In this day and age, technology has become an integral part of the way we do business. AI chatbots have increased in popularity over the past few years and many businesses are considering investing in this option as part of their customer care commitments.
Chatbots, or as they are sometimes referred to, conversational AI or bots, are software programs that manage to conduct conversations in a natural language. This can take place either by audio or by text.
There are several reasons why you might want to invest in an AI chatbot for your business. Here are a few of them:
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
It’s a known fact nowadays that the ability to see to a customers’ needs promptly and accurately has become key to the way businesses operate. Customers expect to be given precedence over everything, and to get their questions or problems tackled professionally and quickly.
This may be quite demanding for the customer support team, especially if your business is one that operates online around the clock. Chatbots can thus be greatly beneficial in offering timely answers to your customers, and managing to keep them happy with the service provided.
Needles to say, the more satisfied your customers are, the better your reputation is going to be and the more chance of producing sales.
Improved Efficiency
According to a study, chatbots can help your customer support team to focus on the more important or demanding customer queries.
If a human customer care assistant can do this, while the chatbot is dealing with the simpler queries, you will be improving efficiency as well as saving money.
Enhanced Technology
Thanks to improvements in technology, chatbots can practically be as good as a human customer care agent. They can manage to engage and talk with customers thanks to Natural Language Processing methods that allow them to understand what the customer is asking or requesting.
AI bots also learn from experiences, and they can manage to offer a personalised experience to the customer despite the fact that they are not humans. Advanced chatbots can literally manage to understand the customer’s voice as well as sentiment.
Continuous Availability & Efficiency
Having a customer support team available on a 24/7 basis is costly, especially since night shifts tend to be more expensive than daytime shifts. But with chatbots, you can have the same level of service throughout the day and night, and all year round.
Apart from being a cost effective solution, you will also be able to avoid common inefficiencies. Human beings have a natural tendency to get tired at certain times of the day, and so drops in concentration and productivity are to be expected. However, this does not need to be a problem with chatbots as they can operate at maximum efficiency regardless of the time of day.
It’s important to point out that for a human being it is easy to end up getting bored or demotivated, especially when having to do the same or similar tasks over and over again. Moreover, repetitive tasks also tend to increase chances of mistakes.
On the other hand with chatbots similar tasks can be automated, and there is no problem about boredom or mistakes. As a result productivity and efficiency can also be improved.
Different Fields
Chatbots can be used in different areas of an organisation. From customer support to sales, CRM, after-sales and marketing.
All these fields have to do with the customer, thus helping the organisation to enhance its relationship with customers, and further improve their rate of satisfaction.
Language Barriers
Chatbots help you to avoid the problem of trying to find customer support staff who are able to speak fluently in a particular language. This is especially important for firms who deal in international markets.
Reduced Costs
While the initial outlay may seem to be high for some firms, one needs to consider the long term benefits of having chatbots. Over time, when the chatbot system is implemented, it is much quicker and cheaper than it would have been to hire human resources.
According to research, virtual agents can help a business save at least 30% of expenses. Moreover, it has been estimated that by 2022, chatbots will be able to handle some 90% of clients, and in doing so they can help businesses to cut costs by an estimated $8 billion.
Messaging is Appealing
It has been shown that a considerable percentage of customers prefer messaging to calling when they have a query. This has led to messaging applications to become increasingly popular.
Chat is faster and easy to use, and with chatbots a business can cater for this preference of many of its customers.
Modern Appeal
A business that has invested in a fully functional chatbot system also demonstrates that it is able to keep up with changing times by making good use of technological advancements.
Chatbots are a way of showing your customers as well as your competitors that you are staying ahead of the curve and willing to adapt with changing times. This can reflect positively on your image as well as on your reputation.
Monitor Data & Offer Insightful Output
Chatbot systems are highly interactive. They can gather data, and manage to evaluate it. Over time, the feedback, different experiences and interactions that they have with customers will help you to make improvements or changes.
A chatbot is able to inform you why a customer has left your website without buying anything. It can track different behavioural patterns too.
All this data can be very useful to influence your marketing decisions, and enable you to achieve even better results.
Conclusion
As you may see the benefits of investing in an AI chatbot system are numerous and highly appealing. Chatbots can really make your business operations improve, reduce costs, as well as be modern in the way you do things. Contrary to what some may think, chatbots are now so advanced that they can still offer a personalised experience and increased engagement.