Have you ever thought about using chatbots for your business? Chances are, you have, and you also decided it would cause more trouble than provided benefits.
Perhaps you’re already using live chat API and don’t think chatbots are worth it.
We’re going to cover some compelling reasons (backed by research) why you should give chatbots a chance!
What are chatbots?
Let’s start with the definition provided by Oxford Languages:
“a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet.”
The difference between chatbots and your typical live chat software is that chatbots don’t require human input once they’re set up.
This is excellent because, according to IBM, “Chatbots can answer 80% of standard questions.”.
There are two primary types of chatbots:
- Regular chatbots. These chatbots offer users a set of questions to choose from and provide an answer per request. They provide a structured conversation flow with features like conditional logic, keyword recognition, calculations, and more.
- AI chatbots. These bots use language processing technology to understand what users are looking for while also allowing them to jump from question to question without ruining the flow. In some cases, this bot type utilizes machine learning to catch question patterns and improve over time without human help.
There’s no better or worse between these two, as you’ll always pick one based on your customer support needs.
Previously you need developers to build a chatbot for your business. Still, these days with a massive uptake of the “no-code” movement, you have a massive list of potential solutions that don’t require any coding skills and only a drag-and-drop setup that anyone can use.
Why chatbots?
Many companies saw decent growth when they started implementing chatbots.
The reason?
Their customers loved the improvements it brought, and the benefits gained.
Source: Convince&Convert
265 billion customer support requests are made every year, and it costs businesses a whopping $1.3 trillion to service them.
According to Gartner, interest in chatbots increased by 160% in 2018. Around 67% of customers used chatbots in 2018, and by the end of 2019, more than a quarter of the population was estimated to be using some kind of chatbot support.
Interestingly enough, “chatbots can cut operational costs by up to 30%.”, according to Chatbots Magazine.
We are seeing more and more companies realize they can get back to their customers faster with higher efficiency if they get help from chatbots.
Some of the top companies in the world (hint: AutoDesk) are:
- Seeing a huge improvement in response times
- A significant drop in monthly and yearly costs
- Faster resolve time (customer problems get solved quicker)
But let’s see which chatbots offer the most unique and authentic chatbot workflow experience.
What are chatbot workflows?
To put it simply – They’re systems in place that manage the human interaction with the software. If you press “Hi” to the chatbot, what will be its next message?
Since all of its messages are pre-designed, the order in which they’ll appear will depend on your interaction with it.
Our favorite picks
Manychat
ManyChats is a service that allows you to create chatbots for Facebook Messenger. After visiting their website, we were curious to see what they had in store for us.
They have the following sequence:
- The bot informs of the company’s newsletter
- They provide a funny gif that catches your attention and builds liking
- They ask you for an email address in a way that would make you feel bad if you choose not to!
- You provide an email after which you’re reaffirmed that you’ve done the right thing.
We were greeted with funny gifs and images, asking us to join their email list. This approach is wonderful yet highly effective for companies that aren’t hardcore selling but slowly nurturing their customers, so they end up buying with them and not a competitor.
Flow XO
Flow XO is very interesting because it has great sequences that help users to:
- Navigate through the website with ease.
- Subscribe to new content and announcements
- Get answers to their questions
- And finally, connect them with human support
They have the following sequence:
- The chatbot doesn’t pretend it’s not a real human – it embraces it, which is highly preferable in this space.
- It clarifies it’s super easy to use and that you won’t get confused no matter what.
- It explains what it can help you with and how to do it. This step is crucial because many people don’t fully understand particular chatbots’ limitations, so explaining it beforehand will avoid disappointment.
- This particular chatbot was interesting to us because it kept reminding us (every minute) that the previous question wasn’t answered and that we shouldn’t ignore him. After a few minutes later, we were told it will stop for now.
Ada
Ada has some pretty good sales sequence going on here. They start off with a question, “Ready to automate 80% of your inquiries?” which just hits the right spot.
Yes is the only answer you can give to that, so then they go on to persuade you why they are just the best fit for you in an unobvious way. By trying to educate you and show you how great Ada is! If you ever decide to use Ada as your chatbot, you may also steal this great sales sequence they use.
At the end of your chat, you can also download the whole transcript, which can come in handy if you want to show someone above you why that service is so good without having them go through it.
Intercom
Intercom is a giant in the live-chat and chatbot industry.
It helps you build customer relationships through conversational, messenger-based experiences across the customer journey.
What’s interesting about the Intercom chatbot’s approach is that it’s very sales-oriented.
- It asks you what brings you to Intercom.
- It welcomes you in an energetic way and asks in what team do you belong to. This approach enables you to personalize your messaging even further, which is essential in building trust and closing sales.
- It further tries to qualify you with how many employees your company has. Again, a great move for further qualifying. This is the approach you’d get for talking with a real salesperson, and this chatbot does the boring work for you.
- It tries to close the deal with the real person getting back to you through email. Pretty straightforward.
This approach is highly effective in lead-generation scenarios where you’re selling B2B, and every lead counts.
Want to build an AI chatbot and get 5x ROI while automating customer support by 80% in 2 months – Botsify can help.
Botsify – Fully Managed Chatbot Platform
Botsify enables you to build an AI chatbot and get 5x ROI while automating customer support by 80% in 2 months.
Interesting, right?
8000+ Companies Are Optimizing Chat Experience With Botsify. Additionally, it offers fully managed plans, and its platform is diverse enough to support enterprise-level clients.
By automating your conversation with multiple features, makes virtual interaction with your customers more natural, more engaging, and ultimately, more human.
- Generate More Leads with Conversational Forms
Essentially it allows you to store the captured data into a spreadsheet or a custom CRM. This is important because it allows you to extend your workflow and not get bogged down with a new website software.
- Seamless switching from chatbot support to human support
Chatbots can’t resolve every customer problem – everyone knows that. This is why a fast and seamless switching feature is crucial for providing the perfect customer support experience to your users.
- Speak Multiple languages
With this feature, your chatbot can speak 190+ languages. It won’t matter anymore where your customer is from.
You can place your chatbot on a website, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, or even SMS.
And there’s so much more. Learn more about Botsify and start building your perfect chatbot.
Start Creating Chatbots today!
Conclusion
This might be a lot of information for you to take in at once.
We get it.
It’s important to understand that chatbots are here to stay and a lot of businesses are utilizing it to boost sales, shorten customer support response time and get happier customers as an end result.
In our opinion, it’s worth considering.
Additionally, through testing, we’ve found that testimonials play a significant role in building trust, credibility and prove to increase sales exceedingly well.
Here’s an article covering proven b2b testimonial templates to use with customers.
And an amazing tool to help you easily create stunning testimonial videos is Testimonial Hero.
TestimonialHero helps B2B revenue teams close deals 40% faster with customer video.
How?
By providing you with 100% remote video testimonials of customer stories in the current work-from-home environment (or equipping you to create testimonials yourself).
Testimonial Hero is a service—not software. They handle everything for you, soup-to-nuts.
Great, now what?
Get started with Botsify today if you’re looking for a chatbot solution, and if you’re in the B2B space, testimonials are a must-have to increase sales and drastically improve overall lead quality.
