Having a website that stands out against your competitors is essential in today’s age of competitive digital marketing. One of the best ways to stand out is to make your site visitors feel like they are having a personal and human interaction. Too often brands and companies forget to acknowledge the most important variable of their business, the customer. Chatbots are one of the easiest and most common ways to bring human experience to the digital world. Before we dive into the many benefits of chatbots, it is important to first understand what a chatbot is and how it works.
What is a Chatbot?
In technical terms, a chatbot is an AI tool that engages in conversation with a user in their natural language. But what exactly does that mean?
Basically, a chatbot is a program that allows your website to reach out to customers on its own. Now, this does not mean it’s going to be able to have a full-out conversation about the weather or the grandkids, but it can be taught responses and guide your visitor through your products or answer questions.
How does a Chatbot work?
There are many kinds of chatbots in use, but the three most common types are rule-based, intelligent, and AI-powered.
Rule-Based: This is the most simple and straightforward chatbot in use, chances are you have encountered these many times. This chatbot is taught to provide basic answers to basic questions, they are like an interactive FAQ. While they are not entirely helpful outside of the common situation, they are a great asset to getting your customer information quickly and in a way that feels personal.
Intelligent chatbots: These chatbots learn from the user information. They can understand specific phrases or trigger words and provide accurate information based on what the visitor has viewed or searched. Over time they will teach themselves to understand more questions based on the trigger words.
AI-powered chatbots: These chatbots are the best of both worlds, they can function as an FAQ but also constantly learn from user interactions. They use three different types of learning: machine, natural language, and AI, to give your customer the most authentic human interaction without speaking to someone.
The best thing about chatbots, they can be taught time restrictions. Chatbots can be set to first trigger a notification to an employee and then carry on the conversation if there is no one currently available to help.
Benefits of Chatbots:
Enhanced Customer Service: Chatbots are set to follow a strict set of guidelines, meaning they will always give the correct answer and behave in the politest manner. They give your visitor the feeling of being in touch with your company at any hour of the day. A timely response shows your customer that your brand is proactive and cares about their experience.
Improved User Engagement: User engagement is incredibly important to customer retainment; it doesn’t matter if millions of people visit your site if they only stay for 30 seconds and never leave the homepage. Chatbots can encourage visitors to explore the site and guide them through your website using the information most relevant to that visitor.
Staying Up On Trends: In today’s ever-evolving digital world it’s important to keep your brand relevant by keeping up with the trends. The more popular chatbots become, the more expected they will be on your site. Stay ahead of the game and master chatbots before they become a necessity.
Gathering Customer Data: What better way to get your customers’ thoughts than straight from the customer. Using a chatbot will allow you to gather direct accurate data about what intrigues or confuses your customer the most. From there you can adjust, featuring bestselling products and simplifying parts of your business that may be losing you money.
Make It Personal: As discussed earlier, potential customers want to feel like they are important. Chatbots are designed to give the user a personal experience, they create an environment that feels like a natural human conversation. They can learn and make suggestions based specifically on the customer they are interacting with, making a digital experience feel like an in-person one.
Overall, installing a chatbot on your site will not only benefit your customer but your business as well. Installing them is a straightforward process and the benefits they provide make it an easy immediate improvement for your website.