Chatbots are a kind of silver bullet to fulfill the needs of today’s demanding digital customers. Let’s take a closer look at 5 reasons customers love AI-driven chatbots.
1) Customers expect self-service options
While customers still like talking to human customer service agents when they have complicated issues that need real interaction, these days most customers also expect websites to provide self-service options.
An AI-driven chatbot that appears automatically while a customer is viewing the website is the ideal self-service option. These chatbots can handle the simpler first-line issues that often involve repetitive questions from customers.
Allowing customers to solve their own problems, with the help of a friendly chatbot, gives them a feeling of self-sufficiency and independence that’s a big part of great customer experience. And after all, if customers don’t find the service options they want on your website, they’ll go elsewhere.
2) Customers demand immediate service
Digital customers are impatient. And considering the speed and immediacy of communication on social media, who can blame them?
The thing is, when demand rises, it can be difficult for customer service agents to keep up with the rush. Inevitably, some customers are forced to wait longer than they’d like.
It doesn’t have to be that way — thanks to chatbots. Chatbots always are listening, and they’re always ready to get in touch with customers. You can set chatbots to pop up on a customer’s screen when he or she is browsing your website, after abandoning a cart, or immediately upon receiving an incoming query.
If the customer’s needs are too complicated for the bot, he or she will be routed to the best human contact center agent for the job. And even if the bot can’t solve the problem, the customer knows they’re being taken care of.
3) Chatbots personalize experience
It might seem counter-intuitive, but AI-driven chatbots can help brands personalize customer experience. This is because they collect customer data from every interaction, making it easier to know more about repeat customers. Think of it as an interactive CRM that actively communicates with customers and gets to know them.
And remember: When chatbots are part of an integrated digital customer service ecosystem, all the customer data they collect is shared with agents in real-time. This means when a customer query escalates to an actual agent, the chatbot will share this data with the agent so the customer can be served in a more personalized way.
4) Chatbots make long-term relationships
In the ideal world, customer service agents could spend as much time with each customer as that customer demanded, talking things over and forming a real bond over the course of repeated contacts. However, many contact centers rely on KPIs that emphasize speed because taking too much time on any given customer simply isn’t feasible.
Chatbots can be used for more than just handling incoming queries. They can send a birthday greeting, or randomly check in with customers to see how they’re doing and whether they’re enjoying the product. This kind of repeated contact is valuable for customers, even when they know that it’s not a human agent.
5) Customers want results-driven communication
Responding quickly to customers, and being friendly and personalized when communicating with them, is all well and good, but when customer communication isn’t results-driven then it’s all for nothing. This is another area where bots can help.
Programming bots to take care of FAQs and repetitive customer queries helps ensure that customers receive messages from the brand that get something done.
While it’s true that AI-driven chatbots have a limited range of capabilities, within that set number of common problems they can solve, they are invaluable.
Not having a bot to take care of simple customer communication puts more burden on agents and ultimately leads to fewer satisfied customers.
The digital age is changing customer expectations. Check out our webinar, Digital – First Customer Service: The Future is Here Today, to learn more.
