If you are still thinking about things like “Should I introduce a chatbot?” and “In what situations and methods should I use a chatbot?
Chatbots are no longer the latest technology in customer service. Chatbots are already used by customers in every industry for various purposes, from changing hotel reservations to paying bills to finding the right lipstick.
The use of chatbots and conversational AI is expected to continue to grow. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of customer communications will involve new technologies such as machine learning, chatbots, and mobile messaging. It will be used. This is 15% higher than the 2018 result.
Providing a great customer experience with chatbots doesn’t have to be complicated.
With the right tools, it’s possible. But first, you need to understand what chatbots are, how they work, and how they benefit your customers.
- What is a chatbot?
- How chatbots work
- Benefits of chatbots for customer service
- Things to consider when introducing an AI bot
- Modernize your customer service with AI bots
What is a chatbot ?
AI tools programmed to have human-like conversations with customers through scripts or self-learning are used in apps, messaging platforms, social media, chat solutions, etc.
How Does Chatbots Work?
Chatbots, also known as virtual assistants, use predefined rules, natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning to understand and respond to various customer (or employee) inquiries.
When a user asks a question, the chatbot platform will develop an appropriate answer based on its programming.
For example, if a customer buys a pair of running shoes too large and enters into the merchant’s chatbot, “I want a refund,” or “The size doesn’t fit,” the chatbot responds with a return request. It recognizes this and recommends a help centre article about return procedures.
Chatbots can handle text or voice inquiries and work across different languages and channels (mobile apps, web pages, email, social media, messaging platforms, etc.).
So, if your employees are having trouble connecting to your company’s VPN, they can use Slack to ask your company’s chatbot for help.
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According to Gartner, chatbots have limited applicability and, at least for now, are limited to solving specific problems chosen by humans and achieving specific goals set by humans.
Chatbots are most effective when working with structured data. When your customer’s needs are pinpointed, you can respond effectively through simple, iterative communication. On the other hand, ambiguous content that requires creativity and emotional thinking is too complex to be automated, so humans still need to be able to do it.
CB Insights’ report on the spread of chatbots states, “Companies are not getting their hopes too high, but are carefully considering which tasks can be left to chatbots, and are successfully increasing the usability of chatbots.” explained.
The key to using chatbots is to use them in combination with human intelligence and to look for ways to strengthen the human-machine partnership to create better synergies.
Benefits Of Chatbots For Customer Service
According to CB Insights, chatbots can benefit a company’s customer service department by automating time-consuming and expensive workflows, “saving significant time and money.” But it’s not just businesses that help. Here are the benefits of using chatbots for both internal and external users.
Able To Quickly Respond To Customer Inquiries
Customers expect businesses to respond quickly to their inquiries. In fact, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020, more than half of customers cite “long wait times” as the number one factor hindering their customer experience.
Chatbots allow you to automate responses to simple inquiries and resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently. This results in faster first response times and increased customer satisfaction.
Can Provide 24/7 Support
The report also found that over 40% of customers believe the most important thing for a good customer experience is access to 24/7 support in real time.
Customers expect support to be available whenever needed, even when support agents are off-duty. Unlike humans, chatbots don’t need to sleep or eat, so they can respond to customer inquiries while agents take that time off.
Improved Support Agent Experience
Research shows that more motivated reps build stronger relationships with customers. However, just answering the same questions all the time will not increase your motivation. By letting chatbots answer these frequently asked questions, your support team can prioritize complex tasks that require human intervention. This increases efficiency and improves the overall agent experience.
Proactively Meet Customer Needs And Increase Conversion Rates
Proactive support means anticipating customer issues and responding proactively.
Dollar Shave Club, an on-demand shaving products service, has implemented a bot on its website that displays help centre articles with frequently asked questions and answers.
In this way, you can prevent customers from abandoning their purchase by always being available to answer any questions they may have during the purchase process.
55% of shoppers say they’ll leave a purchase if they can’t quickly find an answer to a question. Chatbots can easily improve your conversion rates.
Expand Your Operations Smartly And Increase Work Efficiency
- AI can be of great help in expanding operations. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020, 42% of support leaders expect the number of calls to increase. Still, only 36% say they can increase the number of members. Chatbots are a great tool to fill this gap.
At lifestyle and fitness brand Spartan Race, a small support team uses bots to handle the surge in customer inquiries during races successfully.
Since most races are held on weekends, recruiting more members took a lot of work, so the team turned to Zendesk’s Answer Bot instead.
As a result, we reduced chat interactions by 9.5% and increased chat response time by 3 hours per day.
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