Did you know that 80% of consumers have had a positive experience with chatbots? These virtual assistants are no longer science fiction – they’re rapidly becoming the friendly face (or should we say voice?) of businesses worldwide. Intrigued?
This article delves into the top benefits of chatbots for businesses, exploring how these AI-powered machines can revolutionize your customer experience strategy, boost sales, and propel your business toward success. Prepare to be surprised by the ways chatbots can transform the way you interact with your customers!
What is a Сhatbot?
A chatbot is a software program that uses language learning processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence to make a text or/and speech conversation with people to provide them with specific outputs.
Chatbots are used for a variety of purposes — from pure entertainment to resolving health issues, providing excellent customer support, promoting sales, increasing brand awareness, helping users with their daily routine, or educating people on a company’s products and services.
You can implement and design chatbots for different platforms and channels — build stand-alone chatbots, like mobile applications or web-embedded chatbots, or integrate them into various messengers, like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Telegram, WhatsApp, Skype, Kik, Twitter, and many others. Chatbots provide you with a perfect opportunity to reach out to your customers whenever they are.
How Chatbots Work Their Customer Service Magic
Chatbots might seem like futuristic helpers straight out of a sci-fi movie, but their inner workings are surprisingly approachable. These virtual assistants rely on a combination of technologies to understand your requests and provide helpful responses:
Natural Language Processing (NLP): This is the brainpower behind the conversation. NLP allows chatbots to interpret the meaning behind your words, even if you don’t use perfect grammar or phrasing. Imagine it as a super-powered translator that deciphers your questions and commands.
Machine Learning: Many chatbots are constantly learning and evolving. Through machine learning algorithms, they analyze past interactions and user data to improve their responses over time. Think of it as the chatbot getting smarter with every conversation, allowing it to provide more relevant and helpful information. If you’re looking for compelling ML services, learn more here!
Decision Trees & Pre-programmed Responses: For more straightforward inquiries, chatbots rely on decision trees – basically, flowcharts that map out potential questions and lead to pre-programmed responses. This ensures they can handle common requests efficiently and deliver consistent information.
Integration with External Systems: Powerful chatbots can connect to your business’s CRM system or database. This allows them to access real-time information, like order status or product availability, and personalize their responses accordingly.
Imagine a customer asking a chatbot, “What’s my latest order status?” By integrating with the CRM system, the chatbot can retrieve the information and provide a specific answer, exceeding expectations and leaving the customer feeling valued. This is just a glimpse into the inner workings of chatbots, and as technology advances, their capabilities will continue to evolve, offering even more sophisticated interactions in the future.
What are the main types of chatbots?
Depending on their capabilities, chatbots can be simple, intelligent, and hybrid.
- Simple bots are quite basic tools that rely on natural language processing. They can understand and respond to human queries with certain actions that are based on keywords and phrases. This type of bots has a defined rule-based decision tree (or RBDT), which helps users find needed information. FAQ chatbot is a perfect example of a simple bot.
- Intelligent chatbots, which are also known as virtual assistants or virtual agents, are powered by artificial intelligence and are much more complicated than simple chatbots. They can understand human written and oral language and, which is more important, the context behind it.
- Hybrid chatbots are bots that are partially automated, meaning that they lead conversations until a human interaction is required. They might have the same functionality as simple bots, but a user can opt for a person when needed.
What are the top benefits of chatbots for business?
Having a well-developed chatbot is much better for your business than not having it at all. Regardless of your company’s size, location, and industry, it will provide you with these benefits of chatbots.
- Round-the-clock availability
No matter what kind of business you have—a local or international one, you are always there for your clients. May it be the middle of the night, early morning, or Sunday, your customers always find what they are looking for. With 24/7 chatbot availability, you won’t miss a chance to sell a product, help resolve an issue, or educate your customers on the extensive range of services you provide.
- Improved customer engagement
Chatbot is a perfect tool for customer engagement as it is always there to communicate with them through various messengers, corporate websites, or mobile apps. As Paul Greenberg stated: “Customer engagement is the ongoing interactions between company and customer, offered by the company, chosen by the customer.” So, do not deprive your clients of another tool for perfect customer engagement.
