In the coming years, almost all the leading organizations will use chatbots to improvise their customer service and generate good business results for the organization.
Customer engagement is a daunting task as holding the interest of your customer needs you to have a complete understanding of their preferences, dislikes, likes, etc. Chatbots, as we know, has taken over the role of a human customer agent in many organizations by engaging the customer with useful conversations. The majority of the customers are getting accustomed to the service provided by the chatbots and are even preferring it over human service agents. It has become the fastest response channel while communicating with the customers, and as per a report, over 59% of the millennials and 60% of Generation X in the USA had an interaction with the chatbots.
These bots are found to be most effective in scenarios where the requests made by the customer are predictable and well-known.
See also: Recruitment Chatbots Better Engage Today’s Workforce
As per a report by Usabilla, a SaaS enterprise that helps clients for capturing the visual feedback and deploying targeted surveys to increase conversions on the web, emails, and apps, customers are gradually becoming comfortable using chatbots and AI.
Let’s focus on the benefits which one can gain by integrating chatbots in their customer service department:
- With the good implementation, organizations can see 80% of their chat sessions effectively being resolved by a chatbot
- Businesses can see immediate resolutions to the high priority issues
- 24/7 availability
- Cross-promotion of the relevant products or services
- A personalized customer experience
- Providing accurate answers to simple and repeated queries
You can take the example of Amadeus, a leading solution provider for the travel industry, which has been resolving 90% of the customer queries through its agent “Amanda.”
Gap identification
Chatbots help to identify the gaps during the conversation. It finds the patterns during interaction with a customer, which helps to resolve the issues successfully within a few seconds. It can even adjust the flow of conversation while interacting with a customer.
The final result: A more engaged and pleased customer.
Measuring the impact of chatbots
Chatbots are now proving as a valuable tool in understanding the customer. It monitors the duration of the conversation and the answer, which disengaged the customer. As per the review by Harvard Business and InsideSales, a five-minute delay in answering the query can reduce the chances of attracting the lead. A 10-minute delay can reduce the chances of getting effective contact by 400%.
Chatbots eliminates the above issues by providing the service on time. Facebook even released some of the eye-opening data, which proves the value of chatbots:
- Almost 2 billion messages are shared in the two-way communication process between businesses and people.
- A significant 56% of the people would rather prefer messaging than calling customer service
- 53% of the potential customers prefer to shop from businesses to which they can message.
The human element in chatbots
Although customers love faster service by chatbot, a human touch can be an icing on the cake. Bots have been successful agents for answering the basic questions. They are programmed on simple rules and AI logic for mimicking the written speech of a human. Let’s understand how companies deal with balancing the demands of both human touch and digital service:
As customer’s needs and preferences change rapidly and reshape the business structure, almost all the consumers want 24/7 availability of customer service agents. This is highly impossible if handled by a human agent. Chatbots are proving successful in this scenario in providing the right support and service. A hybrid of human and AI can reshape the customer experience, with humans entirely focusing on channeling the speed, efficiency, and reach of AI while the chatbot programmed in providing complete customer satisfaction by resolving their issues on time.
Technology has helped the chatbot in understanding the context of each of the conversations and answering the queries of each of the customers. One should acknowledge that as a human being, we always want to talk to a real person, but the only limitation which arises here is that a real person cannot always be online. Chatbot fills up this space with a human touch. As per the Statista data, 30% of the US-based users found chatbots to be very effective in resolving their issues.
Chatbots and brands
When chatbots are integrated into the process of an organization, one can collect feedback via a conversation with the customer still on the website. As the experience is fresh, one can gather feedback which is precise and accurate.
People who regularly use Twitter would know that one has to meet specific standards to show that they are an active Twitter user. The same way providing quick responses on this platform helps the organization to show that they care for their customers. The Twitter chatbot facilitates the conversation with customers by using direct messages. Some of the brands like Airbnb, Spotify use chatbot on this platform for providing 24/7 customer service. It is ensured that quick replies are offered to the customers, thus resulting in good customer service.
How chatbots improve the process of the organization and enhance the engagement process
While resolving any of the customer’s issues, 33% of the human agent’s time is spent on understanding the inquiry nature, and 25% is spent on finding the right information of the customer. The tech giant IBM estimated that organizations spend almost $1.3 trillion on 265 billion calls made to customer service each year.
So, when a human agent cannot help to provide the right service at the right time, it can prove costly for businesses. Chatbots help businesses in saving on customer service costs by speeding up the response time and answering almost 80% of the routine questions.
The bot technology can also help the organization in cutting down the business costs by $8 billion by the year 2022.
With the right implementation, organizations can be assured of good results:
- Customer satisfaction: Chatbots provide immediate responses and that too on a one-to-one basis. When customers are provided effective guidance, they keep coming back for more.
- Enriched user experience: A chatbot can enhance the user experience as it can handle the emotions of a disgruntled customer. Customers always feel happy when their issues are resolved at the earliest, enhancing the overall experience.
Chatbots and increased engagement via marketing
Chatbots, as one of the emerging technologies, will soon become an integral part of the process in an organization. Let’s take the example of chatbot in a travel industry where customers ask for the travel package, special deal or discount during the festive season, etc. The chatbots can promote different packages to the customers having these queries.
Adobe chatbot is a simple bot that executes straightforward messaging. The bot even acts as a knowledge base where users ask questions related to the product. The common product errors are easily resolved by the chatbot, and users are even guided to the solution, which is based on the specific prompts.
Evernote uses a simple way to engage customers via marketing, which every small business should learn from. The bot acts as one-pager for the concerns of the customers. It also encourages these customers to contact their support team on Twitter. The overview of the one-pager highlights the essential service touchpoints and encourages the marketers to take over the battle.
In the instant gratification era, the service speed is what most of the customers look for. So, while keeping the customers engaged by providing solutions for their issues, chatbots can also help in cross-selling of the service or products of an organization. The more one keeps the customer engaged, the more it increases the profitability of an organization with increased customer satisfaction. Many of the chatbots are using visual content like images and videos to keep the customer interested. Sometimes a character-driven experience had also helped in better engagement with a customer. Chatbots educates, informs, and entertains all-in-one on a single platform. So, any organization having an account on a social media platform should ensure that its potential customer has a useful conversation with the chatbot.
Conclusion
Customer engagement is the key to success for any business venture. If you cannot maintain the flow of communication, then customers might lose interest in your brand. With a competitive market scenario, an organization cannot afford to lose a customer only because they cannot keep the customer engaged.
Chatbots are the real savior, which molds the chatting process with the customer as per the previous interactions. A survey by CITE research even showed that 75% of people feel convenient while using chatbots.
This only proves that in the coming years, almost all the leading organizations will be using chatbots to improvise their customer service and generate good business results for the organization.
