“Not sure if I am talking to a human or a very clever Chatbot!”
A Chatbot; your “Virtual” chat partner is common these days and never fails to amaze. These can answer any of your queries and help you get out of struck scenarios. You can find one on websites, apps, or on your smart devices! Sometimes, they also recommend you “Wow” products, and services, just like you. But, what are these? And what are their “superpowers”? We bring you the ultimate guide to chatbots and everything you need to know!
Let’s know our Chatbot friends in detail!
What are Chatbots?
Conversational Agents, AI assistants, or virtual Assistants; No matter which name you call a Chatbot, it will remain a machine or software that can execute human-like conversations with real humans. These can answer, assist, navigate, and can also provide information. Chatbots can stimulate conversation in text messages or audio messages.
Ever since 1950, when the first Chatbot came into the imagination of Alan Turing, these agents have been under a great deal of observation and admiration. Every day, Chatbots’ new advantages and applications raise make these agents unrivaled in business and service sectors.
“If you picture the journey of Chatbots from the 1960s to now, you can see that what was once a fantasy of being able to communicate with a non-living virtual being is now a part of our everyday lives!”
~Rashid Khan
Build Better Chatbots
The way with which chatbots have been developed through decades is unrivaled. But, what are these factors that make chatbots a go-to tool for businesses today?
Ultimate Guide to Chatbots: Why does your business need it?
If you are into the business sector, you will embrace the value of customer experience, And, believe it or not, one of the significant benefits of incorporating Chatbots into your business is delivering a superior customer experience.
Chatbots and Customer Experience
With their ability to communicate in different languages, 24*7 availability, and ease of delivering answers, Chatbots can significantly improve customer experience. Not only this, but their ability to stimulate human-like interaction also plays a significant role in their popularity.
According to the 2020 State of Conversational Marketing survey, around 87.2% of users feel that their experience with Chatbots was positive or neutral. Thus, it makes these AI agents a worthy addition to the business model.
Chatbots as your Piggy Bank
If hefty customer acquisition costs (CAC) and other business operation costs drain your profit margins, it’s time you integrate Chatbots as your “Piggy Bank”!
Yes, Chatbots can significantly reduce business costs. These agents achieve this by bridging the gap between customers and your services, converting prospect leads into customers, and leaving no room for customers’ doubts. With such conviction, it is also predicted that by 2023, Chatbots will assist businesses in saving 2.5 billion per hour!
Apart from Chatbots’ significant use case in elevating the quality of customer experience and reducing business costs, these also have benefits in marketing, sales, customer satisfaction, generating leads, and so forth!
“We can engage users that previously would have bounced back from our website and turn some of them into paying customers. We can also respond to users through the Chatbot, which takes some of the workloads away from the sales team.”
~Michael Kupfer
Director of Marketing
Harvard Business Solutions
But, the extra essence of Chatbots lies in its working model!
How do Chatbots Work?
In simpler words, chatbots are highly optimized AI algorithms. To begin with, Chatbots are architectured with pre-programmed responses and an AI mechanism that decides how they will respond and answer user queries. However, to understand its working in detail, this guide to chatbots will help you understand how it works!
There are primarily two types of Chatbots:
Rule-based Chatbots
Rule-based Chatbots, also known as Keyword, or command-based bots, work on the structure of predefined answers. These bots follow the sort of “script” fed to answer user queries. By identifying a particular keyword in the query, these agents search the fed library and provide users with an answer. Chatbot designers often design the library.
Though these can provide the correct answer, Rule-based Chatbots don’t understand the context of the conversation and follow a “Script.” Furthermore, one of the highlights of rule-based Chatbots is learning from their experience. Yes, these virtual agents remember past query sessions and respond in a better way next time. These are helpful to businesses that want to automate the customer query process.
AI-Chatbots
AI-Chatbots are “intelligent” bots programmed with advanced machine learning and AI algorithms. Based on the conversation’s relatability, context, and intent, these can run different operations. These can execute free conversations with users and deliver an advanced and better customer experience.
Furthermore, these work on three robust pillars; Natural Language Processing (NLP), Sentiment Analysis, and Machine Learning!
Conclusion
Chatbots can undoubtedly help optimize business service, user experience, and other critical business operations like customer acquisition. These can also streamline an organization’s sales and marketing funnel. Last but not least, Chatbots can also help keep employees in a better position to execute and implement new ideas. Believe it or not, incorporating Chatbot into your business will be the investment you would gain the most profits from! we hope this guide to chatbots made you think definitely trying one for your business!