2. What Are Chatbots?
Chatbots – also known as
“conversational agents” – are
software applications that
mimic written or spoken human
speech for the purposes of
simulating a conversation or
interaction with a real person.
There are two primary ways
chatbots are offered to
visitors: via web-based
applications or standalone
apps. Today, chatbots are
used most commonly in the
customer service space,
assuming roles traditionally
performed by living, breathing
human beings such as Tier-1
support operatives and
customer satisfaction reps.
3. Conversational agents are
becoming much more common
partly due to the fact that
barriers to entry in creating
chatbots (i.e. sophisticated
programming knowledge and
other highly specialized technical
skills) are becoming increasingly
unnecessary.
Today, you can make your very
own chatbot that you can use in
Facebook Messenger, for example
– all without a pricey Computer
Science degree or even much
prior coding experience – and
there are several sites that offer
the ability to create rudimentary
chatbots using simple drag-and-
drop interfaces.
4. How Do Chatbots Work?
At the heart of chatbot
technology lies natural language
processing or NLP, the same
technology that forms the basis
of the voice recognition systems
used by virtual assistants such as
Google Now, Apple’s Siri, and
Microsoft’s Cortana.
Chatbots process the text
presented to them by the user (a
process known as “parsing”),
before responding according to a
complex series of algorithms that
interprets and identifies what the
user said, infers what they mean
and/or want, and determine a
series of appropriate responses
based on this information.
Some chatbots offer a remarkably
authentic conversational
experience, in which it’s very
difficult to determine whether the
agent is a bot or a human being.
5. The Value of Chatbots
One way to stay competitive in
modern business is to automate
as many of your processes as
possible. Evidence of this is seen
in the rise of self-checkout at
grocery stores and ordering
kiosks at restaurants.
1. Save Time & Money
By automating conversations that
would otherwise require an
employee to answer,
organizations save time and
money that can then be allocated
to other efforts.
Instead of having your reps
spending all of their time
answering inbound questions,
those individuals reallocate time
to proactively finding relevant
conversations to join with social
listening tools.
6. 2. Generate Leads & Revenue
Chatbots use direct messages to
gather information necessary to
provide effective support. For
example, asking users why they’re
visiting your page is one question
that is likely asked in every
engagement.
Automating this initial interaction
allows users to share the
information needed for the agent
to better serve them without
requiring a human to ask for it.
7. What problem are you trying
to solve?
What are your goals?
Where are you located?
What department are you in?
What industry are you in?
Would you like personal
support?
3. Guide Users to Better
Outcomes
Customers don’t always know
where to go to find the
information they’re interested in.
In fact, your customers may not
even know what it is they’re
interested in. Maybe they just
heard your brand name in passing
and decided to explore. By asking
a series of qualifying questions,
you route users to the best place
for them to find the information
they want.
Think through some of the
questions to ask that will route
your visitor to the best possible
solution. These questions vary by
business type, but some common
ones are:
8. 4. Provide ‘After Hours’ Support
As we saw from the Drift data, the
most popular use of chatbots is
to provide quick answers in an
emergency. However,
organizations that don’t offer 24-
hour support won’t provide
answers when the office is
closed.
By using a robust chatbot when
your business is closed,
customers still gain access to the
information they need.
5. Engage Users in a Unique Way
Traditionally, customer questions
were routed to businesses via
email or the telephone, which
made user experiences fairly
standard and non-customized.
But chatbots offer a new, fun and
interactive way to engage with
brands.