It’s easier to imagine today with chatbots. After initial teething problems in 2016, these clever little helpers are now experiencing a revival. While the bots lacked some customer-friendly functions back then, they are much better accepted nowadays due to technological progress.
Bots Have Already Moved Into These Industries
More than 11,000 Facebook Messenger bots were already out to help in 2016. But unfortunately, without success at first. Consumers needed to be convinced by the functions offered to them. In the meantime, the tide has turned: Anyone who books a table at the restaurant around the corner in the evening or has questions about shipping their goods is now very likely to encounter them: The competent helpers have made daily life easier. So you’ll find chatbots in many different industries these days. For example:
- In customer service,
- in the news section,
- for product information,
- in authorities,
- in tourism,
- in banks and insurance companies,
- in B2B,
- for branding,
- When shopping,
- or in entertainment.
AI Chatbots On The Rise
Not just prefabricated answers, but so much more: today’s intelligent AI chatbots can learn and communicate with you very individually. At the end of 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, which led not least to the breakthrough. Since then, new AI bots have been sprouting up like mushrooms. Not only AI text generators at smaller and medium-sized companies but also the big ones are becoming more and more popular. For example, corporations like Google and Meta have been researching and developing their AI chatbots for years.
What Characteristics Should Your Chatbot Have?
There are some general characteristics that your chatbot should have. Of course, other things need to be present depending on the industry.
The End Justifies The Means
First of all, the bot must serve its purpose. What is included on your site? How can customers and employees alike benefit from it? So make sure that the chatbot always does what it is supposed to do. For example, you can come to our training camp to train your AI bot accordingly.
Your Bot Makes Things Easier, Not More Complicated
New technologies can be challenging. So ensure your chatbot makes things easier for everyone, not more complicated. Most people don’t like repetitive tasks, so this is an ideal place to use a bot to help. Customers and employees can benefit from quick and easy access to specific information. Here, too, the bot should facilitate the process and ensure greater efficiency and time savings, for example.
Ease Of Use Should Be Capitalized
To make everything as easy as possible for customers and employees, the usability of the chatbot is critical. The simpler and more self-explanatory the application, the more likely everyone involved, especially your customers, will use the bot. It is important to remember that many users go online with their cell phones and often quickly enter a question or place an order between “door to door”. So it’s best to reduce the bot to the bare essentials.
The Chatbot With The Special Something
Even if it’s clear and straightforward, a human touch will make your customers want to interact with your bot. The prefabricated, static answers that chatbots used to give some time ago are no longer in demand. A touch of humor, friendliness and specific know-how is allowed. That way, your customers feel well taken care of and almost feel they are participating in a human conversation.
Your Chatbot Never Stops Learning
Since AI bots have been available, the chatbot can constantly learn. Frustrations because questions from your users are not understood or misinterpreted can thus be avoided. Chatbots should therefore be able to learn and remember what they have already been told, e.g. your customers will feel taken seriously if the bot already knows what their telephone or customer number is and does not have to be entered again and again. AI bots can also remember preferences if they are well-trained. This makes them appear authentic and optimizes the customer experience.
Sensitivity In The Chatbot? Of Course!
It’s all about the right balance – just like in everyday human communication, chatbots can now find the right balance in the length of a customer conversation. On the one hand, the bot must be able to keep users talking long enough to answer the question, but on the other hand, the conversation must be brief. Several short, easy-to-understand messages are, therefore, optimal.
Networking Is Also Essential For Your Bot
For your bot to be helpful and facilitate your work, it should ideally be implemented in the entire construct of your company. It also makes sense that it is connected to your CRM system. This is important so that it can filter all customer-relevant information from the existing data records.
This is the only way to turn it into a real AI chatbot that can give your users an individual answer thanks to the omni-channel approach. Your bot becomes more independent and can, for example, actively communicate the current order status to your customers without contacting support.
Also Read: SMS Vs. WhatsApp Business: Is One Better Than The Other?