“Hello, How can I assist you?”
The majority of websites these days have a little bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, ready to communicate with visitors. I’m sure many of us automatically exit it without a second thought, while only a select few take the extra time to interact with the bubble. Those little bubbles are better known as “chatbots,” and they’ve been around for some time now!
In this article, we will highlight what chatbots are and the benefits of using them to enhance customer experience.
What are chatbots?
The majority of us have interacted with chatbots in some form or another while navigating the digital world. Let's lean into the question, “What are Chatbots”? You won’t be disappointed!
Chatbots are automated computer programs created to converse with visitors once they arrive on your website. Simply put, they are often used for customer service. Most of us, in some capacity, have interacted with chatbots to get our FAQs answered directly. However, companies have utilized the chatbot capabilities for more than just customer service, diving into expanding on marketing and sales.
Chatbots have become so common that the digital marketing industry, as we now know it, relies on them to help with an expanding range of services like customer satisfaction, proactive engagement, and FAQs. AI (artificial intelligence) has also been rapidly changing how customers interact with companies. It is safe to say, chatbots are the way of the future and are here to stay!
Source: Shutterstock
Benefits of Chatbots for Businesses
As the chatbot industry is taking over the game, there are endless possibilities on how we can utilize them to their fullest potential. Let's discuss some of the benefits of using a chatbot to improve customer attention for your business.
Improved Customer Support
The obvious benefit for businesses to use chatbots is their interactive customer support. Being able to respond to and interact with customers or potential customers is crucial. That key element of “attention” is detailed by using a chatbot to communicate with people wherever they are, whenever they are trying to reach you.
Improved support is generally extended over a 24-hour period and provides users with quick responses. People want their questions answered quickly, and with a chatbot, they can have that or be directed to FAQs if need be.
Increase Customer Engagement
Another benefit of chatbots is increased customer engagement. You want to be able to speak with potential customers and make them want to be there. The upside of having a real-time response is pivotal to a business. Adding a personal touch to the conversation is another way that chatbots have garnered influence on engagement.
According to a Tidio survey in 2023, analyzing chatbots shows that “62% of consumers would rather talk to a chatbot than a human agent”. Eventually, it will become inevitable that we will all interact with a chatbot at some point in our lives.
Saves Money and Time
In this day and age, everyone is busy. Most of the time, we do not want to spend hours on end researching a particular brand when we can just get the information we need from a chatbot. From a business perspective, employees do not have the time to go through every interaction to speak with someone.
An article written by Juniper Research states that “By 2023, chatbots are expected to save businesses up to 2.5 billion hours of work”. That is a high number, especially when we think about the efficiency with which businesses can utilize chatbots to save themselves time and money. With millions of visitors interacting with your website every day, a chatbot can interact with all of them.
Source: Shutterstock
How Can Chatbots Improve Customer Experience?
Now that we’ve covered the benefits of using a chatbot, let's dive into how it can help improve the customer experience.
Getting a response from customer service representatives these days is hard. On the other hand, we know that customer experience is pivotal to a business. Some of the main ways to improve customer experience include customer information collection, convenience, and ensuring a smoother online journey. Let’s take a closer look at these three elements.
Customer Feedback
Customer information collection is vital for feedback. Businesses need to understand their diverse audiences and personas. Having a sense of what customers want to buy, their interests, and how they feel about the support is crucial. Ensuring this information is easily accessible can help to implement actionable items like pricing, improved customer service, and improved product specifications. The more questions are asked, the more answers you can provide!
Customer Convenience
Convenience is essential to a business. If you think about it, how quickly do you turn away from a website or service when it can’t provide you with what you need? We all do it!
Chatbots have made an impact in improving the service of convenience for customers so that they get what they need quickly and easily and get rid of back-and-forth jargon, providing FAQs, contact information, and other time-consuming requests.
In today's society, the majority of the world is on the internet, which means businesses have a golden opportunity to implement chatbots for this reason. According to Userlike, “68% of users enjoy the speed at which chatbots answer”. The results speak for themselves, as a majority of respondents find it convenient to interact with chatbots.
Smoother Customer Journey
Lastly, a smoother customer journey is what any business should be striving towards. The customer's journey should not be hard. Don’t let your customers be misled or misunderstood. Chatbots can change the customer journey in a positive way. For example, a chatbot influences the beginning and end stages of the user experience journey. In the beginning, visitors will ask a chatbot a series of questions to “get to know the service or product,” and the end of the journey concludes with “assessment complete and a decision has been made.”
The smoother the journey, the easier a customer can interact with your company. This will likely to lead to a successful relationship in the future.
Source: Shuttertstock
Key Takeaways
Chatbots in the digital world are truly a remarkable piece of the pie in customer satisfaction. We may think the bubble on the webpage is not useful, but statistics prove otherwise. A new digital world is coming in regards to customer service and businesses need to get on the wave right now regarding chatbot services.
As mentioned above, there are many benefits for businesses to use chatbots, but key takeaways are: improved customer support, increased customer engagement, and saving time and money.
To summarize, chatbots improve customer experiences by collecting customer feedback, offering convenience, and creating a smoother journey for customer interaction. Chatbots are on their way to being a lasting, dominant force for the future of businesses.
If you have any questions about digital marketing, don’t hesitate to connect with TechWyse today! For more information, call (416)-410-7090 or contact us here.
