Stay Connected With Your Customers Even in a Physically Disconnected World

In a world where customers are used to getting everything they need immediately, chatbots have already become a vital part of our daily lives. From paying utility bills to getting financial advice regarding important investments to interacting with favorite brands without browsing their websites — chatbots are at the vanguard of round-the-clock online customer service. 

This level of superior customer service can not only result in customer retention but also overall profitability. Satisfied customers tend to stay associated with a company and even expand their investment, refer others, and – generally – agree to pay premiums rather than switching to a brand with whom they’re neither familiar nor comfortable. Both customer support chatbot and IT support chatbots bank on this phenomenon to boost a company’s sales and market performance via user experiences.

While older versions of chatbots relied on identifying keywords and solving only static, repetitive queries - modern chatbots improve customer service by a lot more. Advanced conversational AI support bots can now contextually converse with the user, creating an enriched, personalized, and compelling experience. They are designed to understand the intent behind a user's messages and even identify emotions. This has made it possible for chatbots to go from being just an additional support accessory to a powerful business tool that directly corresponds with end-customers across various touchpoints including web, mobile, WhatsApp, email, and virtual home assistants like Alexa. 

The modern way to support customers

Traditional customer support services are plagued with issues like technical inconsistencies, inefficient practices, and sometimes, human error. These have given rise to customer complaints such as -

• Difficulties in communicating with agents from offshore call centers
• Lengthy wait and hold times
• Repetitive call transfers
• Never-ending automated self-service menus 

Many of these issues can now be addressed with the help of conversational AI. This is of vital importance given the physical distancing norms imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Incorporating AI-powered personal assistants across customer touchpoints can ensure a seamless service delivery even with support centers operating at limited capacity.  

Gartner claimed long back that 25% of customer service and support operations would integrate chatbots across engagement channels by 2020. However, little was it expected that the adoption rate would grow so phenomenally. Today, experts forecast that over 53% of service organizations will adopt chatbots by the end of 2020, and these numbers are only increasing as the need for social distancing grows. In the new normal of the business landscape, augmented automation and remote workplaces are a testament to this growth. That said, the ultimate goal of chatbots in customer service is very fundamental—providing customers with instant and accurate responses.

Automate routine requests and outbound notifications to prioritize the things that matter

So how can chatbots improve customer service? What are the chatbot use cases applicable to business operations? Well, let’s begin with simple numbers. Advanced, well-trained chatbots can accurately and instantly respond to 80% of routine customer service questions. Their popularity has been soaring as the number of chatbot use cases increase day-by-day, and the millennials populate the customer base. 55% of respondents of a survey said that they want chatbots involved in the customer service process. And with chatbots becoming a critical stakeholder in the customer service game, repetitive questions become less of a hassle for human agents. Without the need to handle routine requests and send timely alerts/payment reminders/follow-ups, human agents can focus predominantly on handling complex problems effectively. Some popular chatbot uses include-

This is the era of conversational customer services

From automated messages to visual search, chatbots empower companies to better support customer needs along their journey.

• Personalized experience: Chatbots can leverage conversation and transaction history of customers to provide hyper-personalized suggestions and interactive experiences. 
• Instant gratification: Customer queries are responded to or redirected almost immediately, making them reliable during times of emergencies. According to a survey, over 37% of people prefer customer service bots during emergencies. The efficiency achieved by having a chatbot in place can cut the average handling time of queries by 50% and reduce support costs by over 30%.
• 24/7 conversational support: With chatbots in place, customer service teams can provide not merely round-the-clock customer support, but also ensure high quality and consistency of responses. This ultimately leads to customer satisfaction and a reduction in the volume of repeat calls by as much as 40%.
• Preference pattern recognition: Chatbot conversations have proven useful in gathering information from users and understanding a preference pattern. These insights can augment user data collected during their shopping and transactions. This allows the chatbots to provide intuitive suggestions. 
• Omnichannel integration: By integrating conversational AI, organizations can help customers get consistent responses across different channels, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, e-mail, website, and mobile apps. Further, this also ensures better conversation continuity, thereby reducing the need for customers to repeat their queries over and over. 
• Self-learning and building of databases: AI, in combination with machine learning, can teach itself and build databases on-top of the training data. It can learn, understand, improvise, and execute with a continually growing library of data. 

Tailor new connections with chatbots

The apparent benefits that customer support chatbots bring to the table cannot be overestimated. By responding to most standard questions, conversational chatbots reduce overall costs and expedite response time. Owing to the faster and more accurate responses, organizations can benefit from lower customer bounce rate and increased retention.

By proactively educating customers with targeted messaging, preemptively answering their questions, and providing visual tours, they reduce the support volume and improve customer experiences across several customer-facing industries. 
Expand your audience outreach, boost your brand image, and augment customer satisfaction with zero-coding chatbot platforms. Reduce the training period and time-to-launch of your chatbot with pre-trained industry models that require minimal information input!