6 Reasons to Use Chatbots
How satisfying would it be to have a conversational partner online? This is one of the impressive functions of chatbots. We live in an era where people love to engage in meaningful conversations, which is one of the reasons why social media apps are thriving. Businesses with a powerful online presence also need to embrace the trend of creating an interesting online persona for their brand. This persona must be able to engage in meaningful conversations with the target audience of the brand.
With the emergence of chatbots – a form of artificial intelligence, brands can take their online presence to a new level. Using either audio or text, these chatbots have the capacity to carry out meaningful conversations online like humans.
With chatbots, it is almost impossible to tell if one is chatting with a human or robot. The reason for this is that these chatbots are built to preempt all possible questions that the target audience might have about the brand and its products or services, and provide relevant answers to these questions in time. Brands that are conscious about building a great online business with impeccable customer service should consider integrating chatbots in their website, social media and email facilities.
If you are seeking to transform your customer services facility using chatbot, it would be wise to use the services of a digital marketing agency. They will help to effectively integrate chatbot across multiple communication channels. Still considering whether you should invest in chatbots? Here are six reasons you should be using a chatbot to support your brand.
1. Saves time
Time is money and it should be treated as such. With chatbots, brands can cut back on time spent conversing with each customer online. This is particularly the case when trying to walk customers through the benefits of a product or service in order to make sales. Chatbots are built to preempt possible questions that their target audience might have, so it makes it a lot easier to respond to questions with very detailed information, in time.
Businesses also receive the same repeated questions from new and existing customers alike. This is why many companies create their frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) to enable others who might have the same questions to receive faster answers. As a step up from this, businesses can provide a personalized experience to every customer online by allowing them to ask these repeated questions and using chatbots to provide customers with an instant answer built within a conversation.
2. Builds leverage over competitors
There is always another brand that your customers and prospects would always consider before or after yours. Brands that are conscious about competition in the shared target market will always be on the lookout for any opportunity to create leverage over their competitors. That is how smart brands outshine their competitors. Chatbots is still very new and not a lot of brands are exploring its amazing benefits. Therefore integrating chatbot will enable a business to stand out amongst the competition. It also allows a business to understand which aspects of the brand require more focus.
3. Brands can cut back on expenses
Brands that invest a lot in software, staffing and services to build their customer relationships can cut back on expenses budgeted to finance this aspect of the business. Businesses can take advantage of the fact that people enjoy engaging in meaningful conversations online. Businesses can do this by building a highly functional website and integrating a chatbot for it. It helps to always encourage visitors to chat with the brand online by making a chat button pop up somewhere on the website to inform visitors that you are available to answer any questions that they might have.
Build a special chatbot for social media channels also; this really goes a long way especially if the brand has a very energetic and engaging following online. Your chats but will always be ready to answer questions that visitors or followers might have. Note that this readiness is at any time of the day or week – new and existing customers will have someone to talk to. This is far more cost-effective than operating a 24/7 shift for staff and constantly paying out salaries.
4. Delivers more sales while “sleeping.”
Banks can proudly say they run a 24/7 service thanks to ATMs (Automated Teller Machines). They can provide that service and make money all through the day. Chatbots can also do the same for any brand. It is impossible to predict when someone would decide to make a purchase – that is why brands need to go beyond operating their online business like a physical store (that opens and closes at a certain times and days). Companies must be available 24/7 without breaking the bank to create such services.
5. Gives information about existing customers
People buy based on trust! Indeed companies may play the trick of tapping the customer’s emotional button to push them to buy, but even at that, customers still need to know that they are buying from a trustworthy brand. And how better to build trust than by first nurturing a relationship with a prospective buyer? Chatbots makes it easy for brands to kick start a relationship with someone who is interested in what the brand offers. This is because of the conversational tone with which these robots are built.
Over time, that person can decide to make a purchase if satisfied with the information received from their chats. Taking things further, brands can use chatbots to learn more about their new and existing customer base. These conversations, if properly analyzed, can be a goldmine of data and resources. Businesses can use this information to improve their services, understand the customer better and manipulate conversations to potentially generate more sales.
6. Improve user experience on a brand’s website
Chatbots are increasingly useful for businesses that want to convert the high traffic they get on their website to sales. This is also true for businesses seeking to reduce bounce rate on specific pages on their website. Here, chatbots can be used to kick off conversions with visitors looking at those sensitive parts on their website. If used effectively chatbots could improve the overall experience and create more sales.