Messaging platforms are booming: 90% of the time spent on smartphones is spent on e-mail and messaging platforms. For 2018, it is estimated that of the 4 trillion people who are online, 3.5 trillion are using messaging apps. It is therefore not surprising that more and more companies are responding to this trend. Companies are increasingly expected to use these platforms. In a Ubisend survey the following statistics emerged: 63.9% of consumers said that companies should be available on messaging apps and 49.4% indicated that they would prefer to use a messaging app for contact with a company than contact by phone. So it’s the right moment for companies to also make strategic use of the messaging apps. And what is an efficient and cost-saving strategy? Right, using a Chatbot.

The Chatbot strategy

More and more messaging platforms support Chatbots, for example SMS, Facebook Messenger, Twitter and Slack. And the nice thing about the bots is that they make one-on-one communication with customers much more efficient, scalable and faster. Is it advisable for companies to set up a Chatbot strategy? This depends on many different things: Is there a particular need that can be met by using a Chatbot? Would it improve the consumer experience? Would it encourage the involvement of customers? Are you well-informed about the needs of your customers? And are you prepared to adjust the experience during the process? If “yes” is the answer to all these questions, then you are ready to set up a Chatbot strategy.

The success formula of a Chatbot is a combination of brand values, customer insight and technology. The most important thing is that a Chatbot is developed that learns from its mistakes. Chatbots are like new employees, they have to be trained and get familiar with things. Like employees, Chatbots must show empathy, amuse people, help customers, and not focus too much on selling services and/or products. Give the Chatbots a simple task, for example, give them one or two functions that they are very good at. Launch the Chatbot, learn from the practice and implement improvements. Do an audit and check the following: Does the Chatbot experience match the expectations and needs of the users? What stands in the way of a smooth conversation? What makes the conversation feel weird, wrong or meaningless? What is a weakness of the AI ​​and what is it really good about? Should the content be adjusted?

What is expected from a Chatbot?

People expect Chatbots to be useful for assisting in simple tasks and answering easy questions, focussing on the target, being efficient and working faster. A Chatbot must therefore be helpful, informative, problem-solving, reactive, friendly, knowledgeable and polite. However, user needs can vary greatly, so it is wise to carefully check what your type of user is. For example, there are users who are still very new in using a Chatbot, these beginners like to get a quick answer and are often a bit more interested in chatting with the bot, they choose a common sense approach, give up earlier in the process and persist less. Expert users, on the other hand, have much higher expectations of the bots, are less interested in chatter, chat in a way that fits the task and will make several attempts to achieve the desired answer.

The different types of Chatbots

There are different types of Chatbots, each of which can meet other customer needs. One type is the “basic pre-determined system”, reactions are predefined and based on structured user actions. Furthermore, this type of Chatbots works with a rules-engine and is decision-tree driven, which means that they give choices from which the customers can choose and the bots base their response on what they choose. Then there is also the “conversational experience based system” type, this type of Chatbot recognizes key words and ad hoc sentences in natural conversations. The Chatbot provides predefined answers to questions in natural conversations. The third type of Chatbot is based on the “cognitive intelligence based system” and has the ability to understand complex conversations, maintain context, identify feelings and provide optimized responses.

Closed chat or open-ended chat

The Chatbot type is also linked to the choice of a specific technology: closed chat or open-ended chat. In closed chat, buttons are usually used and the answer is provided on the basis of predefined choices by means of a decision tree. The advantage of this is that it is a simple experience. It is therefore a good introduction for a company into the use of Chatbots as a medium. The disadvantage is that it can feel restrictive and repetitive to the users, so it must be applied carefully. An open-ended chat, on the other hand, has more freedom of input, the Chatbot determines the meaning of the question and answers are selected on the basis of scripted responses. However, an open-ended Chatbot requires more moderation and it is more complicated to develop and monitor this type of bot.

In short, with great care and attention, a Chatbot can be developed that is 100% in line with the wishes and needs of both the company and the customers. To develop a good bot, consider the following:

• Design the bot so that it can mimic human conversations;
• Let the Chatbot introduce itself to the user;
• Guide the conversation;
• Provide message cards, they facilitate navigation;
• Use rich content in the topics;
• Use CTA options, such as purchase or registration buttons.

Chatbots are widely used in the customer service of companies and some people see this as a threat, both for the customer service staff as for the quality of the service towards the customers. However, a customer service can’t be completely replaced by the bots, the Chatbots will mainly be a good addition to the team and ensure that the customer service can be lifted to a higher level. Are you interested in this topic? Be sure to read this blogpost and discover how Chatbots in the customer service do not pose a threat but rather an improvement.

Routine questions and requests

If you have ever worked in a company’s customer service, you probably know that there are certain routine tasks that can be automated very well. And this is where the Chatbot comes in useful. For example, in the first interaction with a customer, a Chatbot can ask a number of routine questions, this way the bot can receive the necessary information and also answer a number of frequently asked questions. And this helps both the customer and the customer service employee: the customer is helped quickly and does not have to wait, the employee does not have to perform these repetitive, boring tasks and can focus on other tasks where human contact is really needed.

