How Chatbots Can Level Up Your Company

When we think of artificial intelligence, things like Arnold Schwarzenegger and HAL come to mind. It’s hard to imagine that we’re living in an age of AI and that they haven’t completely taken over the world. As technology continues to expand our horizons, figuring out how to utilize them can seem complicated and stressful, but with the assistance of a professional advertising agency, this new terrene can easily prove advantageous.

Artificial intelligence is widely used today, especially by companies with customer service aids called chatbots. Chatbots are AI software applications utilized to have online conversations with consumers for fast and direct responses. These helpful applications can assist with customer needs online and over the phone. Chatbots can accommodate a vast amount of industries and is a guiding light for communicating to your audience.

Virtual Assistance for Team Productivity

For businesses, time is money and a large sum of both usually fall toward customer service. According to IMB, businesses annually spend $1.3 trillion on 265 billion customer service calls and half of these end up being routine requests that can be solved with little assistance. Before AI technology, this was a necessary cost for most businesses, but with the growing help of software agents, these costs are inefficient and can be spent on departments of higher priority. AI software can decrease the amount of calls customer service agents respond to by answering questions that are easily solved through direct website assistance. This process can easily be described as a funnel system and eliminates the stereotype that these virtual assistants will completely seize the customer service industry. With chatbots answering simple questions, business agents are predicted to save over 2.5 billion customer service hours by 2023. This gives agents the ability to spend their time and effort on complex questions that need more guidance.

Customer Satisfaction

Some businesses might doubt that consumers would prefer an automated receiver to answer their questions rather than a person, and while this is true for some, the majority of consumers would also like their questions to be answered as quickly and effortlessly as possible. If that means chatting with a robot on their phone, so be it. In fact, according to Chatbots Magazine, business leaders say chatbots have increased their customer support satisfaction scores by 24%.

With instantaneous responses, chatbots are able to engage customers and answer their questions in real time without having to wait on the phone for long periods of time. They can respond immediately to common FAQs during the first interaction, which also gives consumers time to vividly explain their issue. The 2018 state of chatbots reported that 34% of consumers predicted they’d use chatbots as a means for getting connected with a human and that 66% of millennials and 58% of baby boomers are likely to enjoy the chatbot benefits of 24 hour services. Even if a customer is having problems during non-business hours, the chatbot may be able to answer their questions and if not, they can be directed to leave a message or call during regular operating hours. Chatbots do not force businesses to operate for 24 hours, but they do give people the ability to have general questions taken care of at any time, day or night.

Building Your Yellow Brick Road

Chatbots are a virtual world that can allow both businesses and customers a less stressful and more organized way of communication. The ability to guide a client around a website or to ask them to take a short survey that would allow businesses to be evaluated on the website and their service or product is a great opportunity to improve a business. This two-way communication allows businesses to gain feedback on problems that consumers face often and advises consumers on how to solve these problems in an efficient manor. Native Message states that the response rate for chatbot surveys is higher than the average rate, which lies between 10-15%.

With email spam on the rise, less and less consumers are willing to answer surveys or talk to businesses through email. Both time and the constant flow of mail has created a negative implication with surveys. But because chatbots are created to guide the customer, positive connotations are linked to quickly rating a few services from 1 (terrible) to 5 (great). Chatbots are efficient and effective for businesses in many different ways, which is why it’s no surprise that they’re growing quickly throughout the marketing industry.

Creating your virtual assistant can take a lot of time and research, but luckily advertising agencies are ready to help you begin your transition into the future. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service online marketing agency located in Orlando, Florida. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to deliver custom content, persuasive online ads and expertly crafted campaigns. By implementing valuable and shareable digital content strategies, Appleton can create the perfect social and online marketing experience for your brand and audience. Your Internet advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.