Bot Revolution: Why Chatbots Are the Future Now

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Originally Posted On: Is a chatbot right for you?—Find out here! | PW Media

Chatbots are becoming a favorite way for businesses to engage with customers quickly. Should your company make the jump and invest in a chatbot?

As the business world grows increasingly digital, brands are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to make a splash with customers. One way that companies are offering unique value through their brand is with intelligent and engaging chatbots.

You’ve likely encountered chatbots at some point in your online wanderings. Varying in their design and implementation, chatbots can deliver you the weather forecast each morning in smart and humorous ways (R.I.P. Poncho the Weather Cat) or quickly provide health information to medical professionals and the public. Notably, chatbots offer a quick and easy way to stay in constant contact with consumers, even after regular business hours.

While chatbots have become the buzz of branding trends lately, they have actually been around for many decades.

So what made these bots suddenly so popular? One reason may be the growing public use of messenger applications. Since 2016, messenger apps have surpassed social media in terms of users. Now people have become more reliant on these applications to communicate with each other than any other medium.

As messenger application use rises, so do user expectations for communicating with brands through these same channels. Innovative businesses have noticed this desire from their customers and quickly began developing and launching their own chatbots to provide faster and better customer service to users.

In short, maybe. While the versatility of a chatbot can make it an excellent fit for most businesses, there are factors you should consider when deciding if it will fit your business needs. We will dive into the benefits of utilizing a chatbot, as well as mention particular challenges and risks below. Knowing the pros and cons of using a chatbot can help manage expectations if you add one to your customer service experience.

Chatbots can be most helpful in streamlining and automating customer service processes to improve your bottom line. The popularity of these bots has led to many companies rushing to take advantage of the various benefits they provide.

• Help Increase Conversion Rates
  A chatbot uses algorithmic AI to estimate the exact right time to engage with a customer: when they’re on your website. By delivering relevant information and helpful suggestions, chatbots can guide customers to the next sales funnel step.
• Around the Clock Availability
  While your staff may need to sleep at night, chatbots never rest. Chatbots are available 24/7 to answer inquiries from customers with no competing demands for their attention and time, allowing them to entirely focus on each customer’s needs — day or night.
• Immediate Response Time
  Responsiveness and consistency is the key to a happy customer. Being put on hold or filling out a form only to wait for a return call or email can be detrimental for a customer looking for quick answers during the sales process.Similarly, having to sift through a website that you’re not familiar with to find an answer to a basic question can be frustrating. Chatbots deliver quick and direct communication with users for a positive and successful customer service experience.
• Saves Time and Money
  Automating any repetitive, predictable process — such as answering simple or frequently asked questions — can save hours of human labor in terms of energy and cost. Eliminating mundane, tedious tasks allows businesses to allocate resources toward more pressing needs and challenges.
• Manages Any Request Volume
  Unlike humans, chatbots can handle multiple customers at once, never missing a beat or having to put someone on hold. This can help reduce wait times and increase customer satisfaction.
• Increases Engagement with Your Website
  A chatbot can be the deciding factor for a customer to remain engaged with your business website, make that phone call, purchase your product, or come into your business. Think of it like another touchpoint to keep the customer browsing your website and learning more about your business. The longer the engagement on your website, the more likely it can lead to a conversion, whether it’s done in or outside of the chatbot itself.
• Plays to Communication Preference
  An increasing number of consumers prefer digital communication methods over traditional phone calls. Some people just don’t like engaging over the phone or even in person, but a digital conversation method bridges the gap. Plus, phone calls can create an interruption to a potential customer’s day. With a chatbot feature, you can capture their attention by limiting the potential barriers that prevent connecting with your business.

The benefits seem great, right? However, since chatbots are part of the relationship-building process with clients, using them can sometimes be risky. It all depends on how they’re built and implemented. Here are some common concerns associated with chatbot implementation:

• Unsophisticated Chatbots Can Make You Lose Business — Fast
  A chatbot’s “smarts” are paramount to its success or failure within a business. If a chatbot has such a set of limited responses that customers quickly grow frustrated with and leave the conversation, you could lose a sale — and customers may be less likely to return.

• A (Real) Human Touch May Still Be Needed
  Not everyone is ready to talk to a machine, no matter how helpful, cute, or friendly. Sometimes nothing beats having a human being on the other end of a conversation to build the trust and confidence needed for customer satisfaction and loyalty. Having empathy, understanding context, and just being, well, human, is still often necessary at some point within the customer service process.

• Data Storage Security Should Not Be Taken Lightly
  Giving personal and sometimes sensitive information to a chatbot can be risky for customers. Not all chatbots have suitable security measures in place based on what kind of data they are collecting. Using encryption and having a transparent process for customer data handling and storage is key to protecting your business and customers.

Chatbots can help you to streamline and automate the customer acquisition process and further improve your bottom line. If the pros outweigh any of the potential cons for you, then a chatbot feature could be a great decision for your business.

If you are interested in bringing a chatbot into your digital marketing solution, consider PW Media’s chatbot — MyTechBot — that is now available for use at a special introductory rate.