Introduction
It is expected that by the end of this year, over 80% of businesses will be using chatbots in one way or another. Chatbots have become important for many businesses and their need can only be expected to grow with time. Businesses across various industries are niches are introducing chatbots every passing day to interact with their customers.
They are being used by small businesses, big businesses and many digital marketing service providers to improve daily operations and to increase incomes. They are also being used as a way to satisfy customer expectations which are increasing with every passing day with the rapid growth of technology.
If you still are looking for reasons to get a chatbot then look no further, as this piece has been put together to enlist the 10 different reasons as to why your business needs a chatbot. Let’s get started!
1. Your Business Will Always Be Open:
For any kind of business keep a business open around the clock is very difficult, but with the help of chatbots, it is possible to keep businesses open all the time. Most of the time when customers reach out to businesses, they don’t get a response till the business hours’ resume, but if and when such businesses use chatbots, it is easy to give such customers timely and prompt responses.
Chatbots can do a lot more than just answer questions. They can also make reservations and give a lot of information relating to different details about your business. If and when you use chatbots, your business can be open and functioning for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year!
It will improve the efficiency and productivity of your business to a considerable extent as with the help of chatbots you are available to attend to your potential customers in one way or another, all day long.
2. Build Trust by Answering Questions:
When it comes to online businesses the competition is very fierce is almost all industries and niches. Small business always finds themselves competing with very well established players and they are always on the lookout of one way or the another to gain competitive leverage over their counterparts. Chatbots can help such businesses in standing out from the crowd because of the benefits that can be availed from their use.
Chatbots provide instant answers to the multiple queries of potential customers, regardless of the time of the day or night. If and when you add frequently asked questions to the chatbot, it will get a lot more effective in answering questions of the customers. You can even program the chatbot into answering tricky questions and providing key information about your business. This will help you in building trust among your current and potential customers to a considerable extent.
3. Great User Experience:
Chatbots are more effective than human agents in initiating an interaction, or that is what is believed by many industry insiders. If and when a bot is properly set up, it can trace a navigation pattern and help users with specific issues. Since chatbots interact with specificities, they are more effective than human agents in conversations.
Chatbots help in saving a lot of time and they can also do multi-tasking easily by interacting with 3-4 users at a time. Theoretically, chatbots can engage with any number of users. It helps in businesses in saving a lot of money because chatbots are more cost-effective as you just need one chatbot as opposed to hiring many employees.
4. Very Effective in Scaling Business:
Chatbots have made it possible for businesses to handle more customer queries than ever before. If you still haven’t woken up to smell the coffee and are still using human agents, then you will just be able to handle a limited number of customers at the same time. But if you use human agents along with chatbots, then you can very easily scale your operations.
Chatbots have helped a lot of businesses in scaling their operations and they can do the same for you, if and when you begin using them. Regardless of the soaring number of queries, chatbots prove to be an effective automated solution that can hardly go wrong.
5. They Provide Personal Approach:
If queries are being handled by human agents, then it is very possible that after doing the same task for several hours at a stretch, their energy and overall productivity can go down. The same doesn’t apply to chatbots who feel no tiredness as they are an automated solution.
Over and above providing the same level of service to different customers for multiple hours at a stretch, they are also able to attract clients in a more personalized way. It is because artificial intelligence has become advanced enough to generate a complete portrait of the customer which helps chatbots in improving the quality of customer service.
Thus, chatbots help in attracting new customers and retaining existing ones, as most customers deeply care about the level of customer service.
6. They Examine Customer Behavior:
Chatbots are used by many companies to collect important information from users by asking questions. They are also a great tool to communicate with consumers. They are very effective in examining customer behavior which helps businesses in decoding the needs of their clients and then accordingly altering the way they do their marketing.
If and when chatbots are given user account access, they can determine the choice of the audience by analyzing their product history and the products they have browsed through. Since chatbots are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, they are able to understand the needs of the customers and then accordingly provide a personalized experience to them.
7. They Meet Customer Expectations and Boost Brands:
In today’s day and age, chatbots have become a lot more advanced and are able to provide interactions and create a good rapport with customers. Customers expect quick responses to their complaints and queries and chatbots are able to match these expectations and even surpass them on some occasions as they are bots created by machine learning and artificial intelligence, who don’t show any signs of tiredness like human agents.
Because chatbots deliver timely responses, they have a much higher open rate than email and are considered by much offshore digital marketing agencies in a much more effective way than email marketing. Further, these boots boost customer engagement by sending visual content about different offers and discounts from time to time. Since customers can engage with chatbots at any time and get timely responses, it helps the business is ensuring customer retention and boosting the brand.
8. Cheaper Than Apps:
Chatbots are cheaper than apps because apps take a lot of money and time for development. And even after considerable expenses have been incurred in developing the app, there is no saying for sure if it will be received well by the audiences or not.
Chatbots, on the other hand, are a lot cheaper and can also prove more effective. This is because when chatbots are implemented on messengers, they are considered as a better alternative to apps. Most people spend their time on messengers and when you have chatbots on messenger, it becomes very easy for potential customers to get in touch with you.
Chatbots can be programmed to reply immediately to the different queries of the customers along with providing them suggestions and engaging them with friendly interactions.
9. Millennials Are Your Target Audience:
If millennials are your target audience, then you should definitely be using chatbots. This is because millennials prefer chat channels over any other contact channel as their generation is heavily invested in chatting and texting. They spend most of their time texting with their friends and it is one of the main reasons why live chat has become so popular over the years. Millennials prefer live chats over phone calls. This is where a chatbot can engage such millennials by serving as a personal online assistant.
10. They Resolve Problems Quickly:
Since chatbots work 24/7, they are always ready to answer the different questions of customers. Customers don’t have to wait to get answers for their queries as chatbots are always around to attend to them. It has been found in many studies and researches that the use of chatbots can lessen a company’s costs for communication with customers, by as much as 30%. They can provide answers to endless questions and the company wouldn’t feel the need to employ human agents if they have a properly programmed chatbot that is working well.
Wrapping Up
A chatbot is everything your business needs and then some more. Regardless of the industry, niche, size, and scale of your operations, a chatbot can help you in growing your business. They have a lot of benefits and the benefits aren’t just limited to customer service. They can be used for marketing, sales and even for internal tasks.
Chabot’s are the present and future because the idea of automating repetitive work makes a lot of sense to business owners across niches, industries, and countries. They are affordable than other ways and are can prove very effective, if and when you use them to scale your business.
Meanwhile, if you’ve got something to share or ask, please drop by the comments below.