What is a chatbot?

For complex requests or difficult-to-resolve issues, customers still prefer to speak with humans. However, most customers also expect reliable self-service options. As first-line issues arise, customers simply type their requests into the chatbot message window, and receive near-immediate responses. Rather than having to wait on the availability of customer-service agents, customers enjoy almost instant resolution. And, because responses are preprogrammed and fully vetted, users don’t have to worry about having their issues handled by inexperienced agents who might fail to provide accurate solutions.

Chatbots also improve customer engagement. With automated agents always standing by to help at a moment’s notice, customers become more likely to request assistance and follow up with questions. At the same time, chatbots empower businesses to more proactively interact with their customers. Where limited agent bandwidth once meant that companies were only capable of responding to customer-initiated inquiries, automated agents and virtual assistants can begin conversations with customers directly. This includes greeting customers and asking if they need any assistance, but it also allows businesses to share information about special deals, guides, tutorials, related products, and more.

While more and more customers are preferring to interact with automated support and service options, live agents are likewise benefitting from chatbots. This is because the most effective chatbots are designed not to replace live agents, but to assist them in handling customer requests.

Live agents that spend much of their time dealing with repetitive users requests and inquiries may employ chatbot solutions to help address these important, yet front-line tasks. By passing off high-volume, low-urgency, simple-solution cases to automated agents, live agents are able to address more critical concerns. And in the event that a user requires human assistance, the chatbot can seamlessly redirect them to the appropriate support agent while also providing the agent with all relevant collected information. This ensures a seamless transition for the customer, and gives the agent the details they need without having to ask customers to repeat themselves.

Chatbots provide internal business solutions as well. Employees enjoy automated, self-service options in handling common tasks, such as resetting passwords, checking system status, and accessing vital internal tools and data.

Perhaps the most obvious chatbot business advantage is the ability to scale customer service. Instead of routing every customer request to a limited number of live agents, businesses can now address the most common inquiries automatically, resolving potentially thousands of cases without needing to divert limited live-agent resources from more-complex tasks.

The ability to scale customer service without hiring an army of service agents reduces costs while also improving operational efficiency. Businesses better utilise their human agents and get back more for their investment. And, because chatbots are essentially automated computer programs, it’s a simple matter to design chatbots capable of collecting user data while providing support. Businesses can analyse this data, building more-targeted messaging and developing more-actionable customer insights.

Data collection and analysis likewise pays off in qualifying leads. Using information drawn from conversations, and cross-referencing it against other available customer and demographic data, chatbots can help evaluate which leads are the most likely to convert, providing sales teams with qualified prospects worth following up on.

Taken all together, chatbots give employees and customers easy access to essential information and support. And when customers and employees have the resources they need to be successful, the business always benefits.

Before any chatbot can provide value to a user, it first needs to identify user intent and extract relevant entities. For example, a user that asks a chatbot “Where can I find office hours?” will be expecting to see a schedule of when the office is open, not the physical address of the office itself. The chatbot needs to be able to accurately assess the need behind the request by picking out not only specific keywords, but also other important cues in the language. Accurately analysing and identifying user requests is absolutely essential.

The second task in providing a useful chatbot experience is returning the response. Here, the chatbot finds or generates an accurate and relevant response based upon the user request. The response may take many forms, including the following:

• Predefined text answers
  
• Links to relevant support pages
• Citations from (or links to) knowledge-base articles
• Contextualised information based on user data
• Data retrieved from enterprise systems
• Actions performed through designated workflows
• Directing users to a service catalogue
• ·Clarifying questions to further identify user intent

Although many call-centre requests necessitate support from experienced live agents, chatbots are capable of effectively handling most customer inquiries. This includes providing answers to common questions and offering solutions to known issues, but also goes further—scheduling appointments, following up on previous cases, changing passwords, etc. Call centre chatbots allow businesses to expand the effectiveness and accessibility of their support options.

Although the customer-facing side of chatbots is well known, employee-facing chatbots are just as valuable. Integrating chatbot technology with enterprise back-end systems further supports employees in performing internal tasks. This may include locating and using enterprise tools, accessing important customer or vendor contact information, providing reliable information relating to company policy, and more.

As previously addressed, chatbot technology is essential for digital-assistant programs. These assistants evolve and learn, creating a more personalised experience for users. Effective digital assistants take user requests and not only provide solutions in the form of answers and other relevant information, but also facilitate more involved interaction, such as making orders, getting product recommendations, or booking events. And the more a user interacts with the digital assistant, the more natural and personalised the experience becomes.