This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
8 reasons why your business needs a chatbot
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
I’m sure most of my readers are avid movie watchers. Let’s look at one of Disney’s animated movies that were a good amalgamation of emotions with science.
Why a movie? You’ll know soon…
We’re talking about a Disney movie where a robot (read, healthcare companion) is designed to provide medical aid and assistance to humans. The robot is designed to never harm humans but talks to them and through them of all their issues pertaining to mental and physical health. The robot sacrifices its life to save the protagonist’s life in the end. It ensures proper health of the protagonist and his friends throughout the movie via conversations and constant guidance.
You must’ve guessed the movie by now. If you haven’t yet, we’re talking about Baymax from Big Hero 6. Baymax was a perfect example of an AI-based healthcare companion.
Getting back to our question, why a movie? Here’s the answer…
Unlike Baymax, we haven’t yet developed an AI that can act as a healthcare companion in person. But, we’re a few steps closer to it. Not at an advanced level like Baymax, but we do have AI and command-based chatbots. They help us guide through websites and help choose the right things for us.
AI-based bots, as the name suggests, are bots that develop as they interact more and more. They form replies instantly from scratch through sets of neural networks. On the other hand, command-based bots reply through a certain set of answers. However, command-based bots can’t tackle unprecedented situations.
Chatbots have been at the commonplace of today’s websites. The rise of messenger apps (especially, Messengers, WhatsApp, and WeChat) is credited for the uprising of bots.
The graph is a clear indicator of how messaging apps have taken over online marketing over the traditional apps. Messaging apps have a dynamic conversational pickup with the users rather than offering static content to view.
You must be wondering now, do all businesses need a chatbot? Is my business huge enough to invest in a chatbot? How is my industry changing due to chatbots?
Here’s the answer to your questions, and more…
#1 Audience who uses messenger Apps are willing to talk to a Chatbot
It is estimated that by 2019, more than 27% of the population will engage with chatbots.
A conducted survey shows that 83% of online shoppers need assistance while shopping.
The audience today believes in an engaging format of navigation and shopping. Assistance during shopping boosts sales of any e-commerce website. It is important that you have a chatbot to guide your target audience, making their experience wonderful, effortless. It will in turn spurt your sales.
#2 Helps in Targeting Users on Popular Social Media Platforms
Germany’s 80% of the Internet users access to messenger services such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messengers among others regularly. Such an audience doesn’t install different apps for different functionalities. They believe in multipurpose apps. It becomes important to target such users on social media platforms.
Engage with this audience; the more you engage, the more you sell. If you are using online channels to communicate with the customers, these chatbots can do your job.
#3 Are Millennials your target audience?
This is without a doubt, a vital question. Millennials like to ask questions. They like to compare multiple products. They prefer texts over calls.
If you’re targeting millennials as your target audience, a CHATBOT IS A MUST!
Add a chatbot for your marketing strategy, it will not only garner more audience to your website but also engage and serve as a personal online assistant!
#4 Guarantees Great User Experience
Generally, human interaction across platforms can be too passive. They only answer to question; they do not initiate an interaction. Bots, on the other hand, can trace a navigation pattern and initiate a conversation with users.
Also, a properly setup bot can help users with specific issues. Human interactions are opinionated and open-ended. Bots end this shortcoming and interact with specificities. This not only saves communication time on both ends but also lowers human involvement in any situation.
A human can interact with not more than 3-4 users at a time. A bot can theoretically engage with any number of users. So, what would you prefer, employing many employees or employing just one chatbot?
#5 A Must for an E-commerce Business
Do you own an e-commerce business? We have something useful for you.
Source: Chatbot Survey 2017
The graph is a no-brainer. You can clearly see that the e-commerce industry will benefit the most from chatbots. The most necessary ingredient in a successful e-commerce business—User Engagement—is provided by these chatbots. Here’s what chatbots can do for you:
Based on user navigation, history purchases, and cache, the chatbot can offer personalized discount coupons and codes. This is a major sales booster for any e-commerce website.
A chatbot can up-sell and cross-sell products based on user preferences, providing a rich user experience. This ensures site revisits and loyal customers.
The buying process can be tedious and boring if it takes too long. A chatbot can accelerate the process through engagement.
Accessing user preferences and navigation history has its perks. A chatbot can access these details, curate a personalized list of items, and present it to the users, thus selling more products.
Facing a lot of user queries? Employ a chatbot. It will engage and resolve user queries until the human interference is a must.
#6 Analyses Customer Behavior
Chatbots are a great tool to communicate with your consumers. You can use chatbots to collect feedback from users by asking specific questions. This helps you understand what clients want, in turn helping you alter the way you market products.
Chatbots also can be given a user account access, where it can gauge audience choice by the products they have navigated through, previous purchase history, and so on. It helps the chatbots to understand the customer needs and serve a personalized experience to them.
#7 Scaling Businesses
Chatbots can handle an unlimited number of customers at the same time. It overcomes the difficulty faced by customer service executives, especially during peak times.
Chatbots can handle 90 percent of interactions. Only places where human intervention is needed, chatbot steps aside. This not only reduces work pressure but also removes the redundancy course from the employees.
#8 Chatbots can drive Lead Generation Campaign
EMAILS ARE BORING. An average user receives 122 emails every day. Can you possibly open all emails and read through each of them? I say, NO.
Chatbots, on the other hand, sums up the user journey and present it in a conversational format. It can ask the user important questions, grate relevant information, and in turn generate leads for you.
Imagine 3000 customers swerving through your products on a sale day. Just imagine the traffic!
Here we are…
A chatbot is everything your business needs. It doesn’t matter much which industry you belong to. You need a chatbot to bloom your business and take the next step. A chatbot is a human with an unwavering stance towards business loyalty and strives to achieve its programme goals.
We, at Alphalogic, assist our customers by providing chatbot development from templates and scratch, depending on our customer requirements. We also provide chatbot deployment and maintenance services.
When will you employ a chatbot for your business?
Useful Resources:
Why use Chatbots to grow your business online