Chatbots – automated conversation programmes – are the talk of the town. You have perhaps noticed that several companies have set up their chatbots. Now you have a burning question in your mind – “do I need a chatbot?”
Chatbots can certainly make customer service quicker, modern and efficient. However, they also call for a good amount of maintenance. But they are extremely popular, look uber cool on a website and they are an efficient way to boost your customer service.
How to Tell if Your Business Needs a Chatbot?
Ask the following questions to determine whether your business needs a chatbot:
- Will it add value to your business? Would a live chat be a better option instead?
- Is a chatbot the right communication channel for your target audience?
- Do you have in place a messaging strategy or do you get the same questions repeatedly from customers and prospects?
- Do you have the resources on hand to set up a chatbot and monitor its performance?
- If you are a high-profile business, will a chatbot make your business look cheap?
- Is your team to provide back up to handle complex questions/issues?
What Can Chatbots Do?
A chatbot isn’t just a snazzy addition to your website. It can bring a range of benefits and add excellent value to your business when done right.
Let’s take a look at some of the top reasons why your business should invest in a chatbot.
Chatbots can Automate Boring Tasks
How often did you miss converting a prospect into a customer because they couldn’t find someone to help answer their questions?
More importantly, how often did you realise that those questions have already been answered in your FAQ section?
Nothing could be more frustrating than that!
However, when you have a chatbot, you will have answers to all those basic questions in one place. Chatbots can answer those questions easily, efficiently and quickly.
Offer Better Service with Chatbots
People want help but more often than not, they do not want to physically talk to someone.
And that’s a puzzle that you must solve!
However, there’s no denying that people love to chat.
A study by Servion predicts that by AI will handle 95% of all customer interactions by 2025.
That leaves you with two options:
- Option 1 – Hire many customer service agents
- Option 2 – Invest in a chatbot system to handle most of the work and hire a skeleton crew of agents to take care of complex queries/issues.
We’d highly recommend option 2, especially because a chatbot will stay active 24/7, and it will perhaps have an answer to most of the frequently asked questions.
Scale Your Business Effectively
A chatbot is an automate programme that enables you to handle multiple customer queries at the same time. If your current customer care solution is completely handled by human agents, you are certainly limited to handling only a certain number of queries at a time. After all, human agents can only answer one or two customers at a time.
Another point to note is that while chatbots handle multiple questions at a time, they can offer a certain level of personalisation that’s difficult to match even if you have a huge team of customer care executives.
This gives chatbots an edge as they can answer multiple customers at the same time whilst offering a personalised service.
When you complement your human agents with a chatbot, you can scale your operations easily without worrying about the rising number of calls and chats.
Chatbots Help Build Trust
Chatbots can build trust and credibility in your brand.
If the chatbot is the first interaction your prospects have with your business, you can use this opportunity to educate your prospects about your products and how you can solve their pain points.
Bots can help create a positive first impression, resulting in a strong bond between your brand and the consumer.
Time Efficient and Cost-Effective
Once you have visitors landing your website, it’s important to keep them engaged. With a well-designed chatbot, you can engage visitors easily and quickly. This can further help convert prospects into customers.
And think about all the money you will save by reducing your human customer care team. Money that you could instead use to promote your business and generate more traffic!
Understand Your Customers Better
Finally, chatbots can go a long way in helping you learn from your visitors and customers.
Most chatbots follow a decision tree structure. A question unfolds several possible answers; the customers choose their answers and continue.
The best part about chatbots is that they can store all that information (the answers) and save it so it could be put to better use later.
Thereby, learning something about your consumers.
Convert Visitors into Customers
Let’s say a visitor lands on your website, explores the different pages and is ready to take the next step. Perhaps he has a question? Maybe he wants a quote?
What happens if the only way to reach your business is by filling out a contact form? He has to fill in the form, wait patiently for a response.
Given that lead quality deteriorates with time, swift replies and action are crucial.
With a chatbot, your visitors can easily and quickly find the answers they are looking for, turning them into warm leads. Chatbots can answer quickly, minimising the possibility of misplacing or losing leads.
Chatbots can schedule appointments and meetings instantly, route potential customers to your sales team or even convert visitors into customers by helping them choose a product.
What’s more, chatbots can effectively handle the qualification process on your behalf. By collecting data from the customer’s visit, chatbots can distinguish qualified leads from unqualified leads. This will dramatically reduce deadend leads, saving you time, effort and money.
Conclusion
With so many things to offer, chatbots are a wonderful investment. They are the future! So now is the time to prepare for the future. Need help setting up a chatbot for your website?
Schedule a free consultation to discuss your project!