More challenging work for the customer service team

So, Chatbots can be perfectly used for the frequently asked questions and the repetitive standard tasks. And in case they receive a question or request that they can’t manage, they can request the help of a “real” customer service representative. So when it gets too complicated, they forward the customers. This will therefore only ensure that the work of the customer service team becomes more interesting. They no longer have to deal with boring, repetitive tasks but can really use their qualities and focus on valuable interactions with custome

Higher standards

This will mean that a certain amount of work that the customer service staff previously executed, will be done by a Chatbot. However, this also means that their work becomes more challenging, for example work that has more to do with service and sales. So there will be higher expectations of a customer service representative: their work will be more complicated and, with that, higher demands will be made on their competence. While “traditional” customer service work often consisted of asking questions on the basis of a script, the “newer” customer service work consists mainly of second line assistance where they support customers who really need help or want to make a purchase.

Will this improve the service?

Because the team can focus more on customers with more complex requests and questions, they can help them even better and really make the service of the company improve. Customers are satisfied and with this good service you also stimulate their loyalty. The employees work side by side with the Chatbots and when the bot does not understand the question, they step in. This also prevents that customers will get frustrated with a Chatbot experience that does not work. Instead, the employee takes over and turns it into a solution and a pleasant experience for the customer.

So what can be concluded? Chatbots will not take over all customer service jobs but will ensure that customer service will change. They take on certain tasks, which means that customer service staff will mainly focus on different types of work. Hand in hand, the Chatbots and the team can ensure that the customer experience gets even better.

Chatbots are booming, as you can see in their fast entry into the market of companies, government agencies and educational institutions. As Gartner’s research director Revang points out, Chatbots’ broad appeal comes from the efficiency and easy interaction they create for employees, customers and other users. They can therefore have a great influence on the contact that one has with your brand. And although the Chatbot hype is mainly focused on customer contact, the bots can also very well be applied to the internal organization of a company. Chatbots are good at supporting both customers and employees. Would you like to know how? In this article we explain what Chatbots can do for your company.

How can a Chatbot help?

Chatbots are diverse and can be integrated in many different ways within a company, depending on the wishes of employees and customers. Gartner gives 4 examples of the use of Chatbots in companies:

• Customer service: Chatbots are perfect for customer service routine tasks such as delivering automated answers, these are the repetitive tasks and questions that often require a standard action or answer. As a result, fewer customer service employees are needed, a smaller customer service team can then focus on more complicated requests that require personal attention.
• ChatOps approvals: A change in a back-end record triggers an event, sending a message to a business messaging service or workflow environment and notifying an employee to approve or reject it.
• Diagnostic stock management: When the bot is implemented in conjunction with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, warehouse staff can be notified when a product is out of stock or when a specific shipment arrives.
• Planning support: Through artificial intelligence and bot-to-bot communication Chatbots can help with planning. The bots “contact” each other to analyze multiple agendas and find a free moment to schedule a particular appointment. This allows them to schedule events in no time and to inform employees about this.

But these are just a few examples, Chatbots are very diverse and the possibilities are almost infinite. According to Dell Technologies, Chatbots can also support employees in booking business trips, managing todo lists, paying suppliers, sending invoices, organizing databases and answering HR questions.

Replacement or enforcement

When you integrate a Chatbot into your company, you can either choose to replace the existing systems or to integrate the bot and further enforce the system. Replacement is often easier because the bots do not have to be integrated into the existing processes, because it is sometimes easier to start from scratch and build a new system. But with reinforcement you can actually improve an existing process by making it more flexible, compliant, more accessible and easier for users. Both options have their advantages, because companies often benefit from solutions that use the current processes that further strengthen the company’s system. On the contrary, it may also be the case that more innovative solutions require a new system for it to be able to actually improve productivity.

Developing a Chatbot

There are different types of Chatbots, from simple to advanced. The complexity of the system of the bot therefore determines the price of its development, the prices of Chatbots vary considerably. Easier text-based Q&A bots are often cheaper to implement than an artificial-intelligence system that helps users with bookings. Therefore, developing a good Chatbot is an investment, but in the future you will save on costs because the bot will strengthen customer loyalty and stimulate sales.

However, we also have to be realistic: Chatbots are not perfect. Just as employees fail and make mistakes, this is also the case for a bot. A Chatbot has its limitations and may not meet all expectations, it is therefore good to apply the bot mainly to certain specific tasks for which it is really developed. Because, as Dell Technologies states, “Although technology for understanding natural languages is improving, Chatbots are currently best for structured or scripted interactions, and companies must avoid becoming overambitious with the reach of Chatbot features.”

In short, Chatbots have a great potential that in the coming years will be further developed and enjoyed. It is, however, crucial that a company is aware of the strengths of their bot and the needs of both customers and employees. When they really learn to respond to this, the Chatbot can make a big difference.