Being welcomed by a Chatbot has become somewhat of a norm for consumers wanting to reach out to businesses online, and without a doubt has revolutionized the way to do just that. Interactions are taking place everyday between humans and bot that mimic natural language. This has proven to have huge benefits for consumers and businesses alike. However, although the technology we are faced with today is without a doubt remarkable. Mistakes can still occur. Here are a few tips that can help you along the way!
Missing a Clear Strategy and Function
The first mistake that businesses face when implementing a Chatbot is they lack a clear focus and purpose. Without a clear strategy this could be counterproductive and as a result non profitable. With a clear stratergy in place, a business will no doubt see huge potential for benneficial gain. Customers are getting timely responses that are relevant and helpful. This can increase customer satisfaction, and business will see they are able to reap rewards from these happy customers!
Additionally, if you don’t keep the functionality simple, there can be further complications. Customers these days will not hang around or return to a business if the service they are being provided with does not meet their expectations. Clear goals need to be set, such as; promoting certain products or pages and gathering customer information. Minimizing the risk of consumers getting confused and humans can step in at the right times to assist.
Missing the bigger picture
Just as it is important to have a clear function and strategy behind implementing Chatbots, we also need to be aware that they are more likely to benefit businesses in greater ways than merely a tool to collect data. The primary function should be more focused towards ensuring customers are able to receive a valuable overall experience from your business. In the long run this will be more beneficial. For example in gaining loyal customers, and any data collected on the side should be perceived simply as an added bonus.
Not having a Human Support Team
Chatbots are beneficial in many ways. One of those being the ability to have an interaction with customers in a natural way. However, Chatbots have a limit as to how functional they can be. For example, if a customer reaches out with a complex or tricky question a bot may not be able to respond with a sufficient solution that will satisfy the customer. Therefore, the importance of establishing a balance of Chatbot and human agents comes into play. The solution to the problem above would be ensuring that a human escalation path is available so that these complex situations can be dealt with in the right way.
Not using the right tone at the right time
Just as you need to find the right function for your bot, it also needs to be designed with your customers in mind. Interacting with them on a personal and humanized level. By doing so this creates long lasting relationships and again adds personalization to a chat.
The way a bot interacts with a customer is important but what exactly is being sent is equally so. Countless messages about something you are not even interested in is not desireable. That is why a bot must be able to analyse a consumer’s response and reply or communicate with the right information and at the right time. Spam messages will only lead to consumers wanting to avoid any further contact.
Lack of testing and future improvement
When introducing new tech it is always important to make sure all the appropriate tests have been done. This will ensure you are able to fix unexpected problems that may arise when first released. This gives you the opportunity to go back and make improvements where necessary. Just as you wouldn’t release a product that doesn’t reach safety checks and quality checks. A bot should be no different. This will ensure that once your consumers interact with your Chatbots they are receiving the best service possible.
Lastly, AI is constantly improving. Thus, as Bots are underpinned by AI, technological advancements means upgrades can be made to them. This will ensure your business is staying up to date and meeting the demands of the modern consumer.
Now we know what not to do, is your business ready to utilize Chatbots to their full potential?
