One of the biggest trends in customer service today is the use of chatbots.
Because of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it’s possible to turn over part of your customer service online to chatbots. These bots can interact with your customers. You can even use them on text through an app.
Chatbots for Customer Service
Before you jump on the bandwagon, though, it’s important to understand your needs. Plus, you should know the limitations of chatbots for customer service.
Do You Know Your Audience?
First of all, you need to know your audience so you can program your chatbot to interact effectively with your audience.
Start with where your audience wants to go in order to get information about your product or service. Do they prefer to use your app? Will you find them on Facebook? Wherever it is your audience goes, it’s important to understand where they will go to find customer service help.
Next, you need to understand the demographics. Are you aware of general characteristics like age, socioeconomic situation, location, and other items? Whatever can help you better understand your audience, you should use with your chatbot.
You want your chatbot to be able to interact naturally with your customers. When you understand your audience, your chatbots are more likely to interact naturally, and your customers will feel appreciated — without the need for you to put together a big team to manage person-to-person interactions.
Tweak Your Chatbots as Needed
Next, realize that your chatbot won’t be perfect the first time you launch them. While AI can learn and adjust, it’s not always perfect all the time. You might need to tweak your chatbot as you go along.
When using chatbots, make sure that you set them up to gather information. A chatbot should save information about the questions it was able to answer, as well as getting more specific information that can help you learn more about your customers.
With this information, you can create the next generation of chatbot to be even more responsive and efficient with your customers.
Encourage Customers to Use Your Chatbot
Try to channel your customers to the chatbot as quickly as possible. You can set up an app or integrate a chatbot into your ecommerce site in a way that results in the bot engaging your customers early on. That way, your customers get used to having these conversations.
However, it’s important to understand that, at some point, your customers might run into a situation that can’t be resolved by chatbot. However, most simple issues can be answered with chatbot, and it’s possible to give your customers information they need.
As you set up your chatbot, make sure you also set expectations for your customers. Don’t try to convince customers that they are talking to a human, and don’t advertise that your bot can handle something when it can’t. As always, the key is to under promise and over deliver.
Take Advantage of Chatbots
While they aren’t perfect, and while they won’t completely eliminate the need for humans, chatbots can help you reduce the need for human customer service. Chatbots can take some of the burden off your customer service representatives, and boost efficiency. It’s a way to make things a little easier on you and your staff, save money, and take care of customers quickly and efficiently.
Republished by permission. Original here.
Image: Due.com
This article, “Chatbots Are Crucial for Your Customer Service, Learn Why!” was first published on Small Business Trends