Customers want better service from your business. According to Forbes, "54 percent make purchasing decisions based on customer service; for 19 percent, it’s the single most important factor when deciding which companies to patronize."
Are your customers happy with your business? With rising expectations, it can be difficult to keep up with customer demand. You don't want to push employees too hard, but you also need to meet customer expectations or be left behind. Chatbots can help you bridge that gap.
How and Why to Use a Drift Chatbot
A chatbot is a computer program, but it offers up a facsimile of human conversation. Chatbots are used today in many different contexts, often with the user not even being aware that they are chatting with a bot. These virtual conversations imitate human conversations and are often used to set up appointments, get information, or help customers check in. They use artificial intelligence to understand the basics of human conversation and to guide the human user to the answer or outcome they seek with as few questions as possible. According to Drift's Chatbot Learning Center, a chatbot will:
- Use its existing data to understand what kind of questions people typically ask at that company.
- Spend time with correct answers so that it can be trained on the content of those answers.
- Use machine learning to become better at answering those questions over time.
The more questions a chatbot answers, the better it gets at acting like a well-informed human.
If you're thinking of working with Drift to use chatbots at your company, what are some of the benefits of using this emerging technological tool to improve your customer service experience?
1. Support Your Customers' Needs in Real Time
According to Digital Doughnut, "83 percent need support during shopping. So, your customers may require help trying to understand which products fit their needs/budgets any time of the day." If your customers need help while your business is open, they could potentially speak with a live human. However, many people shop before or after work, or they live in different time zones and want to engage with your business when your employees are home for the day. A chatbot allows you to address your customers' needs even when your employees are not at work.
2. Chatbots Offer Complex Multimedia Support
A chatbot doesn't just communicate with your customers via text. It can provide an enriched experience for your customers as it works to answer customers' questions. Chatbots can provide product pages, blogs, and tutorials that direct customers to more information about products, assisting them in making decisions during their customer journey.
3. They Save You and Your Customers Time
Customers are not content to wait for a day or even an hour for an answer to their questions. The immediacy of the internet has led to a need for immediacy in the world of customer service. If your customers don't get the answer that they need to the questions that they have right now, they may choose to look elsewhere. According to Due, one fundamental reason to use chatbots is that "they can provide fast, automated answers to most questions." Many customers have questions that are not very complex. Chatbots can easily answer those questions, allowing your customers to move toward their purchase.
4. Chatbots Can Be Proactive
At many businesses, the customer service team is always busy. They don't have time to go and reach out to new audiences, because they're too busy handling your current customers' questions. However, a small army of chatbots can reach out to all of your leads, initiating customer interactions and ensuring that they can answer leads' questions. Anticipating needs is the hallmark of strong customer interaction, and chatbots can help you facilitate this at your business.
5. Chatbots Are Always Calm
Even on a bad day for your business or a difficult day in the world, chatbots run as they normally would. They don't suffer through bad sleep or irritating commutes, and they aren't bothered by rude customers. There are benefits to having non-humans at the other end of customer service questions, and one of them is that these artificially intelligent bots can be programmed to have humor, but they aren't prone to feeling annoyed by customers' questions.
6. Chatbots Are Usually Right
Unless a chatbot legitimately has not encountered this type of question before, it will generally give the correct answer. This is particularly true once the chatbot has been used for a while since chatbots learn from experience. Humans are good at answering complex and nuanced questions, but when it comes to basic, straightforward data, they may actually forget or give the incorrect answer some of the time. Chatbots aren't distracted by other thoughts; they just seek, find, and transmit data to your customers. If you'd like to give the right answer about your warranties, return or sales policies all of the time, chatbots could be the way to ensure that you're more accurate.
7. Chatbots Stick to the Point
Humans are complicated. Chatbots aren't. When a human customer is looking for a simple interaction, they may actually prefer to connect with a chatbot. A chatbot won't give your customers extra information that they don't want. With their simple, to-the-point discussions, chatbots can help your leads and customers find the information that they need without prolonging the conversation.
8. Chatbots Give You the Data That Your Business Needs
While your human sales team works hard to note trends in customer interactions, chatbots are even better at doing this. They collect feedback by asking simple questions, allowing you to improve your products and optimize your website. If you're curious why leads leave a certain page, your chatbots can collect data that makes that page better at converting leads.
Are you ready to begin using Drift Chatbots in your business? Transform the way that you work by bringing a new voice to your team.
At Connection Model, we're a Drift Top 12 Agency Partner. That means that we can help your business deploy Drift in the most successful manner, giving your business a competitive edge in customer service. If you're curious about using Drift Chatbots, or Conversational Marketing as we like to call it, for your business, contact us.
Written By: David Carpenter
