For many of us, life without Alexa or Google Assistant seems like a distant memory…
And yet, the pace at which these AI-powered voice assistants have evolved is astonishing. Think about the fact that it took a whopping 30 years for conventional computers to be adapted as home computers (PC). Yeah.
Our AI assistants do everything from answering questions to setting alarms and controlling your smart home devices, they can do a lot to make your life easier. Plus, they’re constantly learning and improving through data and user feedback.
It’s no different for customers or prospects looking for information to make buying decisions. They want easy answers, and not to have to hunt for them.
Did you know?
According to some estimates, the global Chatbot market was valued at around $9.4 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach a value of $15.7 billion by 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.5%. (NMSC)
Chatbots create that experience, and save precious seconds if not minutes to get from A to B and be off to the races!
Chatbots are not new to the world of digital presence and fulfilling customer demand on websites and social media channels. Still, AI-powered Chatbots are revolutionizing the industry by taking much of the manual flow mapping out of the picture while creating an even more intuitive experience for the end-user through natural language processing and other smarts.
Wondering what this looks like in the real world? Check it out:
Take, for example, a hotel booking site. Without a Chatbot, it would look something like this:
Without a Chatbot:
- A person lands on the homepage wanting to book a room.
- Navigates a couple of pages to see the amenities & price.
- Goes to maps or another site to get a feel for the area and find out what attractions and public transport access are nearby.
- Comes to the website and starts booking (if they make it back).
- Has to check availability for the room type and dates.
- Looks for information on things like access, policies, check-in, checkout time, etc
- After considering everything, finally proceeds to book and checkout.
- Time taken for the above steps: ~12 minutes.
Now, imagine the same flow with a Chatbot:
With a Chatbot:
- Person lands on the website and is prompted by the Chatbot
Chatbot: Hello! What can I help you with today? Please choose from the options below:
– Book a room
– Check hotel amenities
– Cancellations & Refunds
– How to reach the hotel
– Other - The person responds: Check Hotel Amenities?
- Chatbot responds with a list of amenities available.
- Chatbot continues: We also offer wheelchair access and pet-friendly rooms + with breakfast included.
- Person asks, what’s nearby?
- Chatbot responds, we are 100 meters from famous sightseeing spots in the city and a 4-minute walk to the nearest subway station and bus stop.
- Chatbot continues: Would you like to make a booking? Just mention the number of rooms, the people you’re looking to book for, and the dates.
- Customer responds with x.
- Chatbot: It looks like we have two premium rooms available for those dates with an x view for a total of y.
- You can make a reservation today and pay within x, and cancellation is free up till y.
- Would you like to make a booking?
- Responds yes and the Chatbot then gives a link for them to make that booking.
This could all be done within a minute. It is way more likely they will convert this way than if they had to do everything themselves.
But hold on. Is Chatbot the right choice for all types of websites and businesses?
Here are some interesting stats:
(image source: Startupbonsai and Ivesp)
Please feel free to go through the entire article, or if you prefer, you’d directly jump to a specific section mentioned below:
- Why Use A Chatbot
- How Do Chatbots Work?
- What Does A Chatbot Do?
- How Can Businesses Make Use Of Chatbots To Improve Their Sales?
- Which Industry Uses Chatbots The Most?
- Great Examples of Websites Using Chatbots
Why Use A Chatbot
AI-powered Chatbot can offer to help you with several things. Instant customer support, answering FAQs, hiding with the buying process, all without the need for a human customer service representative.
As a bonus, Chatbots can also gather information on customer preferences and behaviors, helping companies improve their products and services. Here’s how.
Simplifying Search & On-demand Query Resolution
One way Chatbots can simplify search and on-demand query resolution is by being available to answer questions or provide information 24/7. This can be especially useful if you need information outside of normal business hours or if you just don’t want to spend time searching for an answer on your own. Statistics show consumers and businesses will save over 2.5 billion customer service hours by 2023. (Juniper Research).
