It’s hard to believe there was a time when consumers were wary of chatbots. The concept of ‘conversing’ with an automated agent was a little too futuristic for some, a little scary for others. “I’d rather stay on hold and speak to a real person,” was a common refrain from some customers as they struggled to get their heads around the latest innovation to sweep contact centres.
Haven’t times changed? It only takes a quick scroll of recent studies to see that chatbots are not just accepted by today’s consumers but changing customer experience for the better.
The chatbot boom is also being fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), with 84% of companies believing AI chatbots will become important for communication between customers and businesses[6]. For organisations yet to embrace chatbots in the contact centre space, implementation is no longer a matter of if but when. The benefits speak for themselves, which leaves one vital question for executives and managers – what type of chatbot use case should we deploy?
There are different types of chatbots, each designed with a specific business purpose. Here are five of the most common:
Increasing efficiencies and reducing costs are often cited as reasons to adopt chatbot technology but the benefits extend much further.
Chatbots are powerful tools, but they're not a magic solution for every business. Here's a breakdown of situations where a chatbot could be a game-changer:
Are you constantly answering the same questions over and over? A chatbot can handle those repetitive queries, freeing up human agents to tackle more complex issues. Think FAQs, order tracking, basic account information – perfect for a bot!
Your customers aren't sticking to a 9-to-5 schedule. A chatbot ensures your business is always ‘open’, providing instant support and information no matter the time or day. This boosts customer satisfaction and can even lead to increased sales.
Modern chatbots can do more than just answer questions. They can offer personalised recommendations, guide users through your website and even collect valuable data to help you understand your customers better.
Imagine a chatbot that pre-qualifies leads, gathers contact information and schedules appointments while you focus on closing deals. That's the power of a well-designed chatbot in your sales funnel.
Chatbots can act as a first line of defence, handling simple queries and escalating complex issues to human agents. This reduces your team's workload and allows them to focus on what they do best.
Chatbots can seamlessly integrate surveys and feedback forms into the conversation, providing valuable insights into customer satisfaction and areas for improvement.
While there's an initial investment, chatbots can significantly reduce customer service costs in the long run. They can handle a large volume of enquiries simultaneously, reducing the need for a large human support team.
Oration by Convai is a cost-effective and easy-to-install solution that combines the latest generation of speech recognition technology with its AI language interpreter to determine caller intent and fast-track calls to the best outcomes. Crucially, businesses have several use case options when investing in its chatbot features.
Source: Top 37 Chatbot Applications & Use Cases in 2024 (aimultiple.com)
The first thing to know is that no AI chatbot is going to completely eliminate agent workloads. While some technology providers like to portray that possibility, the reality is adopting chatbots is all about easing workloads by blending technology with human agents.
While automating may seem like the most powerful of chatbot use cases, we strongly believe in working with clients to identify the option that is best for their needs. It is often more important for businesses to get quick wins than wait for the big jackpot, which is why we highlight that routing and referring can deliver benefits much faster at lower cost, even if those benefits are slightly reduced. The key is that we have conversations with clients about what they want to do with their chatbots and help them identify where the value lies.
Ultimately, our goal is to help unlock value quickly and we often find that is achieved by focusing on the two simpler use cases (routing and referring) and strategically targeting the use of automating in special circumstances. While the latter may seem like the answer to all your contact centre prayers, we know from experience that businesses that rush for the all-singing, all-dancing chatbot tend to end up regretting their decision. Rather than get oversold on the ability of a chatbot, there is a lot to be said for partnering with an expert who appreciates the need to mix simplicity with strategy.
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