To Chatbot or Not? The Good and the Bad Behind the Use of the Virtual Assistants in Customer-Centric Businesses

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Chatbots are the rage these days. Almost every company has introduced them into their workflows. Although these automatic conversation bots have become increasingly sophisticated, whether your company needs them or not should be found out.

Let’s discuss this further.

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots or virtual assistants are automated conversation systems. They guide your customers and reduce the workload for your customer servers. It is a broad category and includes everything from automated chat on a company’s website to Amazon’s Alexa.

Virtual agents are considered the most powerful ones among chatbots. They are the ones that can make the real difference in the world of customer service. Since they are powered by artificial intelligence, they can answer multiple kinds of questions.

Virtual agents scan the customer’s question and then identify their intent by comparing it with the information made available to them. Then it responds accordingly. They not only reduce the cost but also make a great impact on customer experience. They are available 24/7, every day of the week, and can answer questions much faster than humans.

However, when considering developing and deploying a chatbot, the business owner should consider what kind of business can take the most advantage of chatbots and how to incorporate them into their customer service.

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The good

People are OK with using chatbots, in fact, according to a survey more than 33% of people prefer chatbots for making purchasing decisions. It is an easy and fast way to get your questions answered. Close to half of the millennials will accept the recommendation of the chatbots.

The following are a few benefits of chatbots.

  • They increase customer engagement since they are so easy to use and respond to in real-time one-on-one.
  • They can lead to improved generation by incorporating customer feedback.
  • They reduce customer service costs.
  • They allow consumer data monitoring.
  • They help in coming up with conversational marketing strategies.
  • They allow automation with a balanced human touch.
  • They let you achieve scalability of support.
  • They help streamline onboard customers.

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The Bad

Chatbots are well-received but they are not all bed of roses. Chatbots that are not well developed could end up harming your business. Many customers admit that they get more frustrated with a chatbot that can’t answer their question rather than a human in the same situation.

Moreover, you should consider the scale that requires this kind of technology worthwhile. Chatbots are mostly recommended for companies that engage in thousands of customer chats or calls.

The following are a few of the negatives of using chatbots.

  • Older customers are generally unwilling to use chatbots.
  • A bot is not the same as a person so it may not understand every query of your customer.
  • There may be privacy concerns with chatbots since they are mostly controlled by large corporations that gather information.

Final Words

Chatbots are the marvel of software development and modern technology. They can do your corporation much good if they are designed well and fit the scale of your company and the business type. However, they are not without their problems. You should first consider the chatbot’s technical capabilities and your business aspects.

 

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