Chatbots: The Rise of Conversational Chatbots, They Don’t Just Say Hi; They Are Engaging

Many of us, especially those interested in sciences, have dreamed about a real-life conversation with Einstein. National Geographic made this possible by introducing a conversational chatbots that speaks like Einstein to promote their program, Genius. The Facebook Messenger chatbots proved to be an instant hit – and resulted in many interesting conversations, ranging from the ridiculous to the intelligent, and interspersed with smart usage of GIFs.

Image Source

1. Chatbots are Engaging

With the upgrade in natural language processing (NLP), conversational chatbots can process words and phrases intelligently to give natural, human-like, responses – leading to the increased popularity of conversational bots in customer service.

According to research by Accenture, “CIOs and CTOs around the world believe conversational bots will play a critical role in the enterprise architecture of the future—and have the potential to make a huge impact on a company’s operations.”

In the survey, on which the preceding statement is based, 56% of global CIOs and CTOs agreed that conversational bots are driving disruption in their respective industries. About the same percentage also agreed that conversational bots deliver a significant return on investment for minimal effort.

Not surprisingly, 80% of businesses are expected to use chatbots in one way or the other in 2020. The reason for this mass adoption is two-fold – that is, cost savings and better customer service.

In another study, it has been found that up to 29% of customer service positions can be automated with chatbots, leading to savings of over $23 billion for U.S. businesses. Using chatbots for customer support can help companies save almost 30% of their costs – while ensuring better customer experience through minimal wait time and 24/7 support.

That’s great for businesses. But what about users? How do they feel about conversing with chatbots?

By comparing several statistics from around the world, we can positively assert that a large population views chatbots positively. According to Business Insider, globally, only 11% of consumers have a negative perception of chatbots.

2. The Science Behind Chatbots and Customer Engagement

Deloitte reports that chatbots deliver a more luxurious customer experience, as they are scalable and data-driven. Key benefits of chatbots, as viewed by Deloitte, are reproduced in the image below:

Image Source: Deloitte Digital – Adopting the Power of Conversational UX

As you can see, user engagement is a significant benefit of introducing chatbots in your customer support. Also, conversational chatbots, based on artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities, can be used to optimize various processes in almost every field. Besides customer service, conversation bots can be used for automated marketing, data mining, lead qualification, and more.

In case you are wondering how this is possible – the answer is AI.

Artificially intelligent chatbots based on NLP understand the questions posed to them contextually and provide meaningful solutions in most cases. AI-based chatbots also learn from every interaction and expand their knowledge with usage. So much so that advanced natural language processing capabilities can identify spelling or grammatical errors, enabling chatbots to interpret the intended message correctly, despite any mistakes in the text.

Thanks to the contextual understanding of queries, chatbots can lead users to logical answers, in the form of FAQs or connecting them to human agents, depending on the nature of the question, which is beneficial for both ends of the spectrum. No wonder, chatbots are increasingly being employed for a variety of functions, such as those listed below:

• Chatbots can be used to provide 24/7 live chat support on your essential touchpoints while also boosting customer experience by sharing customized offers and discounts with visitors based on their browsing history.
• Chatbots are great for personalization. Nobody wants to be treated like a stat; and, by integrating your chatbot with social media, you can enable highly personalized conversations with users based on their interests.
• Chatbots lead to higher engagement by sharing targeted content with your visitors based on the content they have previously interacted with. For example, if a visitor views a video on digital marketing on your website, your chatbot can send an automated message at the end of the video, directing them to similar content that will establish your position as a leader in the field.
• Chatbots can collect invaluable data for your business from customers who are hesitant to fill out surveys. For example, if a visitor is leaving your site without taking any action, your chatbot can send an automated message to learn more about their experience – which can give you crucial insights into how visitors interact with your website.
• As mentioned in the previous point, chatbots can be used for collecting feedback as well as for analyzing feedback according to predetermined tags to understand the general opinion about your brand.
• You can also use chatbots for deliveries. For example, Dominos chatbot can be used for placing an order, as well as tracking the delivery of your pizza.

3. How Chatbots Are Revolutionizing Various Industry Sectors

Chatbots have not only turned around customer support on its head but also found applications in other processes. Almost every industry sector has benefitted from chatbot adoption, including finance, tourism, healthcare, etc. Chatbots are being increasingly used in both B2B and B2C domains for customer support, personalized marketing, data mining, and more.

Besides automating customer support, intelligent bots are also being used in industries such as finance (COIN by JP Morgan Chase for analyzing complex contracts and Bank of America’s Erica for general queries), healthcare (Florence, that reminds patients to take their pills), law (Ailira, which generates legal documents in a jiffy), and more.

4. Chatbots, Customer Satisfaction, and Sales

According to Statista, 34% of customers preferred to communicate with an AI-bot in online retail in 2017. The reason – fast and reliable service. In 2019, the number of customers that used chatbots rose to 67%. Another interesting fact is that 40% of users don’t care whether a human or bot helps them – as long as they are getting the help they need.

This indicates not only the acceptance of bots in commerce but also the blurring line between human and bot support – owing to the conversational nature of AI-bots that can be trained for engaging conversations and even make use of smileys and GIFs, like Einstein (As mentioned previously in the article).

Conversational bots have moved beyond their usage as tools for greeting customers – and that’s a fact!

Today, bots can handle a significant chunk of customer queries and automate various time and labor-intensive tasks. According to data, chatbots can handle up to 80% of customer inquiries with high accuracy, without the need for human involvement.

This not only frees up your client-facing teams from handling repetitive queries but also leads to higher customer satisfaction due to zero wait time and consistent service.

As chatbots are machines, they don’t get tired or frustrated when customers ask odd or repetitive questions, ensuring polite and pleasant interactions at all times. Once plugged in with your CRM, you can also use your chatbot to create a pool of continually updating customer data on the one hand and highly personalized conversations on the other.

A win-win situation for everyone – isn’t it?