5 reasons why smart businesses are launching chatbots

Published July 13, 2021, 9:30 AM

by MB Technews


With today’s add-to-cart, pasabuy, food delivery, and cashless culture, it’s no longer enough to just have services available to customers online. Businesses are now focusing on improving customer experience in order to be ahead of their competitors. This year as we continue with the new normal setup, stores and enterprises are finding ways to deliver more convenient and seamless services online to make way for a better customer experience – and chatbots are one of the solutions that they turn to.

A chatbot, in simple terms, is an online program designed to have conversations with users on its own. A chatbot can be deployed on any messaging app so users can access and use it without downloading additional apps. It can answer customer inquiries and concerns, display a menu of products and services, process transactions, and even escalate issues to a human agent. Here are 5 reasons why innovative brands are already taking the lead in their respective industries with their own chatbots:

#1: Better Presence and Accessibility

Since 2015, messaging apps have already trumped social networks in terms of the number of monthly active users. Customers now prefer to connect with brands via chat, and having a chatbot on Messenger where you can reach 1.3 billion users (as of October 2020) can give you a competitive edge. Even with just free data, customers can communicate with your brand via the chatbot and get a response instantly, whether or not there’s a human agent online. With a chatbot, your brand can be available to address customers’ needs anytime and all the time.

#2: More Interactive Experience

A chatbot offers unlimited ways to engage your customers. Artificial intelligence allows chatbots to be trained to respond to greetings and thanks while its conversational nature can simulate more humanlike interactions. You can even get creative and let your chatbot tell jokes. Chatbot content can include interactive media such as images, GIFs, videos, and emojis. Plus, with the push notification feature, re-engaging customers can be as easy and simple as sending a message to a friend.

#3: Easier and Smoother Operations

Aside from streamlining daily tasks such as responding to customer inquiries, chatbots can automate processes and make in-app transactions less complicated for users. In just a few clicks, customers can purchase a product, avail of a service, or get the information they need. By accommodating as many customers at the same time and making transactions easier, a chatbot can double your sales for you.

#4: Extensive Customer Support

With a chatbot, your business can be operational 24/7 to entertain questions and address complaints. Natural language processing (NLP) enables chatbots to understand and respond to user input accurately, reducing the need for human intervention. Additionally, the chatbot can connect to a live agent upon demand or when an issue is too complex. A carousel menu of answers to frequently asked questions that customers can easily view can also be a main feature of the chatbot.

#5: Comprehensive Insights

Gain useful insights that can help your brand meet customer expectations based on Messenger conversations and other data that can be collected from your chatbot. Integrated with an advanced dashboard system, a chatbot can produce vital information such as the total number of users, best-selling products, and conversation drop-off points which can help you make the necessary adjustments to your strategy. You can even gather feedback directly from customers by conducting a survey through the chatbot.

Ultimately, a chatbot works to upgrade your online services and keep your customers satisfied, which is what makes all the difference for brands that have them. To learn more about chatbots and how they can enhance customer experience, visit http://alfafusion.com/ or contact Chief Marketing Officer, Sheryl Coronel at [email protected].