You Win, Or You Die [Infographic Inside]
Chatbots vs. Live Chat Services
When was the last time you spoke to a live agent who was actually live, responded instantly, and did not ask for your email identity to get back to you shortly? You know what I’m talking about. It’s frustrating, but who’s to blame — the humans on the other side? Not so fast.
Truth o’clock — managing online chat support on a business website is way easier said than done.
Setting up and monitoring engagement on landing pages, resolving audience queries, answering FAQs, assisting with support and much more is a powerful way for businesses to build relations with existing and potential customers.
Except what’s the point if the live chat is not live, is tedious, going unanswered or taking up most of your time?
Not to mention the overhead costs that go into availing a live chat service and hiring real humans to operate it is tedious to say the least.
Where Chatbots Win?
On the other hand, the time and energy that go into installing and maintaining a live chat interface on a professional website and subsequently training a support team could actually be used to train a simple yet powerful chatbot like Bottr (Full disclosure: I work with Bottr because I believe that it is one of the most efficient+intelligent platforms around).
The thing to remember here is: give a chatbot enough information and training to respond to be able to provide high-value and keep potential customers engaged.
Given where we are currently in terms of AI and bot development, providing 24/7 customer support is one of the low-hanging fruits that chatbots could be used to target with ease.
Here’s an infographic outlining the key areas where chatbots win over live chat services:
Chatbots: To Aid Customer Support, Not Replace It
In the real world, user issues might demand a real human to interfere- say when a bot widget installed on your landing pages has engaged a client, managed to get them interested in your offerings and then you butt in to close the deal.
Which is why it is important to have the option to switch between bot and human mode when absolutely needed- a functionality provided by a handful of bot platforms.
It’s also important to understand that as of now bots are not here to replace us humans, but only to make our jobs easier- by helping us complete said job, 10x better and faster.
And while big enterprises might find investing in a live one-on-one support tool feasible, it just does not add up for small and medium-sized businesses, startups, entrepreneurs, brick-and-mortar shops with basic websites, evangelists, creators, professional influencers, bloggers, and such.
The way I see it, chatbots ARE in fact live chat assistant services. ONLY BETTER.
