5 Things Your Business Can Expect To Get From A Chatbot – Chloe Bennet
Customer service has become a vital component of so many businesses these days. Where in the past it was simply a question of dealing with problems or concerns on a face to face basis, in the 21st century so many storefronts are being overtaken by their digital equivalents, with enormous amounts of shopping happening over the internet.
Back then it was a matter of finding the most presentable, nicely-spoken and well-mannered employees to handle in-store customer issues, now there is a requirement for the equivalent internet-based roles to be filled, and it can get pretty complicated.
Customer service online not only empowers customers to be more demanding in their interactions (since they aren’t face-to-face with another human being), it also requires more creative solutions and ought to be doubled down on as a marketing opportunity as well.
Putting the time and resources into training digital customer service representatives is costly in many ways, and presenting solutions to the customers’ demand is expected to be done quickly.
Here enters the chatbot – a prime solution to the problem of manpower, demand and customer relations. Let’s take a look at five things a chatbot will bring to your business.
#1. Round The Clock, Non-Stop Service
There are complicated ways of ensuring that human customer service representatives are available to your customers all night long. They usually involve outsourcing and division of workload, meaning that you have customer service representatives providing support from a country where it’s day time when it is already night for you. This is complex and potentially inconsistent.
Chatbots, on the other hand, never stop. No matter if a customer is browsing to make a purchase at 4 am, they will always have ‘someone’ they can talk to with their questions.
Though it is ironic, this makes your customer feel more valued and much more catered for, as they perceive your company as being unique in the ability to meet their needs. This is one of the clearest advantages of using a chatbot as opposed to a real, sleepy, human being.
#2. Data Collection And Management
When a registered customer on your online store starts a chat with a query about a product or questions about your store as a whole, really what they are doing is feeding you data.
Data is a vital part of modern industry. It’s what sets apart companies that are able to think for the future from ones that are resting easy. It is vital that customer service is able to collect complete sets of data, on hours of operation, customer preference, demand, enquiries, sales rate and all of the rest of it.
Chatbots will far more efficiently store data for future analysis and use. A real customer service rep will most times either require further training or won’t have the requisite skills to identify useful information in the context of a sales conversation with a potential customer.
#3. Saves Money And Time
This is perhaps the most obvious of all of the benefits of engaging a chatbot to provide support to customers. Go to any company that has a physical storefront and talk to the owner about customer service.
They’ll explain to you that they have employees hired specifically for it, who are then trained across a period of time in how to handle customer service situations, when the majority of their job is dealing with simple requests. It’s clunky, expensive and ultimately inefficient.
However, a chatbot, whilst there will be a set-up fee naturally, offers you a non-stop customer service, with limitless hours without costing you further money. What’s more, the setup process is far simpler and far cheaper for your company. It doesn’t take a genius to see why having a chatbot is a no brainer for most companies who are looking to be competitive.
#4. Digital Solution For A Digital World
Chatbots are distinctly future facing. They represent a small cog in the giant machine that is overhauling industries – the Artificial Intelligence machine.
AI and all forms of automation are not only important as they represent a company that is up to date with trends, they are also indicative from a customer’s perspective, of a company which is fully optimized and that has invested in their customer service element. Despite the comparative ease of operation, chatbot use doesn’t come across as lazy, rather it comes across as invested and smart.
The best chatbots reinforce those sentiments with real attention to the details, like smartphone optimization or even, in a few cases, options for virtual reality interactions between customer and assistant. It all amounts to a big contribution to a positive, modern and effective image of your brand in the eyes of a customer.
“Company perception in the modern era is half of the battle. It can be an uphill struggle for some companies, but the war is often won or lost in the details. Things like chatbots show vitality, something which customers are always happy to discover” writes Eleanor Pratt, marketing blogger at Boom Essays and UK Writings.
#5. Chatbots Are Better At Marketing
It would be highly implausible for you to get a real-life customer service representative to ingest your entire catalogue and understand in a complex, intuitive and immediate sense the links between all of the different items.
A chatbot can be programmed to do just that. When a customer has a question about a barbecue they want to purchase, a chatbot can instantly recognize the opportunity for a barbecue utensils sale and can even apply a unique discount to encourage that sale. Fast, efficient marketing, for maximum sales results.
Conclusion
When you step back and look at all of the benefits of chatbots, you start to wonder why not everyone has them. Chatbots are an opportunity to get involved with some technology which could lead to the positive changes in the company that will see customers happy, sales going up and costs plummeting.
