By Dez Duran-Lamanilao
In recent years, companies have started to recognize the benefits of having a chatbot app, so they can initiate and stimulate conversations with their audience over the net. While chatbots are initially designed to perform automated tasks, their function is mostly maximized live online in various chat platforms or on social media.
Chatbot Benefits for Businesses
If you haven’t considered using a chatbot yet and your business is continuously growing, now may be the time to re-evaluate your options. Here are some of the key advantages, depending on the chatbot app you decide to use:
- Better customer service thus increased customer engagement for your brand
- Using chatbots will allow you to keep up with the latest trends (consumers may ask you questions that can help you improve your product offer).
- Faster and easier monitoring of consumer data and insights
- Cost-saving
- Saves time and manpower
- Lead generation and possible conversions
- Increased brand image and product awareness – you are available to answer your customers 24/7 and this undoubtedly, expands your customer base.
- Increased accuracy and less room for mistakes or errors
- Chatbots used within an organization can pave the way for more motivated employees and improved performance.
Chatbot Benefits for Consumers
Aside from better customer service and greater opportunities to engage with you, your existing and prospective customers are armed with the right information whenever, wherever. Any person would prefer having the answers to their questions readily available as this also saves time and money for them. With their attention span getting shorter by the day, a chatbot app clears the path of establishing a good relationship between the business and the customer.
Chatbot Examples
Depending on what you want to achieve, some of the more popular chatbot builders are the ff.:
- Chatfuel – the leading platform for creating chatbots for Facebook; increased sales, reduced costs, and automated support; uses templates so you can run your bot quickly
- Alexa for Business – simplified meeting rooms, voice-enabled applications, more productive employees and intuitive management and control
- TARS – higher conversion rate, more quality leads and most importantly, happier customers
- Chatbot – promises automated customer service within 10 minutes; allows you to connect the tools (e.g. Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Twitter, Slack, etc.) you already know using one-click integrations
- Botsify – helps you begin your customer service using a bot and allows you to transition to a human support agent in case the bot gets stuck
Small businesses can evaluate for themselves which may be the most appropriate chatbot software to use that will meet their organization’s short- and long-term goals when it comes to engaging with their audience. Choosing the right provider may require certain criteria such as artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, administrative platform, consumer experience, expertise, and pricing.
