Chatbots in various forms have been around for a long time. Leaving aside the "paleotechnological" era, the popular Gadu-Gadu Infobot was a chatbot in the instant messaging era, and even the infamous Clippy, or Mr. Clip, a virtual assistant implemented in applications such as the Office suite at the turn of the century.
Today, chatbots are almost ubiquitous. Some process text exclusively, such as many bots operating in pop-up windows on websites or on messaging apps like Messenger or WhatsApp. Others also use advanced speech recognition systems, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
Thanks to chatbots, depending on their purpose, design and level of advancement, we as users can easily order a movie ticket, use assistance in selecting a product in an online store, find a solution to a technical problem with a purchase, or receive various types of information.
Chatbot in the company – sample applications
- answers to the most popular questions related to the product or the purchasing process
- initial lead qualification – obtaining information about the expectations of a potential customer
- comparison of the offered products based on data provided by the user
- customer satisfaction survey with the product/service
The simplest chatbot is rule-based – its mechanics utilize a set of predefined answers to specific questions. As users click on each option, new branches in the tree become active. More advanced bots utilize machine learning, allowing them to select answers to a certain extent based on keywords and their structure, theoretically increasing their capabilities with each subsequent interaction with the user. The most advanced chat programs are based on artificial intelligence, which, in simple terms, allows them not only to "learn" the interpretation of new words but also to generate natural language utterances.
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Chatbot in the company – is it worth it?
From a company's perspective, the greatest advantage of a chatbot is the reduction of workload for the customer service department. A bot can usually answer frequently asked questions and resolve simple user issues. If a customer's issue requires human intervention, the bot will provide the agent with basic information after the initial "conversation," ensuring they are armed with information about the question category from the outset, saving time for both the employee and the customer.
Despite its many undeniable advantages, it's very easy to implement a chatbot in a way that does more harm than good. Installing a chatbot in a company must be carefully considered and implemented appropriately.
What should we pay attention to when implementing a chatbot in a company?
In customer service, even the most advanced chatbot initially builds a psychological wall between the company and the user. No human being likes to be treated – nomen omen – mechanically. Of course, this is an individual matter, but for most customers, engaging with the program creates a sense of being disregarded to some extent.
Conversing with a bot (especially a poorly developed one) can be irritating - explaining the problem to a consultant is usually faster and easier in terms of communication than "clicking" through the available options to finally find - or not - a specific issue or reach the option to contact a person on the hotline.
Bots are becoming increasingly better at processing natural language, but it will take a long time before they learn less standard grammatical structures and can fully "understand" every question directed at them. Even greater complications arise when bots attempt to interpret verbal speech. In this case, the first system is tasked with understanding the message using voice recognition, processing it into text, and then tagging individual words. This involves a huge amount of data – each person speaks with a different voice, has a slightly different accent or phonetic habits, and there are potential interferences or background noises on the line. It's also important to remember that verbal messages are usually constructed somewhat differently than written ones. Only then does a "standard" text interpretation occur, which is a multifaceted, complex process in itself.
If a bot can't quickly and accurately identify a caller's intentions, things get tricky. Some users will abandon the conversation at this stage, which can be considered a Pyrrhic victory (less work for the customer service department, at best annoyed, at worst customer loss).
Let's assume the message has been fully understood and the bot has the data to help the user. As with a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs), messages sent by a chatbot must be as specific and precise as possible. In this case, presenting the user with a wall of text, overloaded with various topics revolving around a specific issue but not directly addressing it, will only increase negative feelings about the entire interaction.
How to implement a chatbot?
The key aspect – as always in business – is answering the question of what tasks the chatbot should fulfill and, above all, who it is intended for. Only after thoroughly analyzing the purpose and requirements of the target group should it be worth moving on to the design and implementation stages.
Therefore, you should gather a database of questions that customers (whether current or potential) ask your company – the brief should be as detailed as possible. The good news is that in the vast majority of cases, there's no need to create a chatbot from scratch – there are hundreds of ready-made programs on the market that, with the help of specialists, we can implement according to our needs and requirements, for example, by integrating the chatbot with the company's CRM system.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- How can you use a chatbot in your company?
- Does implementing a chatbot bring real benefits to the company?
