How to Devise a Successful Chatbot Strategy?
Key areas to focus on when your organization develops a chatbot.
A chatbot is an AI tool that uses natural language processing algorithms to understand what the users are trying to convey to them by mimicking human behavior. Several companies are using this feature to provide customer support and boost customer experience. Chatbots also help in reaching out to potential customers when they interact on a website page or apps. They are quite handy in delivering personalized ads and connect with leads in a way human assistants cannot. With the outbreak of COVID-19, many companies are now investing in chatbot technology to continue engaging with their customers and provide necessary updates.
The chatbots not only influence business markets but are currently used by the government and other institutions to promote their campaigns and spread awareness sometimes. Irrespective of its use, it is crucial that these organizations have a thorough chatbot strategy. With high chances for the generation of revenue, competitive advantage over rivals, and for the fruition of their objectives, a good chatbot strategy is must include the following features or steps:
- Set achievable goals: It is necessary as setting clear goals gives an idea of what your company or firm wants to achieve through this messaging platform. Ask yourself questions like, would it answer customer queries and grievances? Will it drive new sales?
Once you have a rough idea about the key focus areas, consult with sales, customers, and social media department, and try to understand the common issues that customers face that can be alleviated through the chatbot. Else one can conduct an offline or online survey directly on the users and identify the pain points. Also, keep in mind that priorities change with time and emergency e.g. COVID-19.
After that, reach out to the technical team and discuss chatbot development, testing, and maintenance with the possibility for future updates.
- Carefully choose the bot’s features: This entails finding a platform that most of the audience has access to or uses. This also is social media or your website if the traffic is encouraging. Then incorporate features that are simple and address underlying issues. The more features you add, the more likely the app is going to crash. Hence, instead of trying to fit in every available option, filter out and use only the ones that actually add value to your service and brand. These can include SMS, offers, promotions, vouchers, opening and business hours, and others.
Make sure to design an easy to use the app with negligible glitches. Choose a chatbot company that won’t go out of business anytime soon. Also, prefer a chatbot vendor that has endorsements from notable marketers.
- Humanize the Chatbot: Give the chatbot some personality. Yes! A chatbot is like a mascot of your brand and an opportunity to delight or enrage existing and potential users. Its conversations now form an integral part of convincing the customers to use your services and products. Invest time into making your chatbot as human as possible. This implies making the AI chatbot sound less robotic and more interactive like humans do. It should be the perfect mixture of automated and cognitive messages. Although automation can sort and distinguish which queries can be responded quickly, we still prefer human ‘touch’ at the end of the day. This is where an organization can adopt the Sentiment Analytics application of AI to their benefit and use it to control the flow of conversion and respond according to the mood of the user.
For instance: if a customer complaints about lousy delivery service of food items he ordered, simply conveying concern and understanding towards a frustrating situation can go a long way towards enriching the customer relationship.
Also, make the chatbot proactive in nature.
- Connect with existing systems: A chatbot needs to know about your business, and it needs to communicate what it learns to the appropriate employees. The worst way to accomplish that is to expect everyone to come to the bot.
Don’t give your chatbot an explicit product list that’s certain to fall out of date continually. Instead, connect it to your existing product database so that it stays up-to-date.
Moreover, don’t tell the sales team to log into a chatbot administration console to see what leads have come in. Export those directly to the existing sales management tools in use at your business. Well-designed chatbots should fit naturally into your business setting, like new employees.
- Optimize the chatbot: The job does not end with the successful design and implementation and launch of the chatbot. Once the chatbot is out there in the market, companies must use it to learn about it and its users’ behavior. Using various AI and data analytics tools, organizations can monitor the performance of the chatbot. Besides, the insights will prove resourceful when making informed decisions to improve the product continually. Other chatbot aspects that need to be checked are a call to action, tone of voice, conversation flow, and more.
