The chatbot technology continues to evolve into more humanly over time and this is imploring several businesses today to discover what these chatbots have to offer and how to achieve newer milestones using them. Business Insider recently stated that, “80% of businesses will be using AI chatbots by 2020. Businesses from all over the world spent nearly $1.3 trillion/year to serve around 265 Billion of customer service requests.”
The above statement from Business Insider clearly hints business to develop and integrate chatbot technologyto offer faster and efficient customer service. However, the immediate obvious question arises here–“How businesses can improve their customer service operations using chatbots?”
To find out, let’sdig a little deeper.
Customers, in today’s digital age, are smart and expect businesses to be adept during the communication process. Here’s where businesses must act smarter too and enhance their sales and customer loyalty by improving their overall customer’s experience.
How?
By integrating AI-powered chatbots within their daily customer service operations. Gartner Inc. predicts that by 2020, a customer will manage 85 per cent of the relationship with a business without interacting with humans and hence, the increased demand and adoption of self-help service.
Chatbots acts as self-help tools and improve communications. Businesses/brands can use chatbots to improve their customer’s experience, to generate more sales, and build a greater rapport with their customers. Chatbots enables customers to easily interact with your brand through stimulated conversations.
Reasons and benefits on how chatbots help businesses improve their customer service
Quicker Response
Businesses often face the irk of their customers over a delayed resolution. Few customers are even deprived from a reply, let alone an automated email response.Customers may prefer to wait for the final resolution, but they look for an immediate response to their query. The digital-age customers are self-sufficient to handle challenges on their own as long as they have the access. When they lose access, that is when they may require assistance from a live chat agent.
In such cases, chatbots will instantly receive and respond to customer’s query as programmed and helps customer choose varied options like talking to a live agent or get instant resolutions like setting up their four-digit pin, etc. Such measures will quickly resolve the customer query and lighten the burden of incoming messages for the live chat agents.
Drive Sales
Chatbots are the future of brand engagement. Hence, businesses must utilize the services of chatbots by programming them intelligently. For instance, on your website’s messenger app, a chatbot can initiate a conversation to promote an offer or update your customers about your latest products. In the conversation, the chatbot may provide product information, discount coupons/coupon codes, or just about anything concerning a specific product.
Customers can learn about a new product or its interesting offers through chatbots which will stimulate them to click through to your checkout page. Thus, integrating such features over chatbots will engage the customers to proceed to the bottom of your sales funnel faster.
Save Costs
One single chatbot can perform the task of several customer service agents much faster and efficiently. Time and again, chatbots have proven to be cost-effective customer service solutions for brands irrespective of their business size or budget. Though chatbots may not completely overhaul customer service agents, but it can surely reduce costs for businesses by greater margin, since most of the simpler tasks are resolved with the help of chatbot. Thus, businesses may avoid employing several customer service representatives to manage or resolve customers’ primary queries.
In its new report titled, “Chatbots: Retail, eCommerce, Banking & Healthcare 2017-2022”, Juniper research estimates that chatbots will save businesses over $8 billion per year by 2022, a huge increase compared to the $20 million expected in 2017.
Resolve Simpler Tasks & Offer 24/7 Service
Complex questions that may need serious analysis are not the thing for chatbots. Brands must program their chatbots effectively so that they can resolve simpler tasks like a password reset or security pinchanges,and businesses have the privilege touse chatbots to engage customers with new offers. Additionally, in the unlikely event of the customer service representative absence, chatbots fill in and offer 24/7 customer service. Especially, for customers calling/reaching customer service during odd hours. In this way, businesses can reduce their customer’s waiting time and wrap up simpler tasks faster and more efficiently.
Reduce Human Error & Retain Customers
Oftentimes, humans may tend to forget to provide information but a programmed chatbot will not. Because, chatbots are designed to have access to enormous information that enables them to answer your customer’s questions accurately. Another primary reason to use chatbots is that it enables businesses to focus on resolving issues that are complex and time consuming while assign the simpler tasks for chatbots to resolve. This helps businesses save time and turn more productive. Moreover, chatbots can afford to keep your customers engaged, offer them the best services, and most importantly, chatbots always provides an option to connect to a real person when ever asked thus helps in retaining unsatisfied customers.
Final Thoughts
Businesses must understand that by just integrating chatbots alone won’t improve customer services or drive sales, but the real secret lies in developing an intelligent chatbot. It is always recommended to build AI-powered chatbots with assistance from a leading chatbot development company. AI-powered chatbots have the power to transform the way your brands interact with your customers and offer them a reliable way to connect with your business. For instance, give a face/avatar or a cheeky name to your bot. Throw is some fun-filled emoji’s that evoke a human touch to your chatbot.
Moreover, the best part is;a business doesn’t necessarily be afortune 500 company orenjoy a huge network as Facebook to start using AI-powered chatbots. With the ever-advancement of AI and its easy access at hand, even the small-sized business can apply chatbots to create engagement, drive sales and provide an improved customer service to their esteemed customers.