Is a chatbot your omnipresent employee?

During our childhood, many of us would spend all day with friends at school, get home, and then spend all night chatting again. Some would pick up the phone and twiddle the line between their fingers. Others would continue conversations using platforms like MSN Messenger and AIM chat.

Eventually, we grew up. Our online form of communication moved to Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and iMessage. As a result, we’ve interacted with conversation software for so long that it’s now ingrained in us.

We are now at a point where we are switched on day and night, so why shouldn't our businesses? In fact, 51% of consumers say a business needs to be available 24/7.¹

Could you keep your customer support switched on 24/7?

This is where chatbots help and it may be more worthwhile than you think.

I,robot - you, customer.

In the past, chat bots were developed with limited intellect. The basic questions could be responded to but on the whole, they pretty much fell below the standard of service you’d need. Fast forward to 2018 and most AI chatbots are embedded with smart technology, such as natural language processing (NLP), that answers quickly but also intelligently. Identifying the source of your customers problem or query and finding the solution that saves them time and respects their patience level.

“Deep learning machines are beginning to differentiate dialects of a language. A machine decides that someone is speaking English and then engages an AI that is learning to tell the differences between dialects. Once the dialect is determined, another AI will step in that specialises in that particular dialect. All of this happens without involvement from a human.”

Bernard Marr | Forbes.com

A delight for the masses

Instant satisfaction is given to your customers when an out-of-hours service is still being provided to them. It shows you’re paying attention to your customers lifestyle demands and offering convenience to their lives.

“The higher levels of satisfaction with online chat are partially due to the efficiency and immediacy of the experience.”²

So by implementing software that is efficient and immediate for your customers, the better the chances are that they will return for more of your offerings. It's what keeps our customers returning to our brands. In fact, in Salesforce' State of Chatbots 2018 research, it was found consumers feel chatbots are 35% better at answering quick questions than applications.

Keeping returning customers delighted will always be a tough task for businesses to maintain but it is far more cost effective to keep an existing customer than it is to find a new one. Chatbots could be your solution to the customer's need for delight.

Time is our greatest asset

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
J.R.R Tolkien

Consider, for a moment, how many extra responsibilities and chores you now juggle. Time is always in short supply for any person, let alone businesses, and our current pace of life is quickening rapidly. So the way we use our time must be smart. We’re an impatient bunch and have gotten used to getting answers quickly.

Chatbots enables your customer to quickly communicate with your brand, even when everyone has gone home. Your business needs to be able to appear constantly present whenever your customer needs you, not just when you turn in for work and switch on.

Connected online and offline communication

During 2017, a typical business handled 976 chats monthly. ³ That’s an extortionate amount of conversations being held between brands and worldwide customers via AI chat.

But not every issue can be solved via chatbot. If the chat doesn’t fully satisfy your their needs, a phone call may be the next port of call.

Chatbots can offer the correct number to call to resolve the situation and either direct the customer to speak to an agent or arrange a call back. Connecting your chatbot to a call tracking solution, you could explore options that transfer insights from the chat to the call agent, to deliver a consistent, informed experience for the customer.

The most surprising data points of the research include that consumers see chatbots as a faster way to connect humans. 34% of all consumers see chatbots helping in finding a human service assistance.

Start a conversation with Infinity today to see how call tracking compliments your chat and web services.

We should point out…

Chatbots are not the only communication tool that’s worth investing in, but the statistics scream that it is a fast and effective tool to properly assist your customers with simple queries after closing time.

“Machine learning is already used by many businesses to enhance the customer experience. Just a couple of examples include online self-service solutions and to create reliable workflows. There are already deep-learning models being used for chatbots, and as deep learning continues to mature, we can expect this to be an area deep learning will be used for many businesses”

Bernard Marr | Forbes.com

References:

[1] - The power of live chat Nicolas Cole - April 2017

[2] - Why use live chat? Pardeep Kullar - 2017

[3] - Customer Service Report LiveChatInc.com