Chatbots - What are they really good for ?

Chatbots are used by 1.4 billion people today. Every business is trying their best to launch chatbots for one-on-one conversations with customers. AI-powered chatbots can also automate various tasks, including sales and marketing, customer service, and administrative and operational tasks. Thanks to the major advances in Artificial Intelligence, chatbots have gained great momentum and are used in several industries. In simple terms, A chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) program that can simulate a conversation (or a chat) with a user in natural language through messaging applications, websites, mobile applications, or by phone.
Coming to the benefits of Chatbots, there are several useful features that make it extremely beneficial for businesses.

They are available 24x7

A chatbot never takes a break or goes offline. With this, businesses can provide customer support constantly. According to a survey by VentureBeat, over 50 percent of customers expect a business to be available 24x7. 

It gives instant responses

While a human being may only be able to focus on one customer at a time, chatbots can answer thousands of questions at the same time. A survey by Cognizant shows 69% of respondents said they’d prefer chatbots for receiving instant responses, and the same percent said they’re most likely to use chatbots for service-related inquiries.

Multilingual

Another benefit of chatbots is that they can support multiple languages, which are extremely essential for global brands. They can either ask the user which language they prefer, or detect the language by their input phrases.

Cost-efficient

Suppose a website attracts a hundred people a day, one person could not handle them all. The business would need a team of people for that. However, with chatbots, this problem is also rectified. Companies can reduce costs and time by using chatbots instead. 

Increase in sales

A survey by Intercom came to the conclusion that companies were able to increase their sales by 67 percent with the help of a chatbot. According to the respondents, this is because the company is able to react faster to customer inquiries. On average, chatbots can answer customers three times faster. In addition, chatbots have helped websites to increase  customer service satisfaction by 24 percent.
It is clear that there are a considerable number of benefits of using Chatbots. Let’s get into the ways chatbots are used.

Questions and enquiries

A chatbot is available throughout the day and night. Once a chat box is set up, the company lets it interact with the customers to answer queries about the company, their services, their events and so on.

Make bookings

PVR Cinemas owns one of the largest chains of movie theatres in India. And on their website, you’ll find a chatbot that helps visitors quickly book movie tickets, view offers, and leave feedback. The chatbot also lets visitors view the trailer for the movie they want to watch - which helps them make a buying  decision. This means the chatbot, in addition to providing support, also helps increase sales.

Return and Exchange

One of the most common requests customer support agents get from customers is for refunds and exchanges. Companies often have a clear policy in place for processing such requests. This means, for customer support agents, performing most refunds and exchanges is a repetitive and monotonous task. A chatbot, if designed to carry out the company’s refund and exchange policy, can efficiently execute these tasks instead of customer support agents .

Customer feedback

The company’s chatbot can ask the customer if they would like to participate in a survey. Once the customer agrees, the survey instantly starts. The customers don’t even have to type in anything. They can simply choose from the ‘options’ provided under the question to move through the survey. Plus, the use of images, GIFs, and videos above the questions makes the survey more interesting.
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It is clear that chatbots can help your business grow. The list here is not exhaustive, there are several more benefits and uses of chatbots in businesses. Every single year, the interaction between customers and chatbots keeps increasing. For example, it is predicted that chatbots will handle up to 85% of all customer interaction requests by 2020, which would significantly cut costs and free up employees' time for more demanding tasks. So without delay, add chatbots to your business to see a lot of improvement.

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