Gone were the days when companies would value volume of calls over the quality of customer service they give to their prospects or customers. Now, they are more customer-centric.
More companies are giving importance to customer experience; giving weight more on the quality of calls over the shortest call time.
But with agents spending their valuable time trying to give satisfaction to just one customer, this could leave all the others who might need the same amount of attention unable to reach you.
This is where some companies take advantage of chatbots.
What are chatbots?
Chatbots are computer programs which are made to copy usual human conversations and interactions with the use of artificial intelligence. This chat innovation changes the way people interact with your company through social media or other messaging platforms.
The bots can be programmed and can learn basic syntax and other command triggers. When a user starts to chat or ask about a certain subject, the bot can immediately give a reply.
What bots can learn and unlearn can be very much modified into what your company wants to aim with it.
Do you want it to be a virtual sales person? Or do you want it to be your chat support representative?
No matter what your goals are, it’s important to set a definite direction as to how and why you use chatbots.
Why use chatbots?
Chatbots can ease your call traffic whether inbound or outbound. This can shorten the queue especially for those who just have a simple inquiry or update.
It can also be a good marketing tool for your company and do push notifications for promos, deals, and other fun trivia and facts that could bring in engagement from your customers.
The use of chatbots is actually endless. It’s up to you on how you take advantage of it and use it as a tool to steer your company towards an excellent customer experience.
How to take advantage of chatbots for your company
So how do you take advantage of chatbots?
Since chatbots are programmable, try to find a good identity for it. Give it a name (like Siri) and know how it would respond to when customers use it (like when we say ‘Hi Siri).
Make their programmed interaction more conversational. There’s no fooling your customers that they’re conversing with a bot, but at least try to give it a touch of being human.
Program your bot in such a way that it will bring down the conversation to specifics. Are you selling bags? Teach your bot to ask what size, type, or color do they want – or even ask the customer for a budget range! That way, your customers would find exactly what they need, your bot would look useful to your customer, and they will see that your bot is a good alternative rather than calling you.
It would also be good to update what your bot could respond to from time to time. Learn and analyze through what your customers are often asking that your bot probably isn’t programmed to answer yet. Like people, it should also continue to learn and grow to be able to reach and satisfy more customers.
Should you try it?
The immediate response would be, Of course, you should! But should you really?
If this is something that would benefit your company’s reputation, customer satisfaction, and sales, then it’s no question.
But if you have budget constraints and lack of manpower to help develop your bot, maybe you can save up for it in the future.
For now, you can opt to offer customer support through social media, learn from gathered user data, and use that knowledge and experience towards your goal to soon have a chatbot.
