Chatbots act as an automated response team to engage with various types of messages received in a business.
With the ability to add custom conditions (which can be different for every business), chatbots can respond to inquiries with important information using keywords from an interested customer’s message as conditions.
Depending on what you choose your chatbots to do, they can be programmed to respond the same way each time or differently depending on the situation.
“A chatbot marketing strategy makes sure that your customer service requests aren’t going unanswered. Many can even help with lead generation and sales.”
They are most valuable through chat mediums like SMS, website chat windows, social media messaging services across platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Chatbots have proved to be quite valuable for businesses over the past few years as a medium to respond to frequently asked questions, especially for those who have seen exponential customer growth.
According to Facebook’s 2018 data study,
2 billion messages are sent between people and businesses monthly
56% of people would rather message than call customer service
53% of people are more likely to shop with businesses they can message
Data gathered from Google Trends shows that over the last five years (2016-2020), search volume around “chatbots” grew 19x as individuals and businesses began to realize their value.
Why use chatbots
It is most efficient to automate as many business processes as possible to stay competitive.
The rise of self-checkout at grocery stores and ordering kiosks at restaurants are factual evidence of this.
The value in chatbots comes from their ability to automate conversations throughout your organization, not only for customer responses but also within an organization.
Below are five key benefits of using chatbots
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Available 24/7
Companies usually aim to be available for their customers at all times of the day, like banks for example, but often lack staff or resources. Working round-the-clock to support customers outside of operating hours and solve problems when support staff isn’t available is a key feature of chatbots.
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Scalability
Chatbots have the ability to engage with hundreds of queries at a time, as they are merely a piece of software, as opposed to human agents who can only deal with a handful of customers, say, within an hour. Chatbots can provide the ‘same’ experience to each and every customer every time, benefiting from the sheer scale of operating tasks and low maintenance costs.
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Cost-saving
With chatbots, you do not need to hire multiple agents to answer the most common questions. Support agents can instead focus on helping customers with problems specifically involving them and concentrate on closing sales.
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Additional Sales Channels
Good chatbot software effectively gathers details and qualifies prospects. They can be programmed to generate lead scores based on interactions too. Through lead scores, sales representatives can proceed to give more attention to leads worth nurturing.
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Instant Response
As opposed to a support staff concentrating on just one customer at a time, chatbots can address thousands of customers at the same time. There are no waiting times or queues to get the answers they need.
What can you use chatbots for?
For Customer Service
If your business receives a lot of requests through, for example, Facebook Messenger, a bot can be of huge help. You can create a chatbot that helps narrow down a customer’s issue into a specific category to direct them to the right person to talk to.
For Sales
They can help to lead people into your sales funnel. Whether it is to set appointments (which can be done automatically based on time availability) or collect emails for email marketing, it can help kickstart a customer’s journey. Since many people often choose not to pick up a phone call, adding an easy way to start a communication can be helpful.
For FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Chatbots are great ways to offer information to target audiences while making the process more interactive to do so. If programmed correctly with all the right questions and answers, accurate information more likely enables a prospective customer to choose you over your competitors.
For Shopping
Facebook Messenger chatbots, for example, allow businesses to provide in-chat shopping. You can customize the chatbots to allow customers to browse through products and even make purchases directly by communicating with the chatbot using prompt messages. Other purpose-built chatbot software available for purchase may also provide this feature.
For Marketing
There are various marketing tactics that chatbots can be utilized for. It is common to use chatbots to send important notifications regarding a customer’s status with a company or for any new piece of information that may be of value. Moreover, it is also used for lead nurturing by sending customers helpful, informational messages in an effort to nurture them into signing up for your services or even make purchases. Since it is a more direct business-to-consumer communication, it proves to be a powerful tool.
Get started with some of the best chatbots on the market
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Mobile Monkey
A bot builder for Facebook Messenger. MobileMonkey specializes in connecting your chatbot with your wider marketing stack – including your ad campaigns and drip marketing.
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TARS
A drag-and-drop chatbot builder to create website chatbots or conversational landing pages for your website. It’s very straightforward to use with zero coding or development skills required. More than 800 chatbot templates available to choose from too!
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ChatterOn
ChatterOn aims to be the fastest bot builder, promising to build bots within just five minutes. More than 20 pre-built bots are available to choose from and customize. It’s AI and machine learning are ahead of the game, supporting a wide range of rich content like carousels, buttons, photos, gifs, and videos.
Have you implemented a chatbot into your website yet? If this is something you need help with, feel free to reach out to our team to request a proposal.
