Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced significantly in the last decade, and chatbots are one of the most useful products of this AI evolution. Chatbots can help businesses reduce the time taken to answer customer queries and they also reduce the number of customer service agents.
It’s estimated that the chatbot market will reach $1.25 billion by 2025 . That’s because many brands are investing in improving their customer experience. The benefits of chatbots go beyond offering immediate responses to customers. They can also perform business tasks such as collecting customer information, scheduling meetings, and reducing overhead costs. That’s why the size of the chatbot market is expanding exponentially.
Thus, many startups and savvy brands are now incorporating chatbots into their daily operations, interaction with customers, and sales processes. Here are six ways businesses can use chatbots:
- Deliver Excellent Customer Service
This is a great option for businesses that don’t want their customers to:
- Wait for the customer service agent’s answer — “Hold on while we connect you to an available customer agent”, which is frustrating, isn’t it?
- Search for answers in the FAQs — customers don’t have the time for scrolling dozens of FAQ pages.
- Streamline the Shopping Experience
To offer a great shopping experience only requires you to write what you want to the chatbot and it’ll send the information to the sales department.
Customers don’t have to repeat several times, “I need the same product, but with metal buttons.” Also, the chatbot remembers customer preferences, and it uses this information to offer them a great experience when they return.
- Personalize Communication
Chatbots answer the specific questions customers have instead of displaying a long list of unnecessary information. Remember; the more attention a customer gets, the greater their desire to buy something. This is where chatbots come in handy. You can use them to deliver personalized messages to customers and offer one-on-one help, which will ultimately boost your conversion rates.
- Automate Repetitive Tasks
Most customers are looking for answers to common and related questions, such as, “When do you open?” “Where are you located?” “Do you make free deliveries?” “What’s your return policy?”
By leveraging chatbots, you can avoid answering the same questions every time. This will also reduce your employees’ workload.
- Personal Assistant
Running a business is daunting. However, you can use chatbots as personal assistants to simplify your tasks. For instance, you can create bots to send customers suggestions and tips related to what they’re looking for.
Customers can get travel or fashion recommendations from chatbots. And you can make it easy for them to order what you’re offering using chatbots.
For example, MasterCard built its chatbot for Facebook Messenger. This bot makes banking easy for its customers by notifying them how much they spend each month and showing their transactions. This way, it’s easier for customers to bank with MasterCard.
MasterCard’s bots make it easier for the merchant to conduct transactions directly from Facebook Messenger. Also, with bots, consumers can order food directly from Subway, FreshDirect, and The Cheesecake Factory.
- Showcase New Products or Services
Using chatbots, you can showcase your latest products or services to your target market. Since chatbots maintain a friendly tone all the time, they can help you announce your latest products or services easily.
The best part about bot notifications is that they’re highly targeted. And you can choose which notifications should be sent to whom. This will make your customers feel special and valued, and those who don’t find relevant products or services won’t get irritated.
