5 reasons why you should bet on marketing via chatbots
Do you really know what a chatbot can do for you? Let us give you some context. Surely your smartphone has a personal assistant. Are you familiar with Siri? Maybe you already use Sherpa on your Android device? Digital assistants and chatbots are trying to achieve the same thing, understanding human language to improve the user experience.
The way in which we communicate will be completely different in a few years, and this will have a great impact on brands. In fact, as a Gartner report points out, by 2020, more than 85% of communications between customers and brands will take place without human intervention.
Chatbots seek to improve the consumer experience, so it has a deep effect on the customer service sector. The communications revolution has only just begun. Apple already uses chatbots, and Facebook is working on them. And Microsoft has already experienced its first negative experience with chatbots.
What is a chatbot?
Do you understand what chatbots are and whether they can help you in your business? Are they an opportunity for your digital marketing strategies?
Although they are not as impressive as virtual reality, not as immediately useful as 3D printing and other technologies that will change the way we do marketing; chatbots are also part of these disruptive technologies.
Language processors have been making headlines since Siri was born. Since then, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Now are trying to reach the same level chatbots has reached. But digital assistants recognize and analyze voice commands, while chatbots respond to a dialogue system based on the text. Communications aim at being more real in this way.
If you wish to create a customer service experience that is 100% satisfying, you need to be available on all platforms where your target audience is. As all the statistics point out, cell phones are one of the most used platforms. This is one of the reasons why chatbots are so present today.
You might probably think they cannot help you in your strategies. In fact, we have talked to you many times before about the importance of personalized more and the value users give to being help by other people.
Knowing a machine is answering you is not something that everybody likes and it might make customers not feel valued. However, if you still feel unsure about chatbots, we present you 5 reasons for you to consider them. In fact, chatbots are an alternative to replace humans in some cases. Maybe this will make your perception change.
5 reasons to bet on chatbots
Although the power of voice activated digital assistants has given a lot to talk about, companies are exploiting the capabilities of chatbots more and more. Software with the ability to understand and respond to written commands and text can offer your business more than one advantage.
1.- Users are open to the idea of chatbots
Although there are those who still need customer service to solve their doubts, 40% of consumers prefer to solve them on their own. In fact, a Zendesk report shows that 50% of clients believe it is important to be able to solve their doubts by themselves, without the help of external agents.
But in the event of needing help, what do they prefer? Being help by voice or text? A study by One Reach states that 64% of customers prefer written answers instead of calling customer service. Not only do they prefer it, but 77% of them stated their perception of the company that offers this service will be more positive.
Why is that so? 81% of consumers agree that having to wait for help while on the phone or in front of a computer is frustrating. Hence, the importance of obtaining quick and precise solutions. Do you think your clients will know a machine is answering them?
2.- 24-hour customer service
Each brand can use chatbots however it works best for it. But it is undeniable that taking care of such a delicate and important aspect as customer service can make your life easier.
Chatbots do not sleep. They can be available 24 hours a day. If a user has a problem with a certain product or service at any time, a chatbot can help and provide certain solutions.
Besides being cheaper than customer services agents, chatbots are an efficient way to offer customer service. Users can write their questions and get immediate answers based on a pre-programmed logic.
As it is possible to see on the images, most users make use of chatbots for simple tasks. The best example for these simple tasks is Uber. This platform has developed a chatbot for Facebook that allows you to order a taxi, ask for the shortest route, or tell a friend you will arrive in 10 minutes.
However, there are times when users may have questions that are more complex than those the chatbot can understand. This does not mean it cannot perform its job well. Look at the example in the image above. When asking whether a garment is available in another color, the chatbot kindly answers it will return soon with an answer. In this way, although the answers are not immediate, the question will be answered in the end.
It is true that users prefer to talk to real people, but as long as the importance of the situation requires it. For this kind of simple questions, the clients look for are quick and immediate solutions, and chatbots are the best option.
3.- What if I want my chatbots to look more human? The power of visual content
Humans process images and videos 60,000 times faster than text. Therefore, contents that are more visual are a quick and easy way to share information. Why would not chatbots use it then?
It is true that their main objective is to communicate via text, but an alternative to make the conversations seem more fluid and less programmed is to incorporate images or GIFs. This kind of content can make the person who answers on the other side of the screen look more real, and they also add value to the situations that may arise.
Additionally, including an image to describe a product can be easier for the system. In this way, it is possible to avoid processes in which more complicated products need to be described. Again, look at the example on the image in this section. This alternative is more attractive than having a text only conversation.
In this way, the users experience will be improved. Keep in mind the previous points. Customers want written solutions, quickly and, to make it more real and add value to the content, images are included.
4.- Chatbots can track all user data
Whenever an interaction between a brand and a user takes place, there is a great amount of data that must be collected. But many of us have sometime called a company’s customer service in order to solve a question, only to have to go through endless surveys before asking our question. This does not mean that conventional customer service services are bad. But they need to collect a series of data from their customers to offer better services.
However, requesting so much data can be considered overwhelming and intrusive. This is where chatbots come into play. They can easily gather and monitor user data, including cookies, to learn about the user’s behavior.
On the other hand, personalization is the key to a good service. Did you believe chatbots could not offer exclusive information for your customers? The information they can collect and analyze helps personalization processes, and it allows you to speed up the resolution of certain struggles, among them, difficulties when looking for products or meeting a particular need.
5.- Technology offers more alternatives than you imagine
That is, they can be used in several areas within the sales cycle in order to bring users closer to a purchase, either during the stages of information gathering or at the time before making conversions.
As discussed above, chatbots can use the user’s behavior data, so they can determine the best way to approach a person as a consumer. In this way, they can offer you personalized information based on your preferences and your purchase intention.
Storytelling in chatbots
Chatbots are not only used to facilitate shopping processes or solve doubts. They can also be part of the storytelling strategy of any brand, as the case of Burberry or Tommy Hilfiger. They have used this service to create a story as a tool to launch their new collections.
However, the value of a chatbot depends on the volume of communication of each organization. Additionally, it depends on the users and the possible channels through which these services can be implemented.
However, everything starts with lead capturing, regardless of the channel through which you want to reach them. Can you do it? At Antevenio Go! we are specialists in attracting more leads at a lower cost. We have the technology, experience, method and human team to achieve it. Do not wait any more. Contact Antevenio Go! And increase you brand awareness!
