In one of our previous articles, we have mentioned the various business areas where chatbot technology can be utilized. Now we would like to take the opportunity to discuss about new ways how companies are able to take advantage of bot engines.

Drivers of chatbot development

Recently, using chatbots as strategic business tools became an overall tendency in various industries. But what is in the background of the increased emphasis on improving businesses’ botting skills? According to a report of Deloitte the indicators causing spread of chatbot technology rooted from both demand and supply side market conditions as follows.

Increased pressure on customer service centers

Since all the market participants are exposed to a voluble competitive atmosphere, the emphasis on achieving competitive advantage has raised. One of the most important factors of differentiation is providing excellent customer service, which is enabled through using chatbots more cost-effectively.

Increased demand for servicenow

Consumers are facing a turbulent and dynamically changing environment in their everyday lives. Therefore they increasingly require fluent customer support instantly at the moment when their needs have emerged and communicated to the service provider. 

Development of technology industry

Recently, we are experiencing a digital transformation providing several innovations applicable for further technological advancement. Improvement of artificial intelligence and natural language processing technologies facilitated a chatbot technology driven by machine learning.

Spread of chatbot technology

Increased popularity of chatbots has driven the phenomenon that several interfaces are now fitted for the technology. The mature of this technology therefore created a “free playground” for chatbot users, where businesses can manage their smart bots more easily than before.

Roles of chatbot types in supporting business processes

Due to the shift in the digitalization we have now the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of artificial intelligence. Usually chatbots are also linked with AI, on the other hand, some organizations use bots without machine learning abilities. Now let us see the existing types of chatbots according to complexity levels and their roles in supporting business.

Scripted chatbots

Basic bots are programmed to answer clients’ questions with predetermined answers. They are looking for key expressions and phrases and according to the information gained they design the most pertinent answer structured before. Although these multiple choice bots are able to respond only to specific instructions, they are commonly used for the purpose of lead generation and surveying.

Intent recognizers

Taking a small step forward to intelligent bots from scripted ones we will arrive at intent recognizers. Using this technology, our bot will be able to identify intents and generate answers for customer requests through taking into account the relationships between words using natural language understanding instead of concentrating on certain utterances only.

Virtual agents

Compared to the chatbot types mentioned before besides understanding human message virtual agents are able to connect other system’s database for information and perform actions for customer request. Therefore they are intended to handle complex processes such as making a bank transfer.

What are the benefits of using chatbots for businesses?

We can find lots of articles describing all the advantages related to chatbots from customer point of view. On the other hand, we would like to identify ways of leveraging chatbot benefits from business perspective.

Establishing a viable platform for customer interaction

Regarding customer interactions virtual platforms are gaining even more importance. That is why it is a great opportunity for businesses to grab the attention of their potential customers. Chatbot or messaging apps on company websites are interfaces, where consumers that are willing and able to pay for products and services can be found easily. Besides benefiting from better availability of audiences, communication through chatbot messenger is applicable for Furthermore, engaging in Facebook Messenger platform does not mean only the chance for reaching millions of potential customers, but Facebook users increasingly employ the platform to connect with brands. According to a research from Facebook on average 72,5% of the surveyed people, who use Messenger for contacting brands states that being able to message a company contributes to evaluate purchase action as more reliable.

Support for manpower

In case of customer service companies usually apply a passive approach when it comes to interactions, because of the lack of human resource. Chatbot technology is applicable for 24/7 assistance and for handling several issues parallelly, therefore serving as a support for customer service employees. Furthermore, training difficulties rooted from fluctuation of the workforce can be ironed out. This way, your company is able to decrease expenses, raise revenue and increase customer satisfaction.

Creating automated engagement and BI

Chatbots are designed not only for contacting audiences but they are also useful for collecting information and feedback from clients through asking simple questions. Using chatbots as marketing tools is helpful for improving products and services and for gaining better insight to customer needs and behaviour.

Besides the ability to establish a competitive advantage through supporting long-term beneficial customer relationship and creating advocates, chatbotting generates business intelligence, which enables data-backed decision making processes and a reliable market prognostication resulting in increased productivity and profitability.

Tool to boost B2B relationships

Previously we have described how to bot with customers with the purpose of generating better ROI performance. But how companies are able to promote communication with business partners by leveraging chatbots?

Generally, chatbots are used in B2B aspect for instance for scheduling meetings and lead nurturing by replacing email automation with a faster way of contacting. Also, for interchanging long FAQ pages in your B2B targeted website a reliable and user friendly tool would be the setup of a FAQ chatbot.

Resource: Deloitte, Maruti Techlabs, Facebook, Ross Simmonds