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14.05.2020
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Chatbots took the rightful place in the client service and became great assistants in business processes organization. Nevertheless, many of us doubt whether it is necessary to introduce a software assistant in our business or to continue loading our employees with monkey job. Why?
Really, why?
Some tend to have inflated expectations from a chatbot. There is a widespread belief that a bot can fully optimize communication with the clients. So, does that mean a strict “no” to live communication? Does one have to fire the employees? But what about misunderstandings in communication with a bot? What about a human factor? Apparently, the software is not that forward-thinking.
We would like to dispel those myths. A chatbot is not a replacement of real people. It is just an assistant, organizer, optimizer of the recurring processes. It allows users to receive basic information about a product or service at any time, sends out materials, responds a number of questions, helps to trace a purchase or performs a number of other set up functions that are really necessary for business maintaining and development.
Read more about available functions of chat bots here.
In order to understand this issue better, let us talk about the way a bot operates, and learn more about their types.
“Client — bot — operator” interaction
First of all, we have to say that in this article, we talk about the simplest chatbots. These are the programs that will work well for the solution of various tasks of any business. We can divide them into three types:
- A fully automated chat bot
- An automated chat bot with an option to contact an operator
- A bot for connection with an operator.
Let us have a closer look at each of these types.
An Automated Chat Bot
An automated chatbot has a previously developed and preset scenario for communication with a client. In this case, the developer has to take into account as many variants of the user’s question design as possible. Otherwise, it would be better to offer a universal questions/answers template, or provide a client with some phrases as buttons.
After such interaction, the program follows a simple principle: [if the user wrote “…”, the answer should be “…”]. If the question is irrelevant, or if a bot cannot recognize the wording, it still has a ready answer, for example: “I am sorry, I cannot understand you, could you please paraphrase your question?”. If the program does not provide for the connection with the operator, the communication with a virtual assistant will be limited to the in-built scenario and the requests to change the wording.
Note: in order to make the interaction between the client and the bot more effective, you should specify the capabilities of the bot in the greeting message. Also, there you can indicate how to construct better sentences for communication with a bot. In order to make communication as simple as possible, limit the client’s part to the ready-made phrases as buttons.
An Automated Chat Bot with an Option to Contact an Operator
This type of bots does not differ very much from the first variant, except for one important function — they allow to get in touch with an operator in case a bot cannot cope with the request. The communication option is a must if your service or product is customized, has a lot of individual nuances or is expensive.
Note: if you have decided to order a chat bot for your shop or services, and you need a connection with an operator/consultant, make sure that the connect button is always visible for the user. By doing so, you will not lose your clients and will always be able to help them with the choice and the solution.
A Bot for Connection with a Manager
Such bot does not have any scenario, does not respond the messages and does not communicate with the user. He serves only to connect with a consultant or a manager. You may think: “What is the point in bothering oneself over creation of a bot in this case?”. The truth is, this is a very good solution in the cases where an Internet resource user was offered several communication options: email, social networks, messengers, etc. Some message resources can easily be missed, and, therefore, you can unintentionally ignore the requests of your leads.
A chat bot, however, will redirect all the users’ messages to one resource, for an operator to work with it.
Note. If you need a chat bot for the communication optimization only, it won’t hurt to specify a couple of commands or phrases. For example, a chat bot may ask a user to wait for the operator’s response, and outside of working hours, it will suggest leaving a phone number for reaching at the specified time.
A Chatbot Is Smart Business Optimization. It`s not a magic pill, but a perfect tool for the implementation of routine business tasks. An elaborated scenario and functionality of a bot will allow serving much more clients, holding their attention and staying connected. Maybe, this is just what your business needs.
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