Artificial Intelligence is making headway in all spheres of businesses now. From process automation, customer support, productivity, marketing, predictive analytics etc. artificial intelligence has greatly impacted all facets of organizations worldwide. However, the greatest manifestation of artificial intelligence probably has been in the use of chatbots. What started as a trend for enhancing customer support is now being used to improve daily operations, connect with clients, increase sales and enhance the overall customer experience. Gartner estimates that by 2021, more than 50% of enterprises will spend more per annum on bots and chatbot creation than traditional mobile app development.
Organizations are already effectively using chatbots as an integral part of their customer contact strategy since chatbots are now so advanced that they can have a conversation with users just like a real person. Today’s there are different Chatbot APIs available which uses machine learning to give answers to questions and simulate human behavior. Chatbots are conversational by design and need to improve with every interaction – displaying human-like behavior. Natural Language Processing (NLP) frameworks and Machine Learning capabilities are key to achieving this objective. With NLP, bots are able to solve everyday problems of individuals and brings personalization into automated service. Machine learning on the other hand helps the bot mine data and solutions for a wide range of topics – enabling it to anticipate and proactively solve customer queries and issues within no time. The more conversations chatbots have with users, the more intelligent they become.
Types of Chatbots for Businesses
Chatbots are used in a variety of sectors such as banking, healthcare, e-commerce, travel, telecom etc. and built for different purposes. They can be useful in many aspects of the customer experience, including providing customer service, serving helpful content, booking tickets, scheduling meetings, answering user queries, boosting productivity, presenting product recommendations and engaging customers through targeted marketing campaigns.
Query Bots
Intelligent bots provide the ability to interact with your customers and answer all their queries. Most customers do have basic questions around businesses which need to be addressed to aid their purchase decisions. Instead of the customer having to call you on your phone and engaging your human resources, you can easily configure a chatbot to answer these questions which saves a lot of time for employees to focus on things that matter to the business.
Shopping Assistants
Typically used by e-commerce stores, shopping assistants can ask the people visiting the site to outline their preferences and list down the options in the inventory that fit the filters. Customers can see the products, choose to buy or see more options and can complete the payment – all while conversing with a chatbot. Chatbots are also able to help businesses collect data about their customers more efficiently. They can monitor customer behavior such as buying decisions, preferences, items purchased and so on to tailor information that will help marketers create more personalized offers and design content that will be specifically appealing to a customer.
Explainer Bots
Businesses that operate on a SaaS model generally use explainer bots to help prospective customers get a feel of the product. These bots would usually live on your website via a chat tool and help answer queries that potential customers might have. Using a combination of interactive content like images, videos and using links to drive people to the right pages, a chatbot could be a big boost to your customer success team. In case the chatbot is unable to answer any queries, it could refer the prospect to humans which in turn increases the efficiency of the sales team.
Digital Virtual Agents
Implementing chatbots to help your customers post their purchase is something every business should look at. After sales connect and listening to user feedback can make a significant difference to how businesses are perceived which is why they implement chatbots to keep helping customers with their post purchase issues. Scheduling returns, registering complaints, taking feedback – these bots can be configured to do anything that has a process to it.
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AI Automation & Bots – Transforming Support for the New Age Customer
Productivity Bots
Bots are great for enhancing business productivity. They can automate tasks that employees normally spend time doing themselves, freeing them up to focus on the things that require their human touch.
For example: Insights Bot designed by Senseforth provides meaningful insights into software crashes and isolates root causes for systemic action. Another of Senseforth’s bots – the HR Bot – addresses employee queries and helps in streamlining onboarding and retention processes.
