There is an endless stream of online content on Chatbots, their application, use cases, best practices and also material on where they are less applicable.
WHAT are chatbots : Per wikipedia “A chatbot is a computer program which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods. “.
- Bots are programmed workflow based interactive responses that are trained with Artificial Intelligence, aimed at making conversations meaningful and goal oriented.
- Ideal bot flows for the present day demand a great conversational experience with seamless transition between Live Chat and Automated Bots.
WHO should consider chatbots : Any business can run on a messaging platform that is optimized and curated to evolve as a great conversational platform.
- Businesses that want to offer messaging capabilities to connect, engage and interact with their customers should explore the “bots and chat” strategy and its implications for the business.
- Travel, Lending, Insurance, Buy/Sell, all industries that handle a ton of customer interactions, and operate on BROWSE, COMPARE, SHOP should consider chatbots.
WHEN should you explore chatbots : NOW.
- There is wealth of market research, acceptance and adoption of Chatbots across several industries and business operations.
- If you have a business service or product offerings that requires a realtime, easy yet rule/filter based interactions, then chatbots would be best to explore.
WHY should chatbots be considered : Firstly chatbots are here to stay!
- Just as websites and social media, made a strong foothold, chatbots shall be around for a long time.
- The customer generation today and in coming years is highly comfortable with messaging and self-help apps.
- Chatbots are great at being programed for self-help while providing a FANTABULOUS messaging(chat) experience.
WHERE should chatbots be used : All digital channels!
- Website – Official website, marketing sites, affiliate sites, landing pages, if you have a site page with your logo, you need a web chat widget.
- FB Messenger – let visitors to your FB page start exploring your products and services. Extend your FB page to offer more that just advertising and attention grabber. Power it to be a conversion platform without losing the customer.
- SMS – connect and re-connect or continue conversation as SMS texts. Interact with customer in their preferred digital channel, while managing all interactions at a central place.
- Conversational Agents – Alexa, Allo
- and more such as to route phone calls, distribute emails based on content(intent) or sentiment based feedback/review classification and escalation.
HOW do chatbots help : A stable and robust messaging platform enables your business agents to connect with consumer instantaneously.
- Of course there are best practices to be followed and monitored to derive experience feedback and alter or pivot the interactions as necessary.
- There is no One-Size-Fits-All when it comes to Chatbots or conversational interactions. You need to understand what best would be accepted and liked by your consumers and put together the exprience.
CONCLUSION : The verdict is out, bots are here to stay, improve and get more robust. The faster you get your business live with chatbots, the sooner data available to extract consumer behavior patterns and better the experience will get over time. New year is around the corner.
- Welcome your future consumers by making the experience likable and acceptable to their tastes.
- Thank your business agents by ensuring they have an easy to learn, adapt and manage the messaging platform, as they join and serve your customers.
Let the highlight of 2018 be about chatbots for your business. If you have not explored platforms to connect and engage your customers, do it now.
This material was originally posted at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse /what-who-why-where-how-chatbots-aru- anavekar/
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