In which areas can a chatbot help my business?

How many of us have gone shopping on a Sunday at 8 PM, had a question, and a miraculous chatbot appeared to save us? Perhaps all of us. An indispensable tool in the sales strategy of businesses and brands that have come to revolutionize the way we interact with companies and customers.

What is a chatbot? 

A chatbot is a software program designed to simulate human conversation through a keyword interface or messages. These work thanks to the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to provide automated responses to common questions or inquiries from users or customers. A chatbot can be implemented on a website, or in an instant messaging app like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Telegram. 

Therefore, any consumer or potential customer can interact with this technology. There are many chatbots, and which is the best AI chatbot will always depend on your goals and needs.

How chatbots work 

Some chatbots are simple and function like a question-and-answer game, while others are complex as they understand the context of the question and generate a more tailored response. 

Rule-based chatbots 

These are chatbots that operate with predetermined responses based on keywords, and the user navigates through branches of a tree of automatic questions and answers. It's a linear conversation. The decision tree is defined by a human, who structures the possible questions and answers or resources that the chatbot can provide. Generally, if the user doesn't get the desired answer, they will be put in contact with a human agent. 

AI-based chatbots 

These are conversational chatbots that understand the context of the dialogue and give naturalness to the responses, they have a much larger database. They learn from their interaction with the user and provide a non-linear conversation. That is, the responses are generated according to the question. To interpret and identify what the user is saying and provide a coherent and appropriate response, chatbots use Machine Learning (ML) or automated learning to process information. 

All this data is processed and stored in neural networks capable of detecting patterns and learning from them. Through the natural flow of conversations between the AI-based chatbot and the user, the database grows. A well-fed database will obtain broad and complete information. It will allow a deeper understanding of customers: their buying behavior, their purchase decisions, their interests, etc.

Having said all this, we can define that chatbots are useful for all types of business branches and areas within each of these companies. Currently, the areas that benefit the most from them are as follows: 

Chatbots in customer service 

They serve to answer common questions from customers or potential customers about a product or service. For example, they can help the user to know the details of the delivery of an order or provide offers for a specific product. 

Chatbots in technical support

They are utilized to identify and try to solve technical problems with a product or service. For example, they can guide the user step by step to find where the problem is, suggest searching for software updates, or identify compatibility issues. 

Chatbots in marketing

They are designed to to personalize recommendations or promotions to customers or offer products to potential customers. For example, suggest a restaurant based on the user's location or their price range preferences. 

Chatbots in Social Media

They serve to interact with the user within social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, or Telegram. For example, they can provide automatic responses to questions about the brand or provide store opening hours. 

Virtual assistants

These programs use technology similar to an AI-based chatbot to better understand human language and provide responses based on the context of the conversation, usually interacting with them through voice. They are designed to assist users in their day-to-day lives, extracting information from search engines like Google or Bing to provide answers or recommendations. Some examples of virtual assistants are Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Google's Google Assistant.

Advantages of using a Chatbot 

The benefits of incorporating this technology grow day by day with the evolution of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence tools, and technology in general. These are the main ones:

Quick and continuous attention: Automation allows you to have customer service 24/7, which not only reduces response times but also frees the human agent from being attentive all day to customer needs regarding basic questions that can be configured and let the chatbot respond for them.

Resource-saving: Another advantage of automation is to reduce spending on training customer service staff as the chatbot covers much of those functions.

Personalized service: A chatbot for companies collects information from customers, such as preferences, decision level, and products added to the cart. With this data, the company improves the accuracy and quality of service and manages to increase customer loyalty as they feel recognized.

Omnichannel experience: A website, social networks, and emails are very different from each other. A chatbot can unify attention, standardizing the quality of service on all digital channels of the company. In any platform, attention and closeness will be the same.

As you can see, chatbots can bring numerous benefits to your business, from more efficient customer service to better decision-making based on valuable metrics. They can also help solve common problems in companies, such as difficulty in tracking messages, loss of customers due to lack of immediate attention, and inefficient customer service processes.

However, the success of a chatbot depends on a solid structure, with clear objectives focused on offering the user an exceptional experience while taking care of the tone of communication. If we are not attentive to these points, we face a latent possibility of failure since the chatbot will do what we ask, but for the moment, we humans must set the guidelines. 

We live in an era "governed" by technology in which each advance brings us closer to success and each fear or rejection expels us from the system and distances us from our goals. Chatbots have come to stay and are only the beginning.