Is a chatbot right for your business?

If you’ve been online for a while now, you may have noticed a rise in the use of chatbots for customer service.

They are becoming an increasingly popular way for businesses to communicate with their customers. In fact, a recent survey by Comm100 showed that 80% of US organisations are looking to implement chatbots in 2020, with chatbots having a projected cost saving of .70c per customer interaction.

While these statistics appear somewhat inflated, there’s no denying the surge in use of this technology, even in Australia.

But what is a chatbot?

A chatbot is an automated artificial intelligence system with the ability to simulate human conversation. Chatbots are used by online businesses to help customers who have questions or require basic troubleshooting. They can reply instantly, which is a great convenience in today’s world of instant messaging.

A chatbot might benefit your business if you;

a) Receive thousands of customer enquiries per day

b) Have a small customer service team, or your existing customer service team is unable to manage all the enquiries that come through within a reasonable timeframe

c) Are looking for ways to reduce costs

d) Want 24/7 customer service at a low cost

e) Want more control over your brand messaging

Chatbots can be the first line of communication between you and your customer. That’s why it is important to configure your chatbot in a way that makes sense for your brand.

A chatbot should never “sound like a robot”—it should reflect your brand’s persona. In order to do this, you’ll need a chatbot script. This is a document outlining the sequence of conversational messages based on a visitor’s enquiry. ManyChat has a great resource with chatbot examples.

Most chatbot software includes a standard chatbot script, but you’ll need to customise it to reflect your brand and give your chatbot a unique voice.

Chatbots are a relatively new concept for many Australian businesses. If you’re interested in implementing a chatbot to your website and need help creating a custom user-friendly script with your brand voice, I can help. Just send me an email and we can get started.