Let's Talk AI in Business.......

Artificial Intelligence used to be something that was only ever shown in movies but now it’s not uncommon for it to spring up in conversations.

Socially, we are becoming a little more comfortable communicating with and communicating to different kinds of software whether that be recorded phone automation, Google voice search, Amazon Alexa and even our motor vehicles.

A new emerging software which is quickly becoming popular among business owners is the use of Chat-bots but, what are they and are they any good?

Chat-bots are a type of conversational software which works with human personality in conversation and many large companies such as Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Renault and Citro?n are now using automated online assistants instead of call centres with humans to provide a first point of contact. One of the great benefits of using chatbots in your business is that they save time. For instance, when used on your website they can provide fast, automated answers to most questions. Their use prevents customers from waiting a day or longer to receive responses as they would have in the past.

65% of smartphone users don’t download any new apps in a month. Since users have their core apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp etc., they don’t look for new ones. Therefore, integrating your own chatbot into one of the popular platforms that your customers use daily, can be better than building a new app by saving money and time.

According to a research by Gartner, customer service is the most important factor to success. So, whether you are an international or a local business, having a good customer service 24/7 has a positive impact on your customer satisfaction.

Customer support process can be improved with the help of chatbots. Bots can be programmed to give automated answers to repetitive questions immediately and forward the request to a real person when a more complicated action is needed. This enables human customer service representatives to save time and assist more important cases rather than time consuming simple tasks.

Whether you are already an international brand with customers all over the world, or a local brand who is ready for global business, chatbots can solve your customer care problems in multiple languages and 24/7, 365 days a year. This allows your business to scale up its operations to new markets without having to worry about multiplying incoming requests to be handled.

First of all, implementing a full functioning chatbot, is much cheaper and faster than creating a cross platform app or hiring employees for each task. Businesses have a variety of options from ready-made softwares developed by Facebook, Microsoft and other big IT companies to choose.

Since chatbots are automated solutions, they allow organizations to handle many customers at once, and simultaneously. By “employing” chatbots that complements human agents, you will not only save on employee costs but you will also avoid the problems caused by human errors.

As we can see, Chatbots can be a great back up for employees for relatively basic and repetitive tasks with great speed, cost-effective, easy to implement, maintain and use. The biggest challenge you need to pay attention the most is, the conversation capability or “personality” of your chatbot in order to increase or even just retain your brand perception and customers.

Alicia Withey, Founder, Social Media SmartBus