Drive ROI through Chatbots
In the future, chatbots may be able to do everything; from distributing media, to offering personalized concierge services. Presently, there is a burgeoning bot economy, integrating the advancements in Artificial Intelligence, with the vast build up of messaging platforms, making chatbots a disruptive force, in the customer service industry specially.
There is a reason why chatbots are considered so attractive; they promise a plethora of things. Google has a chatbot that debates the meaning of life. Domino’s and Tinder partnered up to build a chatbot. This glitz and glamour, however, does little to convince the decision makers how these bots can boost their business.
Here are some ways in which Chatbots can help businesses save on cost, thereby increasing overall revenue:
1. Reduce Operational Costs
Chatbots have advanced knowledge bases and evolved operating systems. They save on time by helping customers quickly, and improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. Each time a customer interacts with a chatbot, in comparison to a live person, the cost per query reduces.
Even if the chatbot interaction eventually leads to customer representative to interact with the customer due to the complexity of the query, the chatbot records the basic information of the customer beforehand, saving the representative precious time.
Chatbots lead to a quicker resolution for customers, a lower cost-per-interaction for companies, and better use of agents’ paid time.
2. Lower Labour Expense
A very large part of cost for businesses where there is a lot of customer face time needed, is labour expenses. Businesses who reduce their agent count to save money often find the number of calls and chats in their queue skyrocketing – and customer satisfaction levels taking a hit. Longer wait times equal a more expensive phone bill, meaning that cutting staff may actually end up costing more than it saves.
Around 30% customer service positions can be automated using chatbots. Chatbots can also handle a large number of customers simultaneously, that humans cannot. And a chatbot will usually cost less than an agent’s annual salary, and be more than efficient.
3. Round-the-clock Availability
Customers expect companies to deliver 24/7 customer service. This can pose a problem for businesses that don’t want to operate during late-night or low-traffic hours.
By letting Chatbots handle after-hour queries, companies can provide customers with the support they need, and when they need it, without having to hire additional agents to cover these odd working hours.
4. Better Employee Satisfaction
Most of the customer service enquiries that come are regular, run-of-the-mill queries that do not need an innovative answer. If an agent is answering these all day, they stop finding their job challenging, thereby reducing their job satisfaction.
Employing chatbots for the mundane queries, and using agents for more engaging tasks will make the job more fun for them, and increase their satisfaction levels.
5. Value in Customer Satisfaction
Chatbots help resolve customers’ issues on digital channels that are convenient for customers and inexpensive for companies. With Chatbots, customers don’t have to wait in a queue for an agent to assist them, and they won’t be placed on hold while an agent looks up information. Chatbots give customers frictionless support with less effort and can resolve issues as quickly as customers can type. They never tire, do not call in sick, and if designed correctly are consistent and exacting.
6. Greater Savings Over Time
An affective dealing with a chatbot for the first time gives the customer confidence in the query management system of the company, encouraging them to use chatbots for future query resolutions, thereby reducing the cost for the company.
7. Drive Revenue
Chatbot technology can be used to generate leads and make sales. Chatbots can proactively alert customers to sales and discount opportunities, increasing upsells and engaging visitors.Chatbots can also be used for marketing campaigns. Creative bots often get a lot of mileage on social media, helping to spread brand awareness. They can be used to make communicating with brands more personalized – and more fun.
Chatbots are the future.
Mobile is the dominant computing technology for consumers; and chatbots are well suited to mobile. Consumers prefer text-based communications, and therefore integrating bots into messaging apps enables the users to use an array of service without having to go through multiple platforms. This will eventually lead to chatbots being the primary interface for B2C interactions.
If you are looking for someone to help you with creating some top quality consumer interactions through bot technology, come and connect with us at CX Unicorn!
We are a full-service digital customer experience & marketing agency. We connect brands to customers through creativity, data science and technology.
About the Author:
Shailika is a Digital Marketing Manager with CX Unicorn. Extremely passionate about the digital space, she constantly strives to keep up with the dynamic landscape, keeping the consumer in the center. She also really likes croissants.