Chatbots Disrupting the Digital World of Business

Yesterday, people were being taught how to communicate with machines. Today, machines are already communicating with people, like people.

Not long ago, there was a time when people used to dread calling up a call center or contact center to resolve any of their issues. A nightmare to navigate through various stages, long waiting time in the queue for one’s term, language issues, lack of clear menu options, etc., were just some of the hurdles that led to many dissatisfied customers.

With the advances in chatbots and artificial intelligence, companies today can adopt an efficient way to engage and interact with their customers. Chatbots and artificial intelligence have enormous potential. According to an Accenture study, artificial intelligence will double economic growth rates in 12 industrialized nations by 2035 and increase workforce productivity by 40%.

What’s more?

Thanks to these intelligent chatbots, consumers get more comfortable getting their resolutions through machines rather than human interaction. In fact, chatbots with artificial intelligence are developing at such a fast pace that it is believed that by the Year 2022, nearly 90% of all customer interactions by banks will be automated using a chatbot.

With Real Estate, Travel, Education, Healthcare, and Finance already reaping the benefits of chatbot services, many other industries too are moving towards this automation for consumer engagement. If market estimates are anything to go by 2025, the global chatbot market is expected to be over $1Billion.

‘By 2022, we’ll be talking to bots more than our own spouses’- (Deloitte)

What is a Chatbot, And How Does it Work?

Before we move forward, let us first answer the question of what is a chatbot? In simple words, a chatbot is defined as computer software designed for conversations with humans via text or voice commands.

Most advanced chatbots today can operate independently without any human intervention, thus helping automate the consumer engagement solutions for various companies. Using chats to voice to communicate with the machine, the user continues to connect with the companies the same way as they used to with human agents. The device then interprets the words, searches for the best-suited preset answer, and answers the query instantly.

Most chatbots with artificial intelligence use AI’s Natural Language Processing (NLP), enabling them to understand the underlying intent behind the text from the consumer and deliver a response with matching goals. These machines are also designed to learn from past conversations, making them grow better with their reactions as more and more data gets captured.

Thanks to chatbot AI in customer service, chatbots and customer service are increasing together rapidly, leading to greater customer satisfaction. It is no wonder that when it comes to Return on Investment (RoI) in artificial intelligence (AI), over 82% are in the black.

How to Create a Chatbot?

Be it a chatbot web, lead generation bot, or custom chatbot, options are plenty for businesses to choose from for automation; however, creating a bot can now be easily created by businesses according to their needs. What was traditionally extremely difficult for people without the technical background to build, chatbot making today has become extremely simple, thanks to the various digital solutions available online for business.

Some of the most popular platforms to build chatbots include MobileMonkey, Hubspot’s chatbot builder, TARS, Botsify, Botkit, among many others.

Advantages Digital World of Businesses Enjoy with Chatbots

Some ways in which chatbots are bringing in a disruption in the digital world of businesses today include:

• Saves Money: Studies show that companies can save about $0.70 per interaction with their consumers, helping save up to 30% in consumer support costs. Given the volumes of interactions in any organization, adopting an intelligent chatbot solution is a no-brainer. 
• Saves Time: With chatbots, companies can automate mundane and repetitive work that human agents were earlier forced to perform and at a faster pace. This helps save time for both employees, businesses, and customers.
• 24/7 Availability: With a chatbot, consumers can connect with the business 24/7, 365 days a year. Companies can offer assistance to customers when they need them.
• Standardize Response: With automation using chatbots, companies can not standardize the response and the experience the customers get while interacting with customer service teams.
• Automate with Intelligence: Powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, chatbots are designed to learn from past conversations and modify responses to the consumers. This allows not only to automate conversations with customers but also to respond appropriately and instantly.
• Data Analytics: Not only do the machines talk to the large volumes of customers, but they also record, analyze and throw results about customer insights to the business. This helps in identifying trends, strategize and streamline business processes.
• Customer Insights: From the most frequent reasons to the customer’s interests, these bots help companies know their customers better.
• Multitasking: With the ability to respond to multiple customers at any given point in time, companies can cater to larger volumes of customers. All this while constantly analyzing data about customers and helping businesses to know their customers better.
• Multi-platform presence: Be it through a call, emails, messages, WhatsApp, or any other social platform, chatbots help companies and customers to leverage the medium of their choice to connect with the business.
• To Help And Always On: Relevance is the keyword for every organization to introduce or create a bot. This technology is revolutionary in terms of the possibilities it opens up. Still, if chatbots aren’t providing customers with relevant discussions, their use will quickly dwindle (and customers will simply delete them).

A Five-Point Chatbot Strategy That is Easy To Use

The potential of chatbot services is enormous. Companies must, however, carefully evaluate what implementation issues may lie ahead, as with any new technology. Here are five suggested guidelines to follow while getting started:

Make sure you don’t get lost in the crowd

How can you make your chatbot stand out as the number of chatbots grows? What distinguishes your service from that of your competitors? What are the challenges with discoverability?

Don’t make the mistake of misinterpreting your consumers

It’s crucial to ensure that simple interactions and chores are accomplished without a hitch. Customers will swiftly abandon chatbots that are unable to understand simple inquiries. However, even the most advanced chatbots may run into some complicated situations that they will be unable to manage. What are your backup plans if anything like this happens? How fast can you get clients to interact with a human?

Maintain a straightforward approach

Using a chatbot to execute a task requires your clients to put in more effort than clicking or tapping through a menu on a website or app. It will be necessary to create new user experiences. As a result, chatbot engagements must be as quick, easy, and efficient as feasible.

Consistency is key

Customers want a consistent experience across all modes of communication. Your chatbot service must be completely connected with your mobile and online applications. What are the dependencies of your chatbot service? What new communication channels and protocols are required?

Keep it safe and secure

Privacy and security are crucial in all customer-facing technology. Customers will not utilize services they do not trust with their personal information. From the start, security should be a top priority.

Key Takeaways

From banking to human resources, customer services to digital marketing, chatbots have helped many domains automate and have disrupted many traditional working methods. With the ability to process large volumes of data extremely fast, these machines help businesses and customers join the dots more quickly, resulting in greater satisfaction.

It is thus no surprise that over 69% of consumers prefer to interact with chatbots for quick responses (Chatbots Magazine, 2018).

While there have been many positives that chatbots bring to businesses, it does raise a serious question of whether these machines would take away the livelihood of many humans. For these suspicious minds, here’s food for thought.

“Many thought ATMs would replace the banks and tellers, but in reality, it simply created a new channel. That is what chatbots will deliver for brands – a new communication channel.”
Rob Harles (Tech Republic)

Quick note: Keep in mind that chatbot making is still in its early stages. There will undoubtedly be new skills and possibilities. Voice recognition, in-message purchasing, and other features are already available on some messaging services. There will be new chatbot marketing tactics. Integration with connected home devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, and other IoT components won’t belong in coming.