Their use has been around for some years, but has peaked recently. Most businesses now use them on their websites as well as on their social media, due to the many advantages they have.
These advantages are the following:
- It improves the user experience of the user on the site and on social media. It is important that the user has an interlocutor who can solve basic questions directly, without having to pick up the phone or send an e-mail. This increases the chances that the user will become more interested in the brand and eventually become a customer, while also helping to make repeat sales from the same customer.
- It gives the business useful data, such as what are common problems that users face when using their products/services and what are their preferences. In this way, companies can improve their marketing strategies and overall optimize the products/services they offer.
- It is more economical for businesses. In particular, by creating a chatbot, the business can serve more customers with fewer resources and of course on a 24-hour basis. Therefore in this way it reduces the overall cost of customer support.
Through the social media chatbot, the user can complete orders and make payments without visiting the company's website. Of course, this requires connecting the chatbot to a money transfer service, such as Paypal. In this way it therefore becomes easier for the customer to complete an order and for the business to increase its customer base more easily.
Chatbots can be used to also inform users about the latest business news, new products/services available and more.
Of course, attention needs to be paid to the following points, regarding the use of chatbots:
- Chatbots should be as "human" and user-friendly as possible. Also, the style of their answers must match the overall brand identity of the company, so that there is consistency in the way it addresses users in all its communication media.
- It is important that the chatbot is in the right place and appears at the right time (for example, a few seconds after the user enters the site or social media page of the business), so that it does not become annoying.
- It is very important that the information that businesses collect from chatbots for users remains secure and follows everything that the GDPR personal data protection regulation stipulates
In conclusion chatbots are here to stay. Their use is expected to increase even more in the next period, as more and more businesses will realize the benefits they can get from their use, while the capabilities that chatbots have are expected to improve even more.