- High customer satisfaction
There is no worse thing for a company than unsatisfied clients. But some of them are so demanding that it is becoming quite difficult for your employees to deal with them without losing their temper. In this case, chatbots become a perfect medium for communication. They are always even-tempered, no matter what happens. Besides, a chatbot answers your users immediately and doesn’t keep them waiting on the phone line or in a chatbox. With a good chatbot, your clients are left satisfied and content.
- Fast multitasking
Your phone lines and chats will never be too busy to lose interaction with a client, as chatbots are designed to perform multiple tasks and serve a large number of people simultaneously. You might have hundreds of queries at your call center, and a chatbot will be able to answer them all. Depending on the types of call center models you employ, automation can help streamline responses across all customer touchpoints.
- Business processes automation
You can automate many business processes with the help of a chatbot. For instance, you can optimize the delivery process, help them choose the necessary service, or you can guide your clients. The number of options here is quite broad.
- Cutting costs
With a chatbot in your business, you can significantly cut costs as you create your chatbot only once, and use it as much as you need. It does not need salary, vacations, or sick leaves. Thus, you can spend your budget on other employees and company’s needs.
What is the main usage of chatbots in healthcare, customer service, and commerce?
Even if you do not have massive customer flows or your business is not related to e-commerce or retail, you can still find good use of chatbots. If you are a healthcare professional — have a healthcare chatbot. Let’s consider several examples of such chatbots.
Healthcare chatbots
If your business is related to healthcare, you can successfully apply chatbots. For instance, Woebot is one of the most popular chatbots in the healthcare industry. It was created by a clinical research psychologist and Harvard alumni, Alison Darcy, who also has a programming background. She applied her knowledge in psychology and technology to create a chatbot that helps people battle depression and anxiety with the help of CBT techniques, or cognitive behavioral therapy.
As a rule, depressed people have a particular pattern of thinking, but Woebot assists them in overcoming those negative patterns by regularly checking up with the user. By answering its questions, and monitoring your mood every day, you can easily track your mood patterns, understand yourself, and even break some habits of negative thinking.
This bot acts not as a serious psychiatrist but more like a friendly specialist who educates you on different mental health-related topics. For instance, Woebot uses a good sense of humor, which puts you at ease immediately and you do not feel as if you are being judged.
Benefits of a healthcare chatbot:
- It does bring value not only to business but has a significant impact of chatbots on the society
- Helps you properly monitor your health
- Assists you in breaking bad habits and creating healthy ones
Customer service chatbots
Probably, it is the most widely used type of chatbots. You can find it on different websites and messengers. When you are swamped with lots of letters, this chatbot will save you from disaster. For instance, a live chat agent can handle only a few customers properly answering their questions. But what to do if there are multiple chats and you are out of agents? The odds are that you will lose potential customers as some people will be angry and leave your website with a bad impression of you and your company.
In addition, you can significantly cut costs by having only a single bot rather than a team of human customer service agents. You can easily train one bot instead of multiple chat agents.
In addition, you can significantly cut costs by having only a single bot than a team of human customer service agents. You can easily train one bot instead of multiple chat agents.
Benefits of customer service chatbots:
- 24/7 support — service your customers whenever they are
- Dramatically improves customer satisfaction
- Help to increase customer engagement
- Have a fast response speed
- Can easily automate customer service processes
- Can handle multiple users simultaneously
- No need to train a team of agents as it’s much quicker to train a single chatbot
Commercial chatbots
When you have a wide range of products or services, help your clients choose the right item or solution with the help of commercial chatbots. Various retailers, financial institutions, and travel & hospitality companies have already implemented such bots. If you are a winemaker or retailer, for example, you can have your bot ask the following questions:
- What is your pricing range?
- What type of wine do you prefer?
- What is your preferred wine region?
Based on a customer’s answers, the commercial chatbot can offer a bottle of wine that would be the most suited.
Benefits of commercial chatbots:
- Help customers find what they need much faster
- Can easily substitute a seller
- Always available at your customers’ fingertips
What are the benefits of a Facebook messenger chatbot for business?
One of the popular bots that is implemented into a medium channel is a Facebook messenger bot. The main advantage of this bot, as well as other messenger bots, is that a lot of social media platforms have an enormous number of users. According to Statista, Facebook had 2.41 billion monthly active users around the globe in 2019.
Embed it into your Facebook page, engage your users, and use your chatbot to the fullest.
