6 MIN READ

‘Chatbots’ is a buzzword that has been around and drumming up curiosity for many years now. But what are the benefits of chatbots? Now that the world is moving at a rapid pace towards everything digital… chatbots and their benefits are becoming a need more than a curiosity. For instance… did you know 85% of interaction with customers will be without human involvement by 2021? Businesses spend millions on customer service calls each year. But the right chatbot can cut costs and be the ideal customer care solution for your business. Keep reading to discover what the benefits of chatbots are and why we recommend you have one!

Top 6 Benefits of Chatbots:

Let’s dive in! They’re many benefits of chatbots. And in this article, you discover cherry-picked benefits that usually go unmentioned!

Benefit #1: Availability Increases

One of the main features of having chatbots in your customer care environment is that bots can be available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. If you ever considered doing this through a customer service team… your staffing costs would run through the roof! Having a chatbot means that your customers can interact with your brand at any time of the day or night. They can have the means to solve an issue or a problem without having to wait for your operating hours to kick in.

This is particularly useful if your business operates globally. Customers won’t have to make calls. Or wait until strange hours to get in touch with your head office during working hours. The only potential issue with this is: your chatbot would need to be well-functioning! If a bot can’t answer simple customer questions… or solve simple problems, then the value of them being available 24/7 becomes obsolete.

Benefit #2: Customer Interaction Becomes Proactive

Most brands will wait for a customer to contact them to hold a conversation. With chatbots, your customer interaction can move from reactive to proactive. Chatbots can be set up to interact immediately with a visitor on your website or social media pages. They can be timed to start a conversation with the customer on why they’re there and how they can help them.

Having the ability to start a conversation with your customers can mean two things:

• Your brand becomes perceived as a thought leader because of its ability to be one step ahead
• You won’t have to spend time and money on reinitiating contact after a certain period

Gone are the days when brands would wait to be contacted. Now is the time to ensure that your chatbot is getting the ball rolling. Basically, having a chatbot can significantly change your direct response marketing. It can already qualify your lead… Humans don’t have to do that anymore!

Benefit #3: Gaining Customer Insights

The use of a bot allows your business access to hundreds, if not thousands, of conversations between customers and your brand. Using this data can prove beneficial to improving your customer’s experience. Imagine you have this bank of data where you can analyze the questions asked, the issues raised, and how easy it was to solve them. Then you can use this data to program your chatbot to address these recurring problems efficiently!

How does this save you money?

Your call center and customer agents are spending time on the phone or email, answering the same mundane questions repeatedly. Then that’s costing you money. But, if your chatbot can answer these questions and solve the more straightforward issues.. then it will free up the time of your manpower to deal with more complicated matters.

Benefit #4: Streamlining the Customer’s Journey

Also, the data you get from your bot can assist you in streamlining the customer’s journey. How? Well, over some time, you’ll be able to pick up on specific trends. Trends your website visitors and social media fans are showing. See, if they’re leaving a particular page on your website too quickly. Or if they’re not engaging with a specific product on social media… you can use this information to program your chatbot to start a conversation with them at the point before they leave. For example, if a customer is going a page because his questions haven’t entirely been answered. Your chatbot could ask them why they’re leaving and how it can help. If it’s easy to interact, the chatbot may even be able to suggest a different product or service you have that can solve their problem. Thus creating a sale for you.

Benefit #5: Chatbots Improve Sales And Marketing

We know that some factors determine a successful marketing strategy and more sales. But, there are ways in which a chatbot can help you improve these. One of the benefits of a chatbot is that it can increase customer engagement with your brand online. If your chatbot is high-level, it will be able to see the interaction history with a customer.  Think of Interaction history like when they’re logged in.

This data can then be used to personalize your customers’ shopping experience. How? By suggesting further products or services and referencing their purchase history. It can give advice based on their personal preferences. These interactions go a long way in impressing your customer. Also, bots can extend your reach on social media more than you initially thought possible. Your bot can be programmed to start a conversation from the second someone lands on your page. This can mean a few crucial seconds of turning a visitor into a qualified lead or merely allowing them to leave.

Benefit #6: Chatbots Will Cut Costs

You may think that creating a chatbot will cost much more than training a new staff member… or increasing the responsibility of current ones, but alas, this is not true. Did you know, 33% of customers feel most frustrated by being put on hold? And that 33% get fed up by repeating themselves to many customer service agents? It’s predicted that bots create a saving of $8 billion by 2022 for businesses actively using them. It’s inevitable companies want to make a difference in their operational costs. Let alone the level of customer service! Because of this, and more, many companies will want to adopt a chatbot very soon.

Using a chatbot will cut hours in the office by additional staff. They’ll open up access for a global market without having to actively operate those hours. A chatbot will mine and store useful customer data for you at no extra cost. A bot also saves time and money spent on expensive, time-consuming customer care courses and training, all of which provide a high-level service to customers in need. A chatbot can assist in streamlining marketing and sales processes in the long run. Which, in turn, will save you time and money. Especially when it comes to advertising your product or service in the digital world.

Bonus Benefit: Ability To Personalize

One of the most underrated marketing tactics is personalization. 91% of consumers say they would more likely shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations relevant to them. Now, bots can help you create a personalized journey for your site visitors. I.E., a potential customer can be persuaded by small actions like being able to use their first name right through suggesting products that work well with purchases they’ve made previously. A well-programmed chatbot can make relevant recommendations. It analyzes data associated with a specific customer. They can then present a more suitable product or service choices during the customer’s browsing experience. Personalization is a perfect way to streamline your customer’s purchasing experience. Because through how the bot talks to them, you can add features like comparing two products that they can’t choose between. This is how you’ll separate your brand from the rest.

Benefits Of Chatbots: The Future

The benefits of chatbots will continue to grow as the future of marketing evolves in the coming years. There are predictions for what chatbots will be able to do in the near future. And the projections doing the rounds will change the game for brands online even more. Even more, a reason to join the bandwagon that is bots as soon as possible. That said. IF you’re going ahead with the creation of your bot, be sure to always keep tabs on what is happening in the industry. Stay in the know with what services chatbots should be able to offer. When adopting a forward-thinking tech such as chatbots, you’ll want to stay ahead of the game as possible, so you’re not left behind.

Remember, though, a chatbot doesn’t stand as a solitary piece of software for your brand. We always suggest you need to ensure that it integrates with your other marketing software… in the best way possible! Why? Well, this is going to make sure your marketing efforts are streamlined for the most return. Visit this page to see what integrations we currently offer.

---

 

Related Posts