Conversational agents, chatterbots, AI/virtual assistants, conversation bots or conversational interfaces… Whatever you want to call them; chatbots exist under many different names and they’re only getting more intelligent.
Whether you’re in the finance, retail, sales, security or emergency services industries, AI has a firm place and will continue to grow and develop. Here’s four ways that AI is improving a range of different industries and keeping customers happy.
Around The Clock Communication
Technological progress has radically changed the way people communicate. Face-to-face interactions have been largely replaced by online messaging. This has forced businesses to adapt to a new type of communication. To achieve success, brands need to provide a seamless buyer's journey. They need to respond to customer questions around the clock and across multiple channels. As mentioned in Why Chatbots Are Great For Business, younger generations, but also pretty much anyone who’s chatting to a business online (especially with time zone differences) want a seamless experience without the wait time. What does this all mean for you and your business? Faster response times, positive reviews, improved brand perception and eventually - more sales.
“Nowadays, customers want to be able to get in touch with companies at any given time. It elevates the first response time and availability to be even more important metrics than they were up to this point” - Grzegorz Woźniczko, Head of Support (Chatbot.com)
Diversifying The Customer Engagement-strategy
Chatbots are increasingly being used in multiple ways like collecting newsletter subscribers, sales contacts, beta testers, or even job candidates by helping companies reach out to a larger audience with their message. One example of this is beauty products giant Sephora who’s chatbot offers customers makeup tutorials, skincare tips and product suggestions to suit their specific needs. This means not only are customers receiving personalised care in-store, but it also translates digitally.
Increase Website Views
Chatbots bring the forefront of your website to users. By firing through quick links on how customers can help themselves online - brands are able to quickly deal with repetitive queries that come through consistently and free up staff time. Chatbots are helping businesses eliminate unqualified leads and connect sales reps with qualified ones. This helps sales specialists spend less time on acquiring leads and focus more on building relationships with prospects.
Sales Revenue
Probably one of the most exciting reasons for a chatbot right? Brands are increasing their revenue in really creative ways. Take for example National Geographic who used a Messenger chatbot to carry out a daily quiz with those who played. By taking this quiz, users were also shown a new ebook, Almanac. The brand’s chatbot also encouraged users to purchase this e-book by offering a 10% discount, which boosted its sales.
As we mentioned above, there are all sorts of different chatbots and the first step is to identify where a digital assistant would best suit your brand. Get in touch with the Ako team for a free demonstration of our InConvo chatbot platform and determine where a chatbot could help your brand.
Contact us any time to start the process or ask any questions you may have about how chatbots work.