How to boost the customer experience with a chatbot?

With the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by the business community, both in the world and in Spain, more and more SMEs are integrating new technologies to improve their services and become more competitive. As the years go by, companies are becoming more aware of the need to be present for their customers through different channels, especially when they ask for help. 

From Whatsapp to social media to the company's own website, when they need it, consumers expect convenience, speed and personalisation from the customer support team when they need it. While this may seem complicated, the ability to provide a better user experience is possible thanks to one of the applications of AI, chatbots. 

This technology makes the work of customer service staff easier by automating tasks. For this reason, chatbots are gaining popularity in the business world. According to a study by Salesforce, the use of chatbots in companies is expected to grow at a rate of 136% in the next year and a half. keep reading to learn more about chatbots!

What is a chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer programme designed to simulate conversations with people by acting as automated virtual assistants, capable of communicating with people by text or voice. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to understand customer questions and automate responses, simulating human conversation.

Common uses and applications

Chatbots are mainly used by companies to carry out customer service tasks and functions. For example: placing and tracking orders, reporting technical incidents, providing information about a specific product or service. Another frequent use of these softwares is due to their ability to generate and maintain conversations by voice. We are talking about the well-known virtual assistants such as Siri, Irene, Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistance, among others. 

Chatbots are able to perform all these functions as they are programmed to interpret the context of conversations and respond to questions thanks to AI, NLP or Machine Learning tools. These tools allow them to understand what we ask and automatically learn from each of the interactions they perform.

Here are some of the main advantages that chatbots bring to companies:

• It saves costs in the customer service department. A chatbot makes it possible to serve a larger number of people in a shorter period of time.
• Responds quickly to user´s main queries and requests to improve the user experience.
• This technology is constantly evolving. This allows the software to be improved to simulate increasingly complex real conversations.
• They have a great versatility that allows them to adapt to any consumer sector. From financial services to tourism.

The importance of chatbots in the customer experience

Although chatbots cannot completely replace humans, they can be of great support to a company's employees. 

These are the ways in which a chatbot can help a company provide good customer service:

• Reduce customer waiting time. Consumers can get immediate answers to common questions via chat, without having to wait for an email or call.

• Enables support cases to be resolved. To reduce support agent workload and response time, chatbots can continuously and immediately answer direct questions.

• Manage redirects efficiently for queries. This software can instantly welcome the customer and direct them to the resources they need.

• Provide leads to agents. Chatbots can deliver a more qualified lead to the human agent by asking a series of relevant questions. In addition, this programme can help open conversations that can then be followed up by an agent.