Cut costs with AI assistants - Power
your way through the pandemic
Artificial Intelligence, by far the most hyped technology in recent times, has demonstrated its worth to marketers, sales professionals, as well as businesses across industries. And not surprisingly, the demand for conversational AI has snowballed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is a glimpse into the many ways in which this technology has held the business world together in these tough times. Pattern your business on these to be more economical while achieving your quarterly and annual goals.
Impact of the pandemic
on the chatbot industry
While the world buckled under the pressure of a novel virus, automation became the ray of hope for many industries. It demonstrated the dire need for digital transformation. Businesses had to build up their digital infrastructure to match the shifting client demands.
Customers today are impatient. A staggering 82% of them expect immediate response to their queries from firms. With global lockdowns and workspace restrictions directly affecting workforce availability, enterprises are compelled to streamline their operations. Customer service departments of most organizations struggle to respond to individual consumers, let alone handle issues in a timely manner, if not for chatbots. Automation with intelligent assistants has become critical to solve many organizational problems and reduce losses.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing, chatbots are now increasingly user friendly, helping businesses automate routine work. A good 80% of consumers across industries prefer chatbots and report positive experiences. What's more, commercial chatbots have broadened their applications and are now being used to assist marketing efforts and drive sales.
Advantages of chatbots for customers
The ability to provide excellent customer service can make or break a business. Responsiveness to queries is especially critical for companies with a web presence. The goal of AI-powered chatbots, like that of customer care representatives, is to assist users and increase customer happiness.
24/7 Availability
Customers won't have to spam you with support emails or wait for live agents if you have chatbots for your website and other primary channels. Business chatbots powered by AI are not limited to regular working hours. Often linked to a comprehensive knowledge base, they provide customers with ready-to-use responses. If a situation gets too complicated for the bot to handle, it escalates the issue to appropriate authorities.
Instant Query Resolution
Nobody likes waiting for extended periods of time, especially on the internet. If you rely only on live personnel to handle high-volume support calls, delays are unavoidable. And if the problem persists, it will increase your churn. Chatbots are the ideal solution to this problem as they can rapidly respond to online consumers. Additionally, in case of unexpected issues, they can collect and share user details with agents for efficient inquiry response. This is significantly more effective than relying on email or live agents for assistance.
Easy Orders
A well-designed appointment booking chatbot can let customers schedule appointments at any time of the day. For small businesses such as salons, spas, med spas, medical and dental clinics, hospitals, veterinary clinics, and several other such businesses, every appointment is an opportunity to satisfy a customer and increase revenue. Losing customers on account of inability to help them with appointment booking at a time of their convenience is detrimental to the business.
As for small businesses that sell products, the ability to provide product information round the clock to customers instantly and automatedly on conversational channels like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger significantly improves business outcomes. In many cases, businesses can also take orders on conversational channels and chatbots. Chatbots have simplified the previously tedious and time-consuming process of purchasing or booking appointments through chat applications.
Along with appointment bookings, chatbots help simplify a slew of processes for consumers such as information access, order tracking and cancellation, booking reschedule, product purchase and return, and receiving prompt reimbursements.
Easy Accessibility
UX designers realized how difficult it might be for some users to navigate websites. They may mix up labels and keep going back and forth between the same pages before giving up. And for many firms, this could be a huge problem since they risk losing those customers.
Chatbots are programmed to stay on every page of a website and to call for user attention with rich interactions. They are often the first point of contact for customers on mobile apps. Further, chatbots are built to always be available. As a result, whether your target audience spends the majority of their time on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or other in-app messengers, they will be able to reach out to you with minimal effort.
Personalized Conversations
Chatbots can provide hyper-personalization to users in a way that may not be possible with website visitors or email lists. It employs historical data, such as preferences and previous purchases to direct conversations. This can be immensely useful both for the customers and businesses to make decisions.
Advantages of Chatbots For Businesses
In addition to aiding end-users or consumers, chatbots give a lot of value to businesses.
Reduced Customer Service Costs
This is one of the most fundamental, yet crucial, advantages of chatbots. By deploying conversational systems, businesses can save up to 30%. Although not advanced enough to replace your customer support team, virtual assistants can significantly lower costs on 3 levels: salaries, training, and infrastructure.
Improved Lead Generation
Chatbots are designed to collect data from potential customers and deliver personalized messaging. A lead generation chatbot advances the client experience by increasing interest in products and services. They can be used to offer discounts and, to some extent, persuade prospects to buy, as well as to aid in the building of relationships with prospects.
AI assistants can employ modules like a pre-programmed quiz to entice users to fill out a form and generate leads, resulting in higher conversion rates.
Improved Customer Engagement
Chatbots can assist organizations to take client engagement to new heights. Driven by the insights from user data, the information deployed by the conversational AI can be made more appropriate and engaging. Furthermore, bots provide consistent responses, which helps you avoid sharing irrelevant information. Customers will stay longer on your website and continue the conversation if you provide meaningful and timely responses. Thus chatbots facilitate improved product visibility and navigation across your website.
Monitor Consumer Data to Gain Insights
By monitoring user data, chatbots are effective tools to track purchasing trends and to analyze consumer behavior. This information can assist businesses in marketing their products in new ways and expanding their reach. Bots can also be used to collect feedback via simple questions in order to improve products or optimize websites.
Devise a Conversational Marketing Strategy
Chatbots can assist organizations to take client engagement to new heights. Driven by the insights from user data, the information deployed by the conversational AI can be made more appropriate and engaging. Furthermore, bots provide consistent responses, which helps you avoid sharing irrelevant information. Customers will stay longer on your website and continue the conversation if you provide meaningful and timely responses. Thus chatbots facilitate improved product visibility and navigation across your website.
Balance Automation with Human intervention
Brands can provide seamless customer care by combining AI technology with human interactions. Complex queries that require in-depth discussion can be handled by live chat professionals, while chatbots provide real-time responses, thus offering customers the greatest hybrid experience. Brands may use the combination of live chat and chatbot to communicate with customers intelligently all day, every day.
It is critical for any firm to build and sustain a healthy conversation with its clients in order to survive the pandemic. Thus the benefits of a chatbot are unrivalled: quick inquiry response for customers, filtered help inquiries for customer service employees, and rising client engagement for your business. Businesses cannot afford to lose another consumer in the aftermath of cutthroat competition that COVID-19 has brought in. So, when operators can no longer handle the inundation of messages, chatbots become the logical solution where profitability and long-term growth are the primary goals. At Concetro.ai, we build AI assistants that can help you power through the new found challenges of these uncertain times. Wondering how to get started? Ask us for a demo!
