Chat bots: a newcomer of the e-commerce that will change the world
Whether you are fresh on the market or seasoned in the e-commerce business, chances are that you had problems with your customer support now and then. People who work as support agents are human just like yourself, meaning they always bring their skills, baggage, and weaknesses to the table whether they want to or not. Many of the customer support run-ins and trouble could easily be avoided if you only used chatbots instead.
Chatbots are newcomers to the e-commerce scene and they can help you fully automate your customer engagement without much effort. What are some of the useful benefits of chatbots, and how can you use them to change your business world from the ground up?
Multiplatform engagement
Chatbots are multifaceted in their interactivity and engagement capability. If your customers prefer communicating through social media, chatbots will gladly accommodate those needs. Other means of communication such as SMS, Viber, WhatsApp or even LinkedIn are just as capable of hosting chatbots and making sure they engage customers properly. Human customer support counterparts would have a tough time keeping track of which communication channel is responsible for which customer’s support ticket.
This is due to a simple difference which makes chatbots unique in their design – they are essentially driven by the script and AI programming. Unlike their human counterparts, they don’t have slips of attention nor do they make mistakes based on personal judgment. Chatbots use ones and zeroes to come to logical conclusions in order to close support tickets as soon as possible.
24/7 availability
Many companies strive towards 24/7 availability by employing more workers or stretching their already-think workforce even further. Keeping a shift of actual support workers on standby is a good idea for specialized cases, but the majority of the work can easily be taken over by chatbots.
Chatbots require no sleep or rest, which makes them always ready for more work and problem-solving tasks. People, on the other hand, do require sleep and a lack of energy can have disastrous consequences in customer support line of work. E-commerce websites all over the world can safely implement chatbots if they want to achieve the 24/7 availability rule that so many international companies have set out to meet.
Big data and analytics
Analyzing customer data gets harder with each passing month, not to mention the years your e-commerce site has already been operating for. Chatbots use big data technology in making sure that every customer is taken care of accordingly. Pulling up relevant data and using it to conduct customer support is quite possible with people working in this sector, but it is considerably slower.
Slower support means fewer tickets get solved on a daily basis, and the company progress gets bogged down as a result. Chatbots aim to change that in a way no other technology was capable of by bypassing the customer support agent entirely and communicating with the customer directly. For example, online-only companies, like writing services, use the chatbots, while customers might not even be aware that they are communicating with an AI instead of a live person.
These sorts of AI-to-customer relation can fast-track a lot of unnecessary small talk that usually accompanies customer support calls. Not to mention the sheer benefit of having a scripted support agent who needs only seconds to access and analyze relevant data based on customer’s needs.
Personalization and learning
Chatbots go above and beyond to make sure that customers are satisfied with their services. So much so that recent developments in the field do suggest that chatbots will soon fully adopt machine learning.
What it essentially means is that chatbots will not only use e-commerce data for the support they provide but also gather feedback and data from the customers themselves. This will result in much more “humane” responses and interactions with chatbots where customers won’t be sure whether or not they are taking to a real person.
Their AI will be able to personalize each segment of the customer’s engagement session in order for it to run as smoothly as possible. While this notion does sound scary at first, it will enable companies and small firms alike to focus on what really matters and leave customer support to chatbots and AI scripts.
Saving time and money
A big factor that makes chatbots very attractive to entrepreneurs and e-commerce website owners is the fact that chatbots cost a lot less than human workers do. Dealing with people can sometimes be difficult, especially if they come with their own baggage that doesn’t align well with your sales strategies. Chatbots also don’t require any days off or rises on occasion, which also makes them more compact and economical.
While it does sound cruel at first, consider the fact that you are running a business that needs revenue in order to survive. Chatbots can save you a lot of time and money on a monthly and yearly basis but it will take some time for the picture to become clearer to you. What better way to save that hard-earned money than to hire outsourced chatbots instead of keeping someone on your payment tab?
Final summation
Whether or not chatbots become fully integrated into existing e-commerce businesses all over the world remains to be seen. Their multitude of benefits can easily be combined with real-world people who offer customer support through dedication and professionalism. No one is denying that chatbots will lower the amount of workforce needed for customer engagement and support, but they will never be able to fully replace their human counterparts which are a win for both sides of the argument.
