The Role of Chatbots in Customer Service Automation

Introduction 

Do you struggle to retain customers for your budget constraints? Chatbots can be your savior as they will take on several manual tasks, simultaneously enhancing customer satisfaction. This is how you cut down on expenses but still manage to provide a better customer experience.

“62% of consumers would rather talk to a chatbot than a human agent”

Talking to a chatbot is an alternate way to get your queries resolved instead of waiting for 15 minutes to talk to a customer support representative.

In this blog we will share how chatbots are effective in customer services and how automating customer support tasks can streamline the processes of a buyer’s journey, boosting retention. This will let you save money along with boosting customer experience, for which they will again avail your services.

The Role of Chatbots in Customer Service Automation

Chatbots help you automate customer support services which not only streamlines customer care operations but also gives customers another reason to love your brand more. 

24/7 Availability 

Chatbots can be available 24/7 to help customers out no matter in which stage of the buyer’s journey the customer is currently. This helps reduce a customer’s wait time in getting responses to their queries and also provides additional support beyond business hours and even on weekends. This could have never happened manually.

Sephora sells makeup products and uses chatbots that resolve customer’s queries regarding product availability, product ingredients, order status, return policy, etc. 

Personalized Response

Chatbots, if powered by AI, can provide personalized responses which are key benefits of customer service automation using bots. What type of personalization you can expect?

• Chatbots can recommend similar products or services relevant to your search intent by analyzing your behavior and preferences. 
• You can get product suggestions according to your location, season, weather, and your religious events. 
• Chatbots push notifications of similar products that match your search criteria and preferences. 
• They remind you about your add-to-cart products and ask questions regarding their interest in buying them.
• You get to know the status of your orders automatically, keeping you informed about every stage of the delivery process.

Automating Repetitive Tasks

Chatbots automate repetitive tasks in customer service operations. From answering similar queries related to products to giving information regarding product availability and probable discounts, to purchase and return policies, to updating the status of orders, to direct customers down the marketing funnel to purchase desired products. These tasks would be hectic and monotonous for employees. Hence taking care of the repetitive tasks this way, chatbots allow employees to focus on more important tasks.

Collecting Data for Insights 

Chatbots can seamlessly collect user data like their preferences, personality, behavior, feedback, testimonials, location, etc. These details will help in tailoring marketing campaigns based on specific user data. This method reduces inaccuracy as humans are not involved while collecting data, simultaneously boosting sales for customized targeting. Because the data will be utilized to personalize product recommendations in the future.

Proactive Assistance 

Chatbots are designed to leverage Machine Learning (ML) so that they can analyze user data and provide personalized responses. This method also helps in predicting a customer’s needs or troubleshooting an issue even before the user has experienced it. This extraordinary customer care approach makes users feel valued, resulting in conversion. Using ML chatbots can assist customers with consistent replies by remembering the previous pattern of interaction with users, thereby reducing errors.

Some other customer service tasks that chatbots can automate are:

1. To answer frequently asked questions.

2. To help in processing transactions online.

3. To reset passwords and automatically update account information.

4. To schedule appointments and bookings.

5. To direct customers to the right department to solve their issues by simply understanding their type of issue.

6. To enable users to voice and image search.

7. To break the ice and start initial conversations with users to dig deeper into their concerns.

8. To provide customer support in multiple languages effectively. 

While chatbots hold immense importance in playing a key role in automating customer service operations, enabling chatbots with several important features is not an easy task. Relying on a top web development company in Delhi NCR can yield vital results for your business, at reasonable expenses. 

Examples of chatbots in different industries 

E-commerce 

Nykaa: 

Their chatbots help customers with product details and transactions, check the availability of specific products, track orders, remind missed items, facilitate the shopping experience, and recommend similar and alternative products based on their search intent and browsing history.

Travel industry

Air India: 

Air India’s chatbots assist passengers with the status of flight availability and their flight tickets. It helps them manage bookings, and get answers to common queries regarding baggage allowance and check-in procedures.

Hospitality industry 

Marriott International:

Their chatbots enable customers to check in via the Internet, manage reservations, ask for room service, and access hotel information anytime.

Banking and Finance 

ICICI Bank: 

iPal is ICICI Bank’s AI-powered virtual assistant. It answers your banking-related queries 24/7, helps you do basic banking transactions, check account balances, keep track of spending, ask for mini statements, and resolve basic account issues.

Healthcare 

Cleveland Clinic:

Their chatbots assist patients with scheduling appointments, informing basic queries regarding health conditions, and reminding medication. 

Limitations of Chatbots 

1. Chatbots are yet to evolve to understand different aspects of human language. They don’t relate to slang, harsh words, or complex statements.

2. Chatbots are not empowered with empathy. Hence customers sharing emotional stuff can get irrelevant responses from chatbots. 

3. Chatbots struggle to perform any non-regular task beyond repetitive tasks. 

4. Customer service chatbots are not fully empowered to do everything on their own, like providing refunds to customers. 

FAQs

1. What is a chatbot and how it works?

The moment you enter a website, you may hear a pop-up sound greeting you from a corner of that website. This is a customer service chatbot that can solve your basic queries even when the owner of that website is not actively present at that moment. So when you use chatbots for your business, you get your customer’s data accurately and also answer their questions instantly, reducing human involvement. 

2. How can chatbots benefit marketers?

Marketers run campaigns to collect customer data so that they can personalize brand messaging and audience targeting. Chatbots are trained to communicate with customers automatically and resolve their basic queries.  This way chatbots collect valuable customer data like a customer wants a discount on his favorite shoe. This data can be used by marketers to run campaigns while their favorite shoe is on sale, thereby boosting conversion.

3. What are the features of a Customer Support Chatbot?

You can find customer support chatbots available 24/7 even on non-business days. Bots have faster response times that resolve your basic queries instantly without making you wait for replies for long. If you have any complex issue and need to talk to the internal authorities of a company, bots can directly connect you with the concerned authority. As bots are trained on customer data, they remember their past interaction with you and tailor their responses according to your personality and behavior.

4. What are some best practices for integrating chatbots into my business system?

If you have a business website and a mobile application of the same, make sure to integrate chatbots on both platforms with the help of a Chatbot Development Service Provider. Connect chatbots with internal business systems, so that bots can seamlessly direct customers to the human agents who can resolve their complex issues. You need to continuously review and update chatbots by analyzing user feedback for optimal performance and user experience.

Conclusion 

With the growing competition in the business landscape, a brand needs to identify areas in which it can have a competitive advantage over others in the industry. Leveraging customer experience can be a game changer in your business. To reduce human errors, chatbots are used to automate customer support operations in many industries. And it has brought great results for their businesses. This blog has just discussed the key roles that chatbots play in streamlining your operations. Integrate chatbots with your existing business system for an extraordinary customer experience.