All about Chatbots and how it will revolutionise your customer service

Have you ever heard about chatbots, they are robots programmed to respond like humans. The major use of chatbot is in the automation of a business. Now there are two types of chatbots one is a simple chatbot that functions based on rules and the other one which is more of an advanced version runs on the principle of machine learning.

So why is chabot such a huge thing?

Well, studies show that in this modern era majority of the customers use messenger service more than social media platform. If the organisation has a chatbot, it’s a great opportunity for them to give the user a better shopping experience.

First, let me explain how chatbots work. The simple version of a chatbot will take in keywords that you type in and prove a set of already existing replies fed into the program. If it’s a more advanced version they can learn from their previous interactions and provide you with better replies to your queries. Simply saying, it can learn from your conversation. It’s much closer to artificial intelligence and it can understand languages. There are many different types of chatbots such as weather bot, Scheduling bot, Grocery bot etc each programmed to interact for a different purpose with the customer and all the bots work via a chat interface.

You may still think, so what? How will this help me in building my business?

Guess what! It has huge benefits, today most of the people use chat service to interact with each other because it’s very easy. Who would have guessed when WhatsApp launched the new document attachment, that people will start using it. Nowadays we receive daily news in PDF format and many other documents through chat platforms simply because it’s easy.  Many online chat applications like face book and WhatsApp already has chatbots of different companies. You can just go to botlist.co and try some bots if you like.

The major implications that chatbots will have in the future is in the customer service. Imagine calling to the customer centre waiting for half an hour listening to the boring music and finally getting connected, after getting connected going through all the procedure and holding the line and finally getting your things done in an hour, for some in the busy schedule it's inconvenient. Now a day’s customers are becoming more sophisticated and they look for convenience more when it comes to choosing and trusting the product. After sale service has a major part in this. Imagine a chatbot of your company in the customer’s WhatsApp or messenger to simply make things more convenient for them.

For customers, it improves the communication and reduces the psychological sacrifices they have to undergo when they are having any product related doubt or complaints or to even return the product. They can simply go to your company chatbot and start chatting; they get instantaneous replies which can build up their consumer experience and satisfaction.

That’s not all!! From a business perceptive you can a have minimal customer service staff which can have a huge impact on your operating cost and a better customer satisfaction can improve your brand image and sales figure.

So how do I get a chatbot? And how much does it cost?

The chatbot industry is still in its growth phase and there are three major options by which you can get yourself a chat bot. The price of the chatbot will depend on three factors how big is your organisation and customer base, how much interaction you require and what all operations you want the chatbot to perform.

You can go to a software company specialising in chatbot developments and create a custom chatbot for you. The pricing will depend on the above-mentioned factors and the maintenance costs.

You can hire an in-house team for creating and maintaining your chatbot or train your existing employees to specialise in these areas. If you are already an innovative company in tech industry this option is something I highly recommend.

Finally, if you are a small start up or online company there are many self-service platforms which you can look in to and the pricing ranges between $18 to $50 per month according to the functionality and no of users for the chatbot.

So what’s your opinion on this?? Kindly leave it in the comment section to make it more interesting.