With everyone working on the move, instant messaging platforms such as Slack, WhatsApp, Skype, and Facebook can help with conversations about product enquiries, reducing thus costs for businesses who don’t have to hire as much support staff as they used to. The opportunity to employ messaging apps has led to the development of chatbots which can be integrated with them and help solve various tasks within an organization.
It is estimated that by the end of 2020, chatbots will be in use in over 85% of customer service interactions, helping business owners to save more time and efforts spent in responding to hundreds of enquiries on a daily basis. The bots will also be responsible for data collection of the customers’ shopping trends, scheduling meetings and appointments, as well as setting reminders of essential duties.
What Is A Chatbot?
A chatbot is a computer software that is designed to imitate and simulate real-time human conversations on messaging platforms and websites. They can help your business to easily communicate with customers through instant replies at any time of the day or night.
While some people are criticizing chatbots for being expensive and untrustworthy, others believe that, in the foreseeable future, they could become reliable assistants that can even help doctors and engineers to make quick yet accurate decisions by using analyzed information from their database. The retail giant Neiman Marcus is currently experimenting with a Facebook Messenger chatbot that will help online customers by answering simple questions, while other brands such as Nordstrom and Sephora already have access to such technology.
Soon, chatbots are set to use self-learning algorithm that will enable them to adapt to different circumstances at any given time, without having to refer to their human administrator. It will be more of a norm to use a chatbot, such as WeChat, to automatically call for a taxi, book flights, and send custom messages.
Why Do You Need To Employ Chatbots In Your Business?
First of all, every business across the world should be set to implement chatbots in their marketing and managerial activities. Being left out of this rapidly increasing trend will only mean the loss of customers and clients as they move to seek better services.
By using chatbots on social media platforms, businesses can quickly increase user engagement through maximizing customers interaction with their brand, therefore, building up a loyal and robust relationship.
Thus said, the following list contains some of the reasons why you need to develop a chatbot for your business.
Affordability – Chatbots are affordable in the long run compared to a team of human resources, as they only need to be developed once unlike humans whom you have to pay salaries every month.
Self-learning abilities – Recently, chatbots began being developed to use a self-learning algorithm which enables them to pick up human cues and reactions. These self-learning capabilities will also make it easy for the bots to record, analyze, and store consumers’ behavior data, which in turn help the business to create better marketing strategies.
Improves customer-brand relationships – Who wants to spend hours waiting for a response? Or for an issue to be resolved? Definitely not me. Customers have almost similar questions and shopping trends. These trends usually predict the shopper’s single desires and shopping characteristics. By using chatbots, business owners can design responses that will assist the customer in giving recommendations, suggestions, or shopping advice. This dramatically improves the customers’ online shopping experience.
For instance, you can create a bot that first inquires customer about what she likes before providing a list of related products suited to her taste. Even better, self-learning chatbots record the behavior and shopping patterns of individuals, thus being able to predict which item a customer may need.
Chatbots help to get rid of repetitive tasks – As much as repetitive tasks make you an expert on the particular subject, you eventually wear out due to boredom and exhaustion. The use of chatbots can now get rid of these routine-scheduled tasks by simultaneously processing multiple customer requests and applying the same concept across similar requests.
The tremendous processing speed of users request helps businesses to gain customers’ loyalty.
Want To Create A Chatbot? Here’s What You Need To Know
Advanced chatbots such as Siri and Alexa are not easy to create. From defining the right business language that the bot will use to developing the algorithm, chatbots must be personalized as per the brand’s customers expressions, existing advertising campaigns, political situations, and the availability of new products.
The following are must-haves for a successful bot campaign strategy.
A well-defined purpose of the bot – What do you want to accomplish by using the chatbot? This may seem like an unnecessary step since you can use the chatbot for virtually anything related to your business. However, nailing down to a specific set of goals helps to create a more specialized bot.
Your bot’s voice and personality – If you want a successful bot that is loved by everyone, then a close-to-human friendly voice and personality are a must. The personality gives the customer something that they can relate to. Also, an easy to remember bot name ensures loyalty and earns your business free recommendations.
Deciding on the best platform where your customers hang out the most – Be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your website, customers will send messages using the platform they prefer, and since demographics differ across the different platforms, Facebook inquiries may be different from those on your Twitter page. The best platform for the bot is the one that receives more enquiries.
Bottom Line: What Should You Do?
Despite being at its early and expensive stages, the future of chatbots is super green. Already, more business owners have started to incorporate the bots to their businesses, and they are just beginning to understand the vast benefits chatbots can add to the value of customer services.
Start now! Invest in a chatbot system today and stay ahead of your competitors in the future.
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