3 Reasons Why You Need A Conversational Chatbot
The idea most of us have in mind is a chatbot that is similar to a human. We expect to be able to talk to them the same way we do with a shop assistant, a waiter or even a friend. However, we are still far away from that. Chatbots will be chatbots, not humans, but maybe we can make them more human-like. How? The key is conversation.
Among other things, what distinguishes humans and machines is the ability to converse. The reason many people are still reticent to adopt bots as a channel of communication with businesses is that they don’t feel they can maintain a conversation similar to the one they would have with a human.
The number one reason why you need a conversational chatbot is the fact that most of the ones available these days are based on buttons and decision tree-models. If bots are supposed to be the future, we should not be using a technique that has been employed by call centers for ages with limited success.
Forcing users to choose from a set of options presents some obvious problems. It is likely that at some point of the interaction the option they need is not part of that set, and it is even more likely that if they try to type what they want the bot will not understand them. Another big setback is that if the user changes her mind during the exchange and decides to change skimmed milk for soy milk, for example, she won’t be able to go back on that decision and will be forced to start over.
The result of using these old techniques is the same in both cases: a poor user experience.
Reason number two is that conversational bots offer better user experience to customers, and this improved UX leads to an increase in loyalty and sales, which in turn bring more revenue as time passes by.
Word-to-mouth is one of the oldest and more effective techniques to attract customers, and it can be applied to bots as well. When you receive a good service somewhere, you tend to share it and recommend it to your friends, relatives and sometimes on social networks and forums. So, if your bot provides your clients with a positive user experience they will recommend you to their friends and family.
Let’s show an example: imagine you want to purchase Nespresso capsules. Usually, the line at the store is long, and sometimes its location is not convenient. A conversational bot will be able to ask you which type of flavor you like, and make recommendations based on your preferences as the shop assistant does at the brick-and-mortar store. Avoiding buttons to select options will also allow your customer to change his mind or ask for a seasonal product that is not usually in the catalogue.
Last but not least, new Artificial Intelligence systems are supposed to work for humans and not the other way around. What does this mean? It should not be the user the one modifying the way he speaks to be understood by chatbots and Virtual Assistants, they should be able to understand natural language.
But how can we achieve this? How can we overcome the current limitations bots are facing and move to more conversational bots?
At Bitext, we have developed an innovative system and our CEO will be speaking at several events in San Francisco to present how our technology can help you achieve these human-like bots. Join us to get to know more about it!
