Chatbots Will Be The New Customer Service Department
Chatbots are becoming popular these days, but they aren’t yet comparable to customer service via human interaction. Most customers prefer a human over a chatbot because they can tell the difference. However, according to the study conducted by enterprise software company Aspect, this will change. Let’s see how they are evolving and what can we expect in the coming years.
How Chatbots Improve the User’s Experience Today
Most people are looking for easy and efficient ways to find, order, or book things online. Moreover, 76% of the survey’s respondents wanted a personalized experience, and it didn’t matter to them if the service came from a chatbot or a human.
In that line of thought, there are significant advantages of chatbots over people. For instance, they have faster and more accurate access to the client’s information. Especially when we are talking about any online services with registered users where the database contains all the history of use and even behavior patterns that a particular client has. With that kind of information, a chatbot can provide a better outcome than a human. Naturally, the speed at which the chatbot checks the customer’s profile cannot be compared to the amount of time required by a person to go through the personal file of the client.
The challenge, however, is how to make automation more human-like. With the right information in hand, it is easy and quick to provide services to the customers, but the key issue is making bots in a more humanized way.
Today, text-based interactions through Messengers appear to be marginally preferred by customers, over voice-based “assistants” like Siri or Okay Google. However, even Siri is not nearly a human, and with time, people realize that speaking to voice-based ‘assistants’ doesn’t help to accuracy. That is where Chatbots step forward — 61% of the respondents agreed that today Chatbots are preferred to take care of simple requests but for more complex inquiries, they are not seen as useful yet. However, this tendency could be viewed as a good indicator that Chatbots usage will grow as artificial intelligence technology grows.
Business Benefits When Using Chatbots
From the business perspective, chatbots have many advantages, and they are willing to exploit them — 80% of respondents said they already used or planned to use chatbots by 2020, accordingly to the survey by Oracle. And 48% said that they already use automation technology for things like sales, marketing, and customer service, with 40% planning to implement some form of automated technology by 2020.
One of the first impacts comes on the reduced workforce for certain business processes. By automating some of the customer management processes, businesses will be able to considerably reduce their customer service departments. Also, as a single chatbot can handle thousands of chats simultaneously, there is no need to increase headcount, if customer base grows. Again, a single application can control volume, making it a cost-effective solution as the company grows. The expected savings range from automating the customer service positions through chatbots in the US only comes to $23 billion dollars per year. But the benefits of chatbots cannot be translated only in cash savings from the reduced labour costs. As artificial Intelligence moves forward, the real benefits come from a more efficient and consistent customer management, sales, reporting, marketing, and communication.
The Future of Chatbots
It is indisputable that chatbots are a reality and evolving fast. They will continue to solve common issues, and it is expected that they will eventually replace representatives on sales and customer service on more complex tasks. As artificial intelligence improves, chatbots will raise as the solution for standardized communication channels. Chatbots will soon become a single voice to solve customer’s needs.
Here at Talania we at the leading edge of applying chatbot and intelligent assistant technologies to solving problems experienced by many businesses. If your organisation would like to talk to a team of professionals who can develop standalone single-purpose chatbots and comprehensive solution — we’re at your service!
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