How Chatbots are ramping up the CX space

With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), brands now have the tools that can help them bridge the world of technology with that of customer experience and over the last five years, these tools (Conversational AI products) have become essential in not only managing but also enhancing the customer experience.

One of the most common ML applications to help boost customer experience is the prevalence of chatbots. With the help of natural language processing (NLP), chatbots can identify the correct tag or context for any conversations and share relevant information. From the customer’s perspective, they are able to get a resolution instantly and on a channel of their choice (WhatsApp, Web, In-App, Facebook Messenger, Instagram)

In recent times, AI chatbots have been dynamically changing the way enterprises connect, interact and engage with their customers. Many organisations have deployed chatbots to manage their customer service operations and offer an enhanced customer experience.

The consumers of today have become extremely demanding and expect that the brand should be available for them 24×7. There is also a growing need for personalisation. People tend to respond to personalised messages more. Technology powered chatbots offer a cost-effective measure to increase the customer satisfaction score and offer 24X7X365 support.

Many users would prefer the option to tackle issues by leveraging self-service facilities rather than getting on a call with a client service agent. And this is why chatbots on mobile are an excellent choice for businesses and customers.

In the past year, chatbot for customer support was used by over 67 per cent of customers who interacted with businesses. Furthermore, data suggests that most customers are only concerned with getting their query solved and don’t care if their query is being handled by an AI-powered bot or an actual human being.

Adoption of new technology comes with its own set of challenges. However, in the case of chatbots, the users have already progressed well on the learning curve. Market estimates suggest that 60 per cent of people aged 20 to 30 are already using chatbots consistently to buy commodities, get answers to their queries, track their orders and answer any queries that they may have. 

Chatbots Vs Mobile apps

Many believe that chatbots are a mere extension of a mobile app and thus see a little value addition in chatbots. A lot of brands now have specific apps to engage with customers and drive repeat sales. Some of these apps also have chatbot support to assist people. While mobile apps are confined to a particular platform, a chatbot can be across mediums. One can have chatbot integration in the app, on the website, in Facebook messenger and even on WhatsApp. Chatbots have the potential to become a crucial part of an organisation’s omnichannel strategy and help them drive business growth at a fraction of a cost. 

Advantages of Chatbots

Here are some of the reasons why organisations are integrating chatbots

• On-demand customer support: Chatbots enable customers to get the information that they need faster. People don’t have to read through the FAQs or spend time looking up the answers. They can simply type or say and the chatbot can fetch the result for them.
• Better response time: It is difficult for a human customer support executive to respond to every query of each customer. This may result in some people not getting the answers they seek and may also result in some people not getting the attention that they deserve. A chatbot can field multiple queries at that the same time and only pass complex ones to a human executive. This not only helps save time for the customer but also takes the load of the human executives and enables the system to work more efficiently.
• Personal Touch: A Chatbot can be optimised and fed personal data that is stored in CRM. Using this information and data, the chatbot can offer customers personalised service by carefully addressing them and answering every question attentively. Human-to-AI interactions have come a long way and along with that the customer services are evolving and maturing to a more natural language flow. 

The author is CEO and Founder, Verloop.io