B2B Website Tips From Bigfork

Web Insights is all about helping you get more out of your B2B website by sharing our knowledge and expertise. I hope you find it useful and if there is anything you'd like to know about B2B websites please get in touch.

Lets talk about AI Chatbots for B2B websites

We've been busy with researching AI. It's everywhere you look and we want to find out how AI can improve the performance of B2B websites.

We've been looking at a website brief recently which required functionality for visitors to ask questions about anything to do with their service. Chatbots are nothing new and seem to be an answer. We then looked at AI Chatbots to see how effective they could be. Here's what we found out.

What is a website AI Chatbot?

It's an AI powered tool that's embedded in your website that engages with visitors through a conversational dashboard. Live chatbots require a real human to answer the questions, but AI chatbots use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand language and produce effective answers.

What can they be used for on a B2B website?

An AI Chatbot is a 24/7 website tool that can help your customers in many ways.

• It can answer any questions your website visitors have about your offering.
• AI Chatbots can help lead gen by making appointments, arranging demos or helping you fill in enquiry forms.
• Customer support questions can be answered and messages can be sent to your service team.
• They can help visitors find specific products, especially on B2B websites which have hundreds of products. (A big frustration for B2B buyers!).

Our B2B Disconnect report identified all of the frustrations they have with B2B websites. We think AI Chatbots would really help solve many of them, at all stages of the buying process.

So what are the benefits to you and you website visitors?

• 24/7 uptime. It's always on and providing instant support. No need for your team to be manning it.
• It helps your customers find products and information quickly and easily.
• You gather important data from all of the customer interactions with your AI chatbot.
• Reduces your customer service time and costs.
• They can help identify high quality leads for your sales team.

These are big benefits that can help companies in every B2B sector. We're currently trialling one on our own website.

What are the downsides to AI Chatbots on your website?

As with every tech tool there can be negatives which you should take into account.

• AI and NLP is advancing fast but it can still misinterpret user questions and give the wrong answer. Setting up your AI Chatbot correctly can alleviate much of this and we'd recommend continuous testing in the early phase.
• They're not human. They can lack the personal touch and put some people off. There will be some potential customers who want to engage with real people.
• They will require maintenance, updating, good quality data, training, plus set up costs. You will need to be aware of how much resource you'll need for an effective AI chatbot.

Setting up an AI Chatbot

As with any tech tool you'll need to know what's involved before you commits. AI Chatbots are no different. Here is a quick set up overview.

1. Set the objectives of what you want your website Chabot to handle. (eg service and product enquiries, lead gen.)
2. Find a platform provider. Research what chatbot provider provides everything you'll need and what the costs are.
3. Map out conversation flows. Put yourself in the seat of your website visitor and what questions they would ask. Chatbot platforms have tools that help you map out these conversation flows.
4. Embed the chatbot into your website. You can normally customise the AI Chatbot widget to match your branding.
5. Integrate with backend systems such as your CRM and databases.
6. Train your chatbot by feeding it the data it needs. This might be from your existing website content or other sources.
7. Carry out training and iterations until you're happy with the way your Chatbot works.

What next?

This is early days for AI chatbots but they're getting better. We think they'll be an essential part of B2B websites in the future and something that you should be considering. We'd love to hear from anyone who has added AI chatbots to their website and what their experience is.

Mark Ellaway,??

Bigfork ???

We create tasty B2B websites?

PS - You can find more great successful website insights on the Bigfork website.?