More and more people are using chatbots, as they allow for less reliance on service agents. In the past chatbot models didn’t function as efficiently as they could have, which led to a general disregard. In the past years as technology advancements have continued, chatbots capabilities have expanded, and conversational commerce has grown. Since 2019 they have now seen a 92% growth as a form of personalized brand communication. They now allow the capacity to interact with customers in a way that was not previously possible.
What Are Chatbots?
Chatbots are a system that use AI to simulate a discussion or chat, similar to one that might be had with a service representative or agent. It allows a conversation in natural language to be had between the customer and computer. This can offer real-time user interactions that can help solve queries. Chatbots use AI to mimic human interactions, without the pretense that this is what they actually are.
Why Use A Chatbot?
Chatbots can be seen as one of the most promising and advanced forms of expression between humans and machines. When done well, they can enhance the customer experience by offering streamlined interactions that aid the buying journey. It advances the customer engagement process for efficiency, whilst reducing traditional support costs by as much as 30%.
This is because chatbots reduce the need for human intervention. It allows companies to offer 24/7 customer support, without needing humans to be available for this. Long wait times, being placed on hold and insufficient numbers of staff are problems solved. Especially when it comes to logistical questions, chatbots are the way forward. This increases brand efficiency and in turn customer satisfaction.
How Do Chatbots Work?
Chatbots use AI to understand, process and respond to text and voice messages. The basic model of AI works on recognizing keywords in order to interpret the meaning behind the query. This can be useful, but is also limited as if specific keywords aren’t used then the machine may not understand the question.
More advanced models use NLP (Natural Language Processing) in order to help the computers comprehend requests. NLP doesn’t just rely on keywords, but it actually understands the context and meaning behind queries. This means that no matter what words are used, chatbots will be able to give an accurate response.
Machine learning can be used to train chatbots and the AI to better understand certain topics and grow into areas of expertise. As time goes on, the capabilities of chatbots and their AI continues to grow.
Use Cases For Chatbots
Chabots can provide several functions that can make a positive impact on your eCommerce business. For example they can:
- Help people with questions about products and services
- Let people know expected delivery times
- Answer questions about company general policies
- Complete tasks and transactions
All of these mean that customer service representatives don’t waste time answering logistical questions that can easily be answered by a machine. If the query can be solved by simply finding the correct data, these kinds of simple processes are easily done by AI.
This then frees up time for human customer service representatives to deal with more complex issues that machines can’t manage.
Creating An Omnichannel Experience
The more omnichannel experience offered by your eCommerce brand, the more positive the outcomes of these. Chatbots can be used over a number of interaction points such as:
- Chat on your eCommerce store
- Facebook messenger
- Virtual assistants (google or Alexa)
- Voice to text technology
These chatbots can be used in multiple languages, allowing global reach. Being able to contact brands over various platforms is more important to consumers than ever. They want efficiency and reliability from the brands they purchase from. This is what omnichannel chatbots have the ability to offer.
Conclusion
Chatbots are the way forward, as they save both time and money to merchants whilst offering an optimized experience for shoppers worldwide. The eCommerce world is constantly looking for ways to optimize the experience for shoppers, and chatbots are a surefire way to do this.