Benefits of Facebook chatbots:
- You do not have to build a separate app chatbot or have it on your website, which is cost-effective
- Facebook chatbot is available round-the-clock, you won’t lose a single customer
- You can find a lot of free information on how to build you perfect Facebook chatbot
What are the main disadvantages of chatbots?
If you are still wondering if chatbots have any disadvantages — yes, they still do. Here are the main ones:
- Require time to create and implement an intelligent bot
- Lack of human emotion
- Does not understand full contextualization
They might not be so sophisticated yet and can’t fully substitute people, but with multiple technological breakthroughs, we are going to see chatbots’ full potential.
How do you know if you need a chatbot?
The world of chatbots is buzzing, but before you jump on the bandwagon, it’s crucial to assess if this technology aligns with your specific business needs. Here are some telltale signs that a chatbot could be the missing piece in your customer experience puzzle:
You’re Drowning in Repetitive Inquiries: Does your customer service team spend a significant portion of their day answering the same questions repeatedly? From order tracking to basic product information, chatbots can effortlessly handle these routine inquiries, freeing up your valuable human agents to tackle more complex issues.
24/7 Customer Service is Out of Reach: In today’s always-on world, customers expect prompt service, even outside of business hours. Chatbots can bridge this gap, providing 24/7 customer support and ensuring your audience can get answers anytime, anywhere.
Your Website Traffic is Soaring, But Conversions are Stagnant: High website traffic is fantastic, but if it’s not translating into sales, there might be a gap in your user experience. Chatbots can act as virtual salespeople, engaging website visitors, answering questions, and guiding them through the conversion funnel.
Data-Driven Decisions are Your Mantra: Chatbots excel at collecting valuable customer data through their interactions. This data can be used to gain insights into customer needs, preferences, and buying behavior, allowing you to make data-driven decisions that optimize your marketing strategies and product offerings.
A Personalized Touch is Missing: While chatbots excel at efficiency, they can also be surprisingly personal. By leveraging customer data and past interactions, chatbots can personalize their responses, making customers feel valued and understood.
If you find yourself nodding along to these scenarios, then a chatbot might be the perfect solution to elevate your customer experience and propel your business forward. Remember, chatbots are not meant to replace human interaction entirely, but rather to complement it, creating a dynamic and efficient support system for your audience.
How to build a chatbot?
The world of chatbots is no longer exclusive to tech giants. Today, businesses of all sizes can leverage the power of these virtual assistants. Here’s a breakdown of the different approaches you can take to build a chatbot for your business:
DIY Chatbot Platforms: For the tech-savvy entrepreneur, there are user-friendly platforms that allow you to build basic chatbots with a drag-and-drop interface. These platforms often come with pre-built templates and require no coding knowledge. While this is a cost-effective option, the level of customization and functionality might be limited.
Chatbot Development Frameworks: If you have in-house developers or are willing to invest in development costs, chatbot frameworks offer greater flexibility and control. These frameworks provide the building blocks for creating sophisticated chatbots with advanced features like natural language processing and machine learning capabilities. However, this approach requires a strong technical foundation and can be more time-consuming.
Managed Chatbot Services: For businesses seeking a complete solution, partnering with a chatbot development company might be the ideal choice. These companies handle the entire process, from initial consultation and design to development, deployment, and ongoing maintenance. This allows you to leverage their expertise and ensures a high-quality, custom-built chatbot tailored to your specific needs using generative AI and other technologies. While the cost might be higher than DIY options, it can be a wise investment for businesses seeking a robust and reliable chatbot solution.
The best approach for building your chatbot depends on your technical expertise, budget, and desired level of customization. Consider your needs carefully and explore the available options to find the perfect fit for your business. Remember, your chatbot is an extension of your brand, so choose a development method that allows you to create a virtual assistant that reflects your company’s values and personality.
Wrapping up
No matter what kind of business you run, or what type of bot you choose—a simple one, intelligent, or hybrid, it will bring you invaluable chatbot advantages in cost savings, and business process automation, and it gives you a perfect chance to keep in touch with your clients 24/7. Besides, your clients will always be duly assisted and provided with excellent customer support.
If you need to create a chatbot that will cater to all your customer’s needs and will faithfully serve your company’s business objectives, it’s high time you find a reliable partner to help you with this task. Fill in the form, and LITSLINK, an app development company, will provide you with an effective chatbot solution.