Marketing Strategies

What are Chatbots and how to use them to optimize your company’s service

20 November, 2023 (updated) |

More than to be well attended, people are always in a hurry so they want a fast customer service. In this context, chatbots technology is the best option because it won’t make your client wait for an answer. Do you want to know how to optimize your company’s service with chatbots? Keep reading!

Do you know what chatbots are? In a market where the competition tightens, any customer service flaw can mean an enormous loss. Having a good customer service is no longer a competitive advantage, but it is instead an obligation for those who want to sell.

More than to be well attended, people are always in a hurry so they want a fast customer service. In this context, chatbots technology is the best option because it won’t make your client wait for an answer that at that moment you can’t give.

Do you want to know how to optimize your company’s service with chatbots? Keep reading!

What are chatbots?

Nowadays, it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t talked with a chatbot, even if they might have never heard about them. To put it in a simple way, chatbots are softwares projected to give automatic answers closer to what we expect from a human interaction.

These robots are computer programs specialized in communication and perform what they are programmed to do. In this case, the point is to simulate a human conversation through predefined tasks, data analysis, and user behaviour study.

With them, it’s possible to improve customer service and maintain a tone close to personnel in a conversation, which is pretty positive for the relationship between the company and the client. Another interesting aspect of this technology is the fact that it is available 24 hours. Which means, the answer is delivered to the user, regardless of the hour that the user searches for the company, which favours consumer experience.

Don’t think, however, that chatbots are mere robots that answer messages. There are more advanced models that have artificial intelligence and evolve with each dialogue, which allows better interactions with people in future conversations.

How chatbots work

When the user asks a question in any of the company’s communication channels online, starting the dialogue, the system searches a database to formulate the best answer. For that, the chatbot tries to imitate a human conversation, avoiding the ‘mechanical’ tone – that is naturally expected from a conversation with a robot.

Most of the chatbots can be programs that obey commands, which means, respect the rules. In these cases, they answer specific and previously defined questions. This happens because their possibilities are restricted to a group of flowcharts that enable them to direct the conversation according to the user’s answers or commands.

When you find a chat that has buttons that suggest answers, it’s a chatbot that follows rules and commands.

With chatbots that have artificial intelligence, the story is different. The system learns with time and with the conversations, perfecting its capacity to answer the user and being able to give different answers to the same question.

How to use chatbots

Right now you probably already noticed that chatbots are tools that have an extraordinary power to increase a company’s sales traffic through a good relationship with the client. But, in the practical way, how to use them?

In the beginning, it’s important to establish a goal for the use of the bot and after that, think in which channel to use it. It’s common for us to find chatbots in Facebook chats – like, for example, in companies’ pages such as SnapTravel, Aerie or Pizza Hut – and even in brands’ websites.

Now, see some ways to use chatbots!

Optimize customer service

During customer service, some situations are repeated frequently, such as asking for information, register alterations, scheduling of visits and monitorings. In these cases, chatbot is the ideal tool to accelerate the process.

Thinking about the long, monotonous and inefficient customer service that happens in a lot of call centers, the chatbot can be a pleasant and effective alternative, keeping in mind that the majority of clients don’t have time nor patience for phone calls.

Receive suggestions

As a way to humanize the relationship and get closer to the consumer, many companies have made space to get tips and suggestions about their products, services, attendance and whatever is relevant and can be perfected according to the clients’ preferences.

The best news is the fact that chatbots can also be used for that. They are perfect to improve engagement and strengthen the interest the brand holds in its public, creating the real idea of a dialogue.

 

Facilitate reservations and requests processes

 

Did you know that it’s already possible to ask for an Uber and buy pizza using chatbots? With this communication software, users can also make reservations and schedules nimbly and automatically.

In other words, the service is always available for the client. He won’t have to waste time calling a restaurant to reserve a table, a hotel to choose a room or a hall to schedule an event, for example.

With chatbots, reservations and requests can be made anytime and anywhere.

Research

For any business strategy to work what is needed is an integrated management system and to research a lot. After all, nowadays a company can’t act based on guesses, but on facts. However, it’s hard to find someone who has time and good will to answer an entire online survey, because people get bored and just abandon the task.

With chatbots, however, this process can become more dynamic, preventing the user from getting tired. This way, it’s way easier for a business to capture impressions, needs, opinions, and preferences of its public.

Strengthen the relationship with clients and leads

Chatbots and your company’s marketing team can be great allies, working to help in the leads attraction and retention. You can, for example, use them to capture the consumer’s interest in a more efficient way during the promotion of new products or services.

Another option of use of these programs is in your business’ content marketing strategy- Through bots, it gets simpler and attractive to offer entertainment and consume content quickly.

Besides, using chatbots it gets easier to identify in which part of the sales funnel the user is in, so then you can offer specific content.

 

Sell more

Chatbots can also be another sales channel and that option is already used by some companies, such as eBay on Facebook Messenger.

To meet an impatient, connected and demanding consumer, the enterprise needs to look for ways to facilitate and accelerate the service and the sale, because clients wish to acquire products or services any time and place.

Additionally, with the amount of information online, it’s crucial to make the process interactive and attractive so that you won’t risk losing the user’s attention.

Now you know what are chatbots and how they can contribute to the efficiency of an organization with many useful options. Do you want to get notified of other interesting content about the digital marketing universe? Sign up for our newsletter and don’t miss out on anything!

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