The chatbot technology has taken the world by storm. Even a few years back it was considered just a blip. Not anymore! Today the technology has become a very part of the necessity, rather than a luxury.
If you are a digital marketing professional, it’s advisable for you to get into this trend ASAP. Here are a few things that you should be aware of especially when the chatbot technology is concerned.
- Chatbots come in two types
A chatbot is a service that’s powered by a set of rules and AI (in some cases) that people interact with through a chat interface.
There are usually two types of chatbots.
- Rule-based chatbots
These are bots having limited abilities. These chatbots have the ability to respond only to a handful of queries. Their smartness depends on the way they are programmed to be.
If anything’s wrongly said to these chatbots, they’ll fail to actually grasp the error in the statement. That’s because they are not even programmed to handle situations like that. They work completely on pre-programmed commands. Beyond that, they lose all its functionalities.
- AI-based chatbots
These ones are a bit advanced in comparison to the rule-based ones and have the ability to learn from past experiences. Your audience will also feel at ease while interacting with this bot because it’ll seem as if they are talking to a human rather than a bot.
AI-based chatbots grow smarter with time. Their ability to learn from past experiences easily become their biggest asset which can actually make them a standout among the crowd.
- Chatbots are popularly implemented for customer service, healthcare and e-commerce operations
Chatbots are widely implemented by reputed brands and companies in several operations based on their business niche.
Some of these notable messenger chatbots are:
- Uber: Used by passengers to book a ride. A simple message is enough for the job.
- Burberry: To showcase fashion.
- Dominos and Taco Bell: To order food.
- HelloVote: This one help people vote from the very comfort of their respective messenger apps.
- Hi Poncho: It’s a popular weather forecasting chatbot that comes in the form of a “cat”.
- IcelandAir: Helps people book their flights.
So you can see that chatbots have spread their wings to almost all business niches.
- Chatbots aren’t a novel concept
Okay, you might think of this trend as something of a brand new fad among business executives due to the marketing benefits associated with it, but then, if you do, you will be making a mistake.
Chatbots were always there in the past. Where? Let’s go down a trip down the memory lane.
Remember the concept of “automated attendant?” “Press 1 for this, 2 for that?” Whenever you called up the customer care of a service (say a healthcare, airline and so on), you were usually greeted with an automated voice. Only after some time (and after pressing the right button), you get the chance to actually talk to a live human agent.
Now that automated voice was a chatbot. It was designed in a manner to answer most of the basic customer queries such that the amount of stress on customer service operations gets evenly distributed to a certain extent.
The same automated bots are still in use today with a bit more upgrades. Today, they sound more like a human rather than a bot. And they have also learned to live on the messaging apps on individual smartphones. Convenient; isn’t it?
- Chatbots would not be able to replace humans in customer support…YET
Through the implementation of chatbots, you will be able to give your business customer support operations a huge boost. But that doesn’t mean they have the power to replace your entire customer service human workforce.
When complex issues are concerned, human agents are still your way to go. Your chatbots won’t be handling things like that as of YET!
Chatbots aren’t going anywhere; they are here to stay
The chatbot technology isn’t just a fad anymore. It has become a solution; a permanent solution as far as small businesses are concerned.
And now they are only getting smarter with time. Their popularity has grown steadily among businesses especially due to the benefits coming with it.
Moreover, the technology is still considered to be one in its infancy. So more and more innovations will surely follow over time.
Thus, there’s one thing that’s certain as far as the chatbot technology is concerned. They are here to stay. Why? Let’s see.
Most people agree today that businesses should have a 24/7 availability
One of the primary things needed for a business to succeed in the modern market is availability, preferably for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without any break in between.
This is almost impossible for small businesses to achieve especially due to their lack of resources and finances. So is there a solution? Of course, there is and that solution comes in the form of chatbots.
Chatbots can help to automate your business processes and at the same time, can also ensure the fact that the human touch is maintained throughout the process. Your customers may not even realize that they are interacting with a bot which can be your added benefit.
Messaging apps have become the preferred mode of communication over social media and email
Most people today prefer messenger apps for communication over traditional email and social media platforms. Chatbots can solve this problem easily and conveniently because of their ability to integrate themselves seamlessly with popular messaging apps such as the FB Messenger, Skype etc.
Chatbots can handle basic queries with human-like efficiency
Chatbots support complete customer service automation by retaining the human touch in them. They are more than capable of handling basic level queries and can answer them as good as a human does.
Last but not the least, chatbots require zero monitoring
Chatbots can very well work on its own.
Along with that, there’s also the benefit of zero monitoring. You don’t have to monitor a chatbot unless there’s a technical issue.
The chatbot technology has all the potentials to revolutionize the digital marketing world. Hence, it’s advisable to adopt this trend ASAP to get benefited in the long run. So what are you waiting for?
