The Power of Chatbots and Why Your Website Needs One
Artificial Intelligence is on the rise and installing a chatbot strategy is one sure way to stay ahead of the trends.
Instant messaging is everywhere these days and it was only a matter of time until business’ started capitalising on its use. We have the likes of Facebook Message, Google Chat, Whatsapp, and Instagram Direct Messages. Each of these platforms are opening up opportunities for business to directly connect with their audience.
Why does this matter? Well, the moment that you have a direct line to your audience, you have a direct line to a potential customer. It is for this reason that you should look to incorporate chatbots into your website. Gone are the days where people are willing to wait a few days before getting an answer regarding their purchase. Customers want answers in a second and if you can’t provide them with a fast response, they will more likely look to your competitors for one.
To stop potential customers from taking their business elsewhere, it’s time to get on board with AI’s greatest tool. Chatbots are here to stay and they’re bringing incredible benefits with them. So, the question is: what are chatbots and how can you start using them on your website? Let’s take a look.
What are Chatbots?
Just because this term has the word “bot” in it, don’t be afraid. While chatbots do embody a futuristic and robotic ideal, don’t be deterred by the potential of robots taking over your business. Contrary to the world of science fiction, we can actually start using artificial intelligence to our advantage by getting to know our audiences on a deeper level.
Chatbots enable automated conversations to take place between a customer and a virtual customer service agent. With this automated service, you are able to use artificial intelligence to help your business anticipate your audience’s needs. For this to work, you may need to go back into your customer service and find out which queries were most popular. From there, you can start developing a chain of interaction based on previous interactions.
If you prefer the use of real consultants with your live chat strategy, you can use chatbots to eliminate any time wasters. You see, by setting up categorised queries, you can easily solve problems before needing to direct them to a consultant.
Chatbots can be used for plenty of reasons. When used correctly, they can help boost sales and build customer relationships. Who doesn’t love good customer service that’s open 24/7?
The Benefits of Having a Chatbot on Your Website:
If making your life easier and encouraging customers along your sales funnel isn’t attractive enough, let’s look at some of the other benefits you can enjoy when you install chatbots onto your website.
Enhance Your Customer Service
One of the most obvious and talked about benefits that come with chatbots is the improvement of your company’s customer service. Although there have been many changes throughout the years in marketing and in the consumer landscape, one thing has remained the same – good customer service converts.
Your business’ customer service embodies what your brand stands for and can make or break your user experience. Have you ever received a faulty product and spent hours on the phone or waited days for an email just to have the problem resolved? Using chatbots reduces your customer query response time and it leaves customer’s feeling as if their problem has been acknowledged. Even if the problem doesn’t get resolved straight away, it’s the direct line of communication that really leaves a long-lasting impression.
Improve Your User Experience
On top of increasing your level of customer service, as an extension, you are promoting your user experience. Instead of people coming to your site and simply browsing around, chatbots encourage users to actually engage with your content. This is essential to help users make informed decisions.
For example, if you have a hotel business, you can use your chatbots to let customers know about special booking discounts or closing periods. You can also use the service to help answer any questions that may coax them into completing their booking. Instead of scrolling through your website for answers, or hoping for an email, they can simply send you an instant message to see if your hotel caters to their needs.
Add a Sense of Personalisation
While we all joke about millennials having the need to feel special, who doesn’t like to feel that they’re getting an extra level of attention? When designed correctly, chatbots can create an intimate setting for customers to feel as if they’re creating a connection with your brand.
This one-on-one engagement your audience has with your brand goes a long way in making them feel like they aren’t just an email on your newsletter list. You can customise your chatbots strategy to offer the best solution based on their query.
Generate More Leads
To truly benefit from using chatbots on your website, you have to be strategic in its development. As your bot initiates a chat with a website visitor, you should follow this up by a lead generation tactic. This way, if your chat gets disconnected or they don’t complete their purchase, you now have their contact information to follow up on their initial point of interest.
Reduce Your Company Costs
Chatbots are extremely useful to start-ups or smaller scale businesses. The reason is that instead of allocating staff to customer queries, you can now set up this interaction automatically. With more manpower available, you can reallocate these resources to tasks that can bring you a higher return in investment.
So with all of this in mind, instead of asking yourself “what are chatbots?”, we hope that you’re getting ready to unleash this new feature onto your website!