Entirely contrary to Artificial Intelligence’s image that Hollywood has brainwashed into our heads, which includes rather comical portrayals of power-hungry robots on a mission to end the human race. AI, in its many applications, has dramatically impacted the way we lead our lives today. Whether it is the fantasy of a self-driving car, data protection, or home assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa that answer our annoying queries in a matter of seconds, the ever-growing technology of AI has eased modern life in a multitude of ways.
However, speaking of artificial intelligence’s more practical applications, perhaps no application is as useful as the chatbot’s highly convenient invention.
What is a Chatbot?
A chatbot is an AI-powered wonder that significantly strengthens communication within businesses by providing automated responses to common customer queries in a matter of seconds. While there is a certainty that the massive potential that AI has will only lead to the culmination of more tech miracles, the significant role that chatbots play within companies needs to be acknowledged, and consequently, explored further.
Not only do chatbots allow for effective communication to occur between a business and a potential consumer. But this handy technology also makes it significantly easier to handle customer service operations as a whole. Furthermore, an additional benefit of utilizing the AI-driven chatbot is that businesses don’t have to invest a mind-bogglingly large sum of money on customer service operations. It means that they get to enjoy a significant reduction in overall operational costs. According to industry reports, companies that deploy chatbots in their customer service operations get to save as much as 30% of their investments. It is a vast difference compared to taking a traditional customer service approach.
In an attempt to bring our readers up to speed about the massive potential that chatbots have in boosting customer service operations, we’ve compiled an article that highlights some of the ways through which chatbots ensure seamlessness within a business’s customer service operations. If you’re a business owner interested in the perks that chatbots have to offer, keep reading on!
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Chatbots Allow Businesses to be ‘Available’ 24/7
Perhaps the most significant feature that chatbots have to offer to a business these days is the option to be available to existing and potential customers 24/7. Chatbots significantly increase a company’s availability. It does this while increasing efficiency in responding to customers’ queries, which ultimately makes for a timely response.
In today’s highly digitized age, most consumers have an attention span big enough to scroll through their social media feeds, and even then, many complain of getting bored by the content shown to them. In the age of information, time is of the essence. The sooner a consumer is responded to, the higher their chances of purchasing their product from a particular business. It is only natural for organizations to desire 24/7 customer support, which can respond to customers effectively regardless of their time.
While businesses can also deploy live customer agents to offer ‘personal’ customer support to their clients, the fact of the matter is that no customer agent can be available round the clock. As an alternative to chatbots, businesses may deploy customer support agents on a shift-basis. But that is bound to result in a significant portion of the company’s budget allocated to customer service. Moreover, this option isn’t feasible for smaller companies, who don’t have the financial resources to invest in 24/7 live support.
Fortunately, however, chatbots provide a much affordable and much efficient alternative. By deploying chatbots, businesses can ensure much greater availability. The AI-centric technology can handle customer service queries all round the clock without costing much money. According to some surveys, it would seem that a staggering 64% of customers find chatbots more appealing, primarily because they offer 24/7, hassle-free support.
Chatbots Significantly Boost Customer Satisfaction
Customer service’s primary goal is to produce happy, satisfied customers, which is where chatbots shine in all their glory. However, once a business offers an overall satisfactory customer service experience to the consumer, they have gained the customer’s trust. They have scored a long-term relationship with them, proving extremely beneficial in building the business’s reputation. A company’s growth always lies in tandem with the degree of customer satisfaction achieved.
Owing to the competitiveness of the business landscape, consumers now have high expectations of customer satisfaction and expect companies to go out of their way to make them happy. Modern customers will only rate their customer service experience as positive if brands surpass all their expectations and develop a unique approach that caters to their individual needs.
Generally speaking, customers look for the following positive components in a customer service experience:
- Quick and apt responses
- High Average Handle Time (AHT)
Similarly, if a customer service experience contains the following factors, it is most likely to get marked as a negative experience by customers:
- Silly mistakes, such as grammatical errors, communication gaps.
- The unprofessional attitude of the customer service agent
By deploying chatbots, businesses can quickly secure much higher customer satisfaction levels. They provide customers with prompt responses to their queries and stray far away from simple human errors. While some individuals might deem chatbots as “impersonal,” the fact of the matter is, they are far more efficient in offering customer support than live support agents.
Chatbots Significantly Reduce Waiting Time for Customers
If you’ve ever contacted a live customer support agent on the phone, you might be familiar with the plight of having to wait for hours to have a simple question answered. Unless you’re someone who’s taken a vow of patience, chances are you wouldn’t enjoy being put on hold during a customer service interaction, which is precisely where chatbots come in handy.
Through the deployment of chatbots, companies can ensure that no customer has to deal with the hassle of waiting for an answer. Instead, chatbots offer a seamless experience, with one-stop solutions to even the most complex of problems. However, it is worth mentioning that chatbots work best when used in tandem with a comprehensive database that allows for a more personalized experience.
Parting Words
As the world continues to rely on artificial intelligence and its many applications, we can only hope to see further developments in chatbots. However, it is worth mentioning that a perfect business model incorporates elements of both chatbots and traditional customer service methods to offer customers the best of both worlds!
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How Can AI-driven Chatbots Boost Customer Service Operations? was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.