When you go onto a website and a box appears asking you to chat – you’ve hit a Chat bot. So, if you’re wondering whether almost every website has an enthusiastic person sitting behind it, whose sole purpose in life is to chat to web visitors, you’re right! …well, almost.
There are various different ways to incorporate a Chat bot into your website, from using your own staff or team members to respond, right through to using an outsourced provider or automated chat bot (or combination of the two), which are set up to answer “typical” questions a visitor may ask.
The purpose of a chat bot is to provide additional support (a virtual shop assistant if you like) and they assist in growing your business by connecting with web visitors and nurturing them into becoming customers – or they capture data that then allows a real sales person in your business to contact, connect and convert a now “qualified” lead.
Many businesses are adopting this technology because it helps you reach a far bigger and more relevant audience, since potential customers are engaging with you and your business without you have to be there.
Some benefits of using a Chat Bot on your website include:
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24/7/365 availability
No calling required, no hanging on hold, no pressing endless numbers of options to get through to the right “telephonic answer” only to then be hung up on…. now potential or existing customers can ask a question right there on your website and engage with someone instantly. Chatbots are quickly replacing other forms of contact, such as emails and call centres phone calls.
Since many chat bots are basically online virtual sales assistants, they don’t need breaks, don’t get tired and always give the right answers. Overall, this improves your customer’s experience significantly and also helps your website’s rankings.
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Increasing your Sales Team
Your business is restricted in its growth by the number of people you employ, and specifically, the number of sales people out there seeing potential customers every day. Given, that as humans we can only do so much at a time, chat bots are helping both qualify and generate better and more leads for your business.
Chat bots can be providing information to thousands of web visitors at the same time. They are set up to answer almost every FAQ you set them up and provide answers for, and as a result, many of the obvious questions your sales team spend a lot of time answering can be dealt with by the bots easily.
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Better Budgeting and ROI
It costs a bit of money to set up the chat bot service, and depending on which type of solution you opt for, your costs will either be per lead supplied (qualified of course), a per chat cost, or a service fee which allows you and your team to also interact with web visitors yourselves. Or a combination of all three.
Once set up, they run themselves without any further costs. The automation of the chat bot reduces the number of people you need to employ to deal with telephonic queries, and also frees up your team to spend less time responding to email queries.
- Happy Customers!
Chat bots don’t have good or bad days – they are programmed to be helpful and friendly, providing your customers with all the information they need in a polite and respectful way. With many bots, you can even amend the language the bots use to ensure their “tone” fits with your company’s cultural persona.
As a result, customers will generally receive the information they request and be impressed and satisfied with the way they have been communicated with by your business.
Additionally, you can even offer several languages on your website if that’s a requirement, meaning your visitors don’t have to try and fit in with you.
When putting together your questions and answers, it’s prudent to be cautious with your language and ensure that your responses and language don’t sound fake. It’s important to remain true to the integrity and character of your business, even when making the choice to use a chat bot.
- Computerising Frequently Asked Questions from Customers
A Chat bot will happily answer the same question again and again without complaint, which very few people are able to do without error or losing the will to live. So, keep your employees better challenged and doing more towards achieving your business goals, whilst the Chat bot takes care of the everyday questions that your new customers tend to ask!
- Better follow through
Chat bots remember all your customer’s questions and preferences each time they come back to your website, ensuring they see what they need to and are easily nurtured through the benefits of using your service or product rather than your competitor’s.
There are significant advancements taking place every day within the Chat bot industry, from making appointments on line, and even Artificial Intelligence where the bots have the ability to learn and adapt as time goes on. They are getting better at being able to handle complex requests, personalize their responses, and enhance interactions over time. This technology is still in its early days, so most bots simply follow a set of rules programmed by a human via a bot-building platform. It's as simple as ordering a list of if-then statements, and scripting pre-produced replies.
It all sounds quite futuristic, but it’s the reality of how we do business today and even the smallest of businesses are able to make great use of Chat bots to help present a far better and more efficient front with the help of this technology. The key is to implement cautiously so that you don’t lose your authenticity and ability to really engage meaningfully as one human being to another.
Do you need assistance to align your business goals with your digital strategy? One of our part-time Marketing Directors can help you focus your efforts, see return on your investment and grow your business.