By using NLP-Natural Language Processing to understand what users are asking for and providing relevant information in response, Chatbots do a personalized job. Because Chatbots suggest based on a user’s previous search history. This can help users find exactly what they are looking for more quickly and efficiently. About 75-90% of businesses experience quicker resolutions to their customer queries after using Chatbots.
Increased Lead Volume
What if a Chatbot on a dentist’s website assists you by asking you all the relevant questions required for your 1st visit and suggests the next step without an element of doubt?
AI-powered Chatbots can increase lead volume by processing multiple users at once. They can also encourage visitors to fill out forms, make super personalized recommendations, solve basic problems and increase the overall website conversion.
55% of the businesses that make use of Chatbots have shown that they acquire high-quality leads.
Organizations are leveraging the benefit of technology to add more value to their businesses by bringing in a computer program that can attend 50,000 calls a day. Isn’t that a stunning stat?
Conversion Of Leads To Customers
AI-Powered Chatbots can counter objectives and solve problems in real time. This means they can resolve queries and concerns of your visitors and reduce the back and forth!
According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, companies that use AI-powered Chatbots have seen a 53% increase in conversions.
Additionally, Chatbots are particularly effective at converting leads into customers in the e-commerce and financial services industries. Business leaders claim that on average, Chatbots have increased sales by 67%.
Better Understanding Of The Customer Journey
Chatbots can track customer interactions and analyze the information they provide, such as the questions they ask and the actions they take on the website.
This data can be used to identify trends and patterns in customer behavior, which can help businesses to better understand the customer journey.
Additionally, Chatbots can be programmed to ask specific questions or gather feedback from customers, which can provide even more insight into the customer journey.
FAQ’s
1. How Do Chatbots Work?
Chatbots work on rule-based systems and AI techniques like machine learning. In rule-based systems Chatbot is programmed to understand and recognize specific keywords or phrases that a user might say, and to respond with a pre-determined message when those keywords are detected. For example, a Chatbot might be programmed to recognize the phrase “What is the price -range you are looking for” and to respond with information about the product available in the range mentioned.
Chatbots that work on machine learning are trained on a large dataset of conversations between humans and use this data to learn to respond like a human. These types of Chatbots are more sophisticated and can handle a wider range of inputs, but they can be more difficult to develop and maintain.
2. What Does A Chatbot Do?
A Chatbot primarily answers customer questions, helps with customer service, or even just has a casual conversation with someone. They are often used in online customer service to help answer common questions and provide information to users quickly and efficiently. Some are even programmed to be able to handle more complex conversations and can be trained to understand and respond to specific requests.
However, the capabilities of an AI Chatbot will depend on how it is designed and trained, as well as the resources available to it. With advances in NLP and machine learning, the capabilities of AI Chatbots will constantly evolve and improve.
3. How Can Businesses Make Use Of Chatbots To Improve Their Sales?
- Personal recommendations to guide customers
- 24/7 availability to enable easy customer journey
- Lead generation to help the business grow
- Streamlined checkout to assist customers to complete a hassle-free purchase
- Customer service to resolve queries and attend to all their online needs at odd times too
4. Which Industry Uses Chatbots The Most?
Any service-based industry with a strong desire to grow through effective marketing strategies in 2023 and beyond believes in the power of smart marketing that is Chatbot. Travel, healthcare, hospitality, real estate, and banking industries already use Chatbots to give a top-notch customer experience.
Great Examples of Websites Using Chatbots (screenshots)
1. HubSpot uses a Chatbot to help users navigate the website to its specific product/services in no time.
2. Smart Content Chatbot – Keysun Corp uses Chatbot to promote their pillar pages to customers who are already converted to their previous offers.
3. Alive & Kickin’ Pizza Crust uses a Chatbot to make their customers feel special by turning it into an exclusive content Chatbot!
4. Chatbot that caters to buyer’s journey – Grande customs ingredients group made a Chatbot that provides more information about their specific product line & next steps.
5. Falcon structures use a Chatbot on a Request a Quote page to guide users on the next steps – more like a conversational Chatbot.
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