If you are looking to boost your revenue and improve customer experience by using chatbots, you have come to the right place. Here, we will dive deep into the usage of chatbots, best practices and what will work best for your business. 

But first, let us see what chatbots are. 

Chatbots are automated programmes that engage in conversations with customers. These are usually hosted on messaging platforms for websites and social media. Many chatbots are powered by AI which allows them to efficiently address the customers’ queries, which helps acquire and retain a lot of customers and provides them with a valuable experience.

The hype around AI and chatbots has been increasing in recent times, and justifiably so. These are instant and quick, which saves a lot of time and money for businesses. They are the perfect solution for taking over mundane tasks, so you and your employees can focus on more productive work.

Two Types of Chatbots 

There are many different categorisations of chatbots. Here, we will discuss the two major types – Decision Flow Chatbot and Natural Language Processing (NLP) Chatbot.

Decision Flow Chatbot: These are static bots, which means the responses are predefined. Here, the users are given several options to choose from, and the bot responds accordingly. The given options are different and dynamic and can be based on customer queries and previous transactions.

Benefits of Decision Flow Chatbot include –

  • Accurate and straightforward response.
  • Highly customisable.
  • Easy to set up.
  • Simple handover process to the human agent.

Language Processing (NLP) Chatbot: In this type, instead of presenting the end-user with predefined options, the bot tries to understand the queries in the form of sentences, and responds by targeting specific keywords. This type often includes supervised learning, where the bot learns from the customers’ feedback.

Benefits of NLP Chatbot include –

  • A more intimate experience.
  • Higher sentimental value.
  • Self-learning saves a lot of time and money in the long run.
  • Requires less human intervention.

Major Use Cases of Chatbot 

Customer Service: One of the biggest use cases of chatbots includes providing prompt customer service. Customers are always looking for a quick response, and a chatbot is just the right tool for the job. It not only speeds up the response but also drastically cuts down the costs of the customer service.

Sales: A chatbot can boost your sales by asking relevant questions, collecting leads, booking meetings and more. It’s a tool that works for you 24/7. It can also provide guidance for customers by providing recommendations based on their browsing activities, interests and previous purchases, and segments them based on available information.

Marketing: Messaging is one of the most convenient ways of reaching out to your target audience, which makes chatbots a great marketing tool. You can send catalogues, articles, product updates and recommendations to your customers using chatbots. CNN and Amazon are two prime examples that use chatbots for marketing purposes.

Best Practices with Chatbot 

You need to choose and implement your business chatbot the right way to get the most out of it. Here are our recommendations –

  • Define your objectives: What would be the purpose of your chatbot? Is it for customer service, sales or marketing?
  • Identify your target audience: What are your target audience’s needs and problems? How can the bot address their expectations?
  • Choose the right type of chatbot: Do you expect simple or complex queries from your customers? What type of interaction is expected from your customers?

When you go stepwise you will gain a much better understanding of why and what kind of chatbot you need for your business. Also, if you are interested in building custom chatbots tailored to your business, or need simple consultation, we can greatly help. Let’s talk!