Chatbots are become increasingly popular, as they can not only improve an organisation’s responsiveness to its customers, but also result in considerable cost savings. Here are five questions, you are likely to ask about chatbots when trying to determine whether they might  work well in your business.

 

As organisations continue to seek to manage costs and optimise the talent they have, many are considering chatbot to execute basic functions, especially in the areas where there is interaction with customers. In some instances, we as consumers might not be aware that we are not interacting with a human, and have a satisfactory experience. In other cases, it can be extremely frustrating, with limited options to escalate a matter, or to speak directly with someone – a human.

We are thus answering some basic questions about chatbots, which could also be beneficial to those who might wish to explore whether chatbots can work in your business or organisation.

1.  What is a chatbot?

A chatbot (also called chatterbot) is a computer programme or artificial intelligence that can conduct voice or text-based conversations. Chatbots tend to be used to answer typical questions customers pose, which can be answered by templated information in a controlled environment.

 

2.  Is a chatbot different from a virtual assistant?

The short answer is yes. Although both, to some degree, employ artificial intelligence and machine learning, chatbots tend to have limited scope and consequently, limited application. As a result, they are suitable for single purpose applications, such as customer care, or automated purchases.

On the other hand, virtual assistant, such as Google Home, Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa, can have a broader range of uses. In voice-based interactions, virtual assistants can understand – with greater accuracy – the natural way people speak – and even dialect and slang, which is tends not to be the case with chatbots.

 

3.  What are some of the benefits of using a chatbot?

There can be several benefits to having chatbots, including the following:

  • More responsive to customer service. Even if an organisation’s customer engagement/service machinery is well-staffed, it can take several minutes, to even hours, to respond to a customer enquiry, complaint or order. With a chatbot, the engagement can start within seconds of contact being made, which at the very least, can contribute to increased customer satisfaction.
  • Fosters more efficient use of resources. In circumstances in which there are lots of routine queries or complaints, some of those processes can be automated, thereby freeing staff members from the more mundane tasks. It also means that these individuals can be assigned to other tasks and activities that actually need human skills, and thus promote better work optimisation within organisations.
  • Lower labour costs. Outside of the acquisition and maintenance costs, chatbots do not have to be paid. With human workers, they not only ought to be fairly compensated, the cost of other benefits, such as medical insurance, holiday pay, pension contributions, also need to be factored. Hence, if chatbots can be employed (pun intended!), they can work out to be considerably cheaper for an organisation.

 

4.  What are some of the cons of using a chatbot?

On the other hand, there are also several disadvantages in using chatbots, such as:

  • Limited responses in customer interactions. In many instances, and by nature of how chatbots operate, their interactions tend to be tightly scripted. It therefore means that customers may not get the answers they are looking for, and so limit chatbots’ overall usefulness in certain situations.
  • Customers could become frustrated. Following from the previous point, it should not be underestimated how frustrated customers can become if the assistance chatbots are supposed to be providing is not helpful. Unfortunately, and because once chatbots have been installed, some organisations do not make adequate provision to ensure that human support is also available. Without it, customers can become extremely frustrated when by chatbots.
  • Chatbots are not for every business. Although it might go without saying, it is important to emphasise: chatbots are not suitable for every type of business or process. As noted earlier, they tend to operate is a very controlled manner – responding to standard questions and scenarios.  They are not designed to address complex or impromptu situations, and so their scope and application is limited.

 

5.  For what services or functions might chatbots be best suited?

Chatbots are quite popular in text-based mediums, such as SMS text, instant messaging (IM), website chat windows and social messaging services such as Facebook and Twitter. Further, their use is not just limited to business-to-customer (B2C) interactions, but are also being used for business-to-business (B2B) engagement.

However, again, it is emphasised that they tend to work well in situations where the questions asked, or the responses needed are predictable and can be templated. Service-related businesses or functions, such as taxi services, pizza and food delivery services, ticket sales and hotel reservations, to name a few, could benefit from having chatbots, but of course with provision for escalation (to human support) as might be needed.

 

 

Image credit:  John Jackson (Pexels)