.
Hence, companies are keen to implement chatbots to represent their customer executives. As a matter of fact, this helps in giving information about the brand. Hence, businesses are focusing more on developing these chatbots. Many prefer to have chatbots which are intuitive and creative. As they provide a personalized experience.
For instance, look at the dialogue below
User: What’s the weather in Peterborough, UK.
Chatbot: The weather in Peterborough, UK is partly cloudy with 17 degrees centigrade. So dress something warm.
This kind of information provides a sense of belongingness and satisfaction to the customers.
Lead Generation
Chatbots which acts as an instant messaging is the next in-thing for many marketers. They potentially go out of the way from customer service and gives a boost to marketing and sales. Moreover, they gather user-centric data like their preferences, purchase behaviour, interests and likes. They are more useful in promoting customized messages.
As an illustration, when the user first logs, chatbot greets and gathers information about what they are looking for. Then based on the data collected, they provide relevant information. Companies also take help of desk management software for more agreeable results. Markedly, they
- Improve conversions
- Generates web traffic
- Become staple for Lead generation
Truly, it doesn’t matter whatever sector you are in. Most of the potential customers spends time chatting and extract information about the brand.
Chatbots are here to chat with customers and give information about promotions and discounts. this type helps in converting leads. In turn, increases sales and profits that are fine-tuned with marketing strategies. Businesses can track these discussions and help desk software.
For this reason, it is highly regarded as a crucial part of your company’s strategy. And many chatbots are visible on the landing page for turning visitors into leads. Then the collected information is updated on the Google sheet and creates a new contact in CRM. This finally switches on to your Lead generation application.
Replace your forms to break the ground
Can you imagine the world without lead forms? No! it’s scary to some marketers. Rather, there is where the chatbots come into the picture. Additionally, they are more like a superpower for your business marketing funnel.
In the outdated approach, if you want to collect customer’s information, then they, need to fill in the log form. But that’s monotonous and boring. Accordingly, consumes time. If the customers decide to fill it also, they do it unwillingly. On the other hand, chatbot systematizes the process.
Hence, rather than relying on the age-old marketing method, chatbot automatically converts potential customers while they are still live on your webpage. This is not done after they have left.
In addition, bots get all the desired information that the form requires. This is done without any cognitive or friction load. This is done when they’re still browsing the page with all the 11 required fields.
Conclusion
At present, every company is reinventing itself as the digital world. All in all, for customer service or enhancing the customer experience. Companies are inclining on technologies and engaging with customers. Users are more prone to interaction better than earlier. They are expecting to beat the competition and wising their favourite companies to grow. It is where chatbots arise and become the wave of the future. There are ubiquitous and allowing vendors with more possibilities.
This more effectively achieving the goals of the company. Studies have shown that customers want frictionless and fast solutions to solve their problems. Hence there is a rise of chatbots. As the technology being improved there are changing the ways that customers are connecting with their favourite brands.
