Chatbots have existed since some time, but they did not attract the attention of marketers until recently. Ever since Facebook’s announcement that it would implement chatbots in its Messenger application, all of a sudden they became the rage. More and more applications are resorting to chatbots to create interesting customer experiences.
Here’s what marketers need to know about chatbots:
Chatbots are of two types
Chatbots are basically programmed bots that are governed by rules and artificial intelligence. They can carry on a conversation or a chat with you via a chat interface to answer your questions.
The first type of chatbot that exists are business-oriented, with simplistic purposes. The Facebook Messenger chatbots are of this type.
The other type of chatbot are the chatbot platforms like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc. They are more robust in nature and help people in a variety of ways from setting alarms to searching for restaurants nearby.
Chatbots have been here for a while, now
Remember all those times when you would try to connect to a customer service or a helpline? Usually you would be greeted with an automated message. We still are greeted with similar messages across a variety of product helplines. This is perhaps the most primitive form of a chatbot which would provide you information upon pressing the right keys on your phone’s keypad.
However, this method of communication had its drawbacks. Often the process proved to be cumbersome with consumers having to navigate layers and layers of commands. Then there was the problem of dropped calls or calls that were put on hold, which is a very frustrating experience for the person on the other end.
However, now that most chatbots are messaging application-based, it is easier to communicate.
Information delivered can be retained for future references and customers get prompt replies making it a more satisfying experience altogether.
Messaging platforms have boosted the rise of Chatbots to a large extent
Messaging applications are the most-used apps these days. This automatically qualifies to be the best platform to implement chatbots. According to this study, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, both owned by Facebook has a combined user base of 1.9 billion users. The bots that are coming up are adding a new flavour to these existing with witty lines and better service.
Chatbots are still developing
By the looks of it, chatbots are going to become the next big thing in customer engagement. They might still be in infancy, but the pace at which technology is developing they will soon be evolved enough to handle complex actions and commands. The conversation flow has already become pretty fluid and we think we can look forward to something much better in the future.
Can chatbots improve website conversion?
Traditionally, marketers have pained to see majority of their website visitors leaving without converting. Online chats, popups, dynamic content etc. have helped marketers improve conversion rates to a large extent but chatbots promise to take it many notches higher.
Now, your website visitors can be greeted by a chatbot 24x7, and it can answer any query the visitor may have. Many marketers are successfully using chatbots to improve conversion. With AI based chatbots, this will only improve, going forward.
Chatbots can never replace humans
Chatbots however, will always be robotic. They can never be human or replace humans. It can assist people with a lot of things, but replacing the human touch with a bot even though it might seem likely does not seem like a feasible situation. The concept of one-on-one communication has given rise to these bots, but that is still based on a human interaction. With inbuilt artificial intelligence, chatbots are able to think like a human but are still way behind the homo sapiens.
IT & Marketing both need to work together
If you are thinking of developing a chatbot for your website, you should work with your IT department. You need to ensure maximum security so that conversations are encrypted. You may need the help of your IT department to make sure of this. It is not a simple exercise. If you want to keep your chatbot limited to your website, then the security measures are in your hands. But do keep in mind that if you wish to deploy it on public messaging platforms, you and your bot are at the mercy of their security measures.
You need to be wary of potential hackers and other malicious attackers who might want to take advantage of your bot to phish sensitive information. Moreover, chatbots require a lot of testing and 24x7 support from your IT department.
How can Chatbots change the future?
Chatbots have the ability to change something boring like looking up where to dine into a fun exercise every time. Moreover marketers can harness the power of chatbots not only to help existing users, but to reach newer users.
While marketers are looking for ways to make their marketing channels more interesting with personalized interactions, chatbots are an interesting option to consider. The world is still working on it, and soon it would become something revolutionary, and everyone will have one for their businesses. With chatbots you can turn anything boring to a proactive communication.
However, the thing that you need to ponder over, can your bot reach your customer’s expectations? It can transform the entire customer journey and make it so much more interesting than we can ever imagine.
Marketing automation platforms are slowly waking up to integrating chatbots to their platform. If you are keen to add smart chatbots, then do write to us.
