30-second summary:

• Chatbots can help businesses save about 30% of customer support costs.
• A better chatbot experience can result in 80-90% response rates, while low engagement bots result in 35-40% response rates.
• Millennials are twice more likely to use a bot as their personal shopper compared to age groups older than them.
• E-commerce businesses adopting Facebook Messenger together with cart abandonment bots are seeing a boost in revenue by 7-25%.
• Research by Juniper suggests that by 2022, chatbots will help businesses save over $8 billion per year.
• By 2024, the global chatbot market will be over $994 million.

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed customer needs. It has led to unprecedented changes in the business world. Today, customers need access to information faster while sitting on their couch at home. 90% of customers require an immediate response to their customer service queries. Customers engage with brands for different reasons:

• 29% reach out because of transaction needs, such as purchases and returns.
• 27% reaches out to make complaints.
• 14% reach out to leave positive feedback.

Since a large portion of engagements focuses on solving customer queries, solving these queries quickly is paramount. Because it only takes one negative experience for a customer to switch to a competitor.

However, one of the most effective ways to meet customers’ needs is by implementing chatbot technology on your website. Chatbots can increase the time visitors spend on your site. They can convert more visitors into qualified leads and encourage more repeat site visits.

The customers benefit by having a better website experience, and they feel more valued by you and your brand.

5 Ways Chatbots Improve the Buyer’s Experience

1.    Chatbots Help Customers Find What They Need, Quickly

A bot can guide visitors through your website, helping them find what they’re looking for easily and quickly.

For instance, a bot can ask visitors their goal for visiting your website, and in response, provide relevant links, pointing them to relevant content and products. These could be links to a blog post or white paper, or it could be a link to pricing information.

(This is where having a wide product collection comes in handy: if you have a limited product collection – you could be missing out on an opportunity to give consumers what they’re looking for on your website.)

Also, a chatbot can ask visitors what industry they work in and then direct them to relevant pages on your sites that address their industry directly, providing a more customized experience.

While guiding visitors to relevant pages, the chatbot can ask them for their contact information when appropriate, thus converting them into qualified leads.

2.    Chatbots Can Showcase Your Brand Personality

60% of consumers believe a human understands better what they need when compared to a chatbot.

This means when implementing chatbot technology, you should strive to provide a chatbot experience that sounds like humans – one that engages in delightful interactions with site visitors. That’s why some brands even build a character for their chatbot that represents their brand identity.

It’s crucial to program chatbots that express themselves using visuals, such as images, emojis, GIFs, or videos – just like how real people express themselves on chat.

Also, you should configure your chatbot to give empathetic responses where necessary; this fosters customer trust. And it makes the conversations more authentic and engaging.

3.    Chatbots Provide 24-Hour Customer Service

Conversations as an interface coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and multi-node neutral networks successfully engage with customers, and they offer them more options to perform specific actions. They also assist customers when human customer service agents have finished their shift or are out on a break. A multi-node neural network is machine learning that models itself after the human brain.

Chatbots can improve buyer experience because they can streamline your ability to serve customers and boost sales. Offering customers instant responses, answering basic queries, helping with frequently asked questions, resolving complaints quickly, and providing a consistent on-brand and friendly voice are the many ways you can leverage chatbots to offer an elevated buyer experience.

Over 2.7 billion people use Facebook monthly, many for business reasons. It’s no wonder over 300,000 businesses are using Facebook chatbots to respond to consumer queries quickly.

4.    Chatbots Allow Large Scale Conversations

If you do it right, chatbots can be an effective way to engage with new leads and build a reputation for putting customers first. This is because they offer you the chance to set up sequence messages for new subscribers or existing subscribers.

For example, you can leverage chatbots to send intro-messages telling your brand story or promoting your latest products. This allows you to connect with your audience in a way that’s beyond simple customer service messages.

With chatbots, you’ll have peace of mind that your customers and new leads are being acknowledged without the need to stay connected 24/7. Also, you do not have to have a team working round the clock to answer customer queries. So, chatbots allow you to engage with your customers at scale. This allows you to increase the number of customers whom you can serve at any given time and immediately. Also, chatbots handle mundane tasks, freeing up more time for your sales team.

According to a HubSpot survey, 47% of consumers are open to making a purchase from a chatbot. Thus, if you’re ready to boost sales and revenue, implementing chatbot software, such as ManyChat or Mobile Monkey, can be useful, both offer free plans.

From budgeting, marketing, sales to inventory, e-commerce business owners are stretched thin. However, leveraging emerging technologies, such as chatbots, can help in easing some of the pressures.

5.    Chatbots Improve a Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s experience comes down to improving the interaction at various milestones in a buyer’s journey. Today, most interactions occur online, so assisting customers through the journey and on all online touchpoints is essential. Here are two milestones where chatbots can have the most impact:

• Awareness: When a customer is visiting your site for the first time, they may experience problems navigating around. However, you can leverage chatbots as site-specific search bars to provide relevant information. By answering basic queries, they can supply information that piques the customer’s attention.

For instance, bots can analyze the customer’s purchase history to provide a personalized experience. Leveraging AI-assisted is a sure way to wow your customers.

• Evaluation: According to LogMeIn 2018 AI Customer Experience Report, four out of ten customers expect brands to deliver customized experiences. Thus, implementing chatbots technology can help businesses understand customers’ needs even before asking, which can win customers’ hearts.

When a customer is exploring your site, they might encounter problems. Setting triggers like rage-clicks can assist them in that instance because bots pop up immediately and reach out to them.

Conclusion

Implementing a strategy without data to back it up is a risky game. However, chatbots have proven to yield results. According to research by Garner, businesses report a reduction 70% decline in chat, call, and/or email inquiries after incorporating chatbots.

Chatbots are revolutionizing the way brands engage with customers. So, if you want to take your customer experiences to the next level, it’s time to implement chatbot technology. To meet your customers where they are, engage them instantly, and improve their relationship with your business.