Chatbots And How They Can Improve Customer Experience

I recently attended Atomicon hosted by digital marketing duo Andrew and Pete held at the Assembly Rooms, Newcastle.

The day was jam packed full of influential speakers from all over the country standing on the stage and discussing everything digital. The main theme surrounding the event was to face our common fears around ambition, to take risks, to feel the fear and just go for it.

One of the sessions I attended was with Paul Ince who explained everything we needed to know about Chatbots. Yes, chatbots – those little robots that pop up when you’re looking for something online. Yes those.

I’ve always found Chatbots quite annoying. They would pop up at any moment when your frustration levels on a website is particularly high. However that is why they are there. They are there to help the consumer find their way around a particular site, help with any questions you may have and to simply modernise HR and to improve customer service for the business.

But what is a Chatbot? Chatbots are very similar to virtual digital assistants, but they are often referred to as ‘conversational agents; because they are meant to converse with real people through either web-based applications or standalone apps through a chat interface.

Virtual digital assistants and online chatbots are just two of the most influential tech innovations that rocketed into our daily lives in the last several years. You may already be using a virtual digital assistant in the from of Alexa and Siri. What started as modern conveniences to enquire about the weather, traffic reports, latest news and to get directions have now advanced into powerful marketing and customer service tools.

It is expected that the market for digital assistants and chatbots will reach more than $7.7 billion by 2025 with 1 billion active users.

Chatbots are beginning to disrupt how the employee and the customer engages with their organisations and brands. As AI continues to enter the frame, this will speed up their intelligence and capabilities.

Chatbots can understand text due to natural language processing and then use algorithms to process the text to determine an appropriate response. Today, the technology is so good that in many cases it can be challenging to know if you’re interacting with a bot or a human.

Since chatbots have proven enormously successful (achieving a click-through rate of up to 60%), bots are found everywhere!

Unlike email, chatbots can be used on a variety of platforms beyond the company website. Social media platforms allow bots to chat with users on a one-on-one basis if the consumer is interested.

Many Facebook users already have the Messenger app, so building a chatbot to work within the platform means the consumer can use the app bot on their own terms. With a good experience it is easy for the bot to contact you and vice versa.

As an example, airline giant KLM wanted to make consumer experience better without sacrificing privacy. The airline was aware that its customers were spending a lot of time on Facebook and Messenger, so it made Messenger the ideal platform for a new communication technique.

By placing a ‘send message now’ feature on its Facebook page, KLM increased Facebook messages to its agents. Because of this increase, KLM added AI to Messenger, providing agents with a proposed answer and allowing agents to make necessary tweaks, then send the message.

Messenger is also used to send customers flight information such as; booking confirmations, checkins, boarding passes and flight updates. Now 15% of online boarding passes are sent via Messenger.

Regardless of the industry, chatbots not only help to resolve problems, but they also offer a personal touch to every customer and save costs. From scheduling meetings to resolving IT issues, tailoring conversations between the brand and their customer, ordering food, to making lifestyle choices, chatbot will impact our lives more than ever in 2019.