Unannounced and in plain sight, the use of chatbots has exploded in the past few years.
A chatbot is just a scripted way of interacting with your website. Why the sudden increase in their usage? And how can you get started with them?
What are chatbots?
In the past, chatbots were primarily used for customer service and sales.
Existing chatbots are customised to perform many tasks, such as answering questions, providing information and assisting with purchases.
But with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), they can now perform much more complex tasks like providing information on a wide range of topics and even making recommendations to customers.
Chatbots can also be used to answer questions about products, services or other items you sell in your store.
Types of chatbots
1) One of the most popular types of chatbots is a virtual assistant, which can have a custom or general name.
Good example of this is Siri, Amazon Alexa and Cortana. These virtual assistants have different personalities and provide other services. For example, if you ask Siri to tell you a joke, she will say it in her way and then give you an answer to your search query. With Amazon Alexa, it’s possible to order things from Amazon without having to go through its website or app on your smartphone; instead, you can talk with her via voice commands like “Alexa, order me an iPhone” (if she doesn’t know what an iPhone is she will educate herself by looking up information about the phone).
2) Customer service chatbot:
This chatbot is designed to help customers with issues with your product or service. The chatbot can answer questions about what you offer, how much it costs, how to place an order, etc. They can also respond to negative feedback by apologising and working toward resolving any problems that were brought up.
3)Product recommendation chatbot:
This bot provides recommendations based on what you’re looking at. For example, if you’re looking at a pair of shoes in an online store’s catalogue or webpage, the bot will recommend other items from their inventory that might go well with what you’re already interested in buying.
4) Social media marketing chatbot:
Social media marketing bots are explicitly designed for posting content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. These channels allow brands to connect quickly with their customers and respond to questions and requests using artificial intelligence technology.
You also need to decide what personality your chatbot will have.
It can be male or female. You can use a voice and have a name, face, logo and photo.
You’ll also need to make an initial decision on how much you want your chatbot to be able to do. Do you want it to be able to answer simple questions? Or do you want it to be able to do more complex things?
It’s also important to consider how your chatbot will handle customer requests that it doesn’t have an answer to.
If a customer asks a question that your chatbot does not know the answer to, you’ll need to be able to give them helpful information and options about how they can get the help they need.
You mustn’t leave them hanging or send them off into the ether with no direction on how they can find what they’re looking for. This is where having AI in place comes in handy—for example: if the user asks, “where is this product?”, then instead of sending them an article or explaining where each department is located, the AI could offer suggestions based on their query (i.e., “try asking us on Facebook Messenger”). This makes sense because most people who ask questions through social media often want answers quickly so they can continue using their phones in peace!
The benefits of AI chatbots
1) AI chatbots can help your business bring in more money. These bots can also be used for marketing purposes.
Here’s an example of its usage: To increase your sales, you can use these bots to send notifications about new products or any special offers you might have.
2) AI chatbots help you connect with customers. They allow businesses to interact with their customers outside of traditional methods like email or phone calls.
3) Customer interaction is improved with an AI chatbot.
Chatbots can also answer basic questions about your company or products without requiring users to wait on hold or send an email.
They give you more control over the customer experience than ever before. Rather than responding to every question individually, you can train your chatbot to answer common questions.
They are easy to implement and provide measurable results that increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
4) They help businesses save money and improve the customer experience. Chatbots are cheaper and easier to implement than other customer-focused options. They are an affordable way to provide a more personalised customer service experience.
Also, chatbots can help automate specific processes, such as scheduling appointments or answering frequently asked questions.
5) An AI chatbot helps you keep up with technological advances.
6) Provide relevant and valuable information to your users.
Chatbots help users find the products they’re looking for
Providing information about the products and services you offer, such as the price and availability of a product or service
Providing expert advice on topics your company specialises in, such as how to do something with your product or service and how to fix common problems.
Conclusion
A chatbot can be a great solution if you’re looking to streamline or automate some of your interactions with customers or visitors. But the benefits don’t just lie in the realm of business.
This exciting new technology is already redrawing the boundaries between humans and machines, but much is left to learn about its future impact on society.
