Chatbot In Business: What Is It? What Are The Advantages?

Among the automated solutions that make customer service more operational to answer simple questions, the chatbot stands out as an essential tool. However, many companies are wondering how to set up a chatbot, what are its real advantages and above all which device to choose among the many that exist on the market. To make your choice, here is a complete guide on chatbots with finally the presentation of 5 tools to consider.

Chatbot definition

Chatbot in its first definition is a computer program capable of exchanging with humans, orally and in writing, whether on a website or an application. When arriving on one or the other the Internet user is offered a conversation to answer his question. The chatbot generally asks how it can help by suggesting different possible questions.

Although it comes close, the chatbot should not be confused with a “conversational agent”. This software is itself capable of conversing with humans, we then speak of automatic language processing (TALN), which is most often associated with a visual representation, of the avatar type.

Types of chatbots

There are thus different types of chatbots:

• The conversational bot: as explained above, it answers questions that follow a particular logic and subject (an IT need, the status of an order, a breakdown, etc.).
• The voicebot: this computer program is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) which allows it to receive and formulate messages by voice.
• The virtual agent: this software comes in the form of an avatar which can be the interface for customer service.
• Business chatbots: they are specifically at the service of companies in order to automate time-consuming tasks without added value.
• Personal assistants: such as the famous Siri, Google Home or Alexa, they understand spoken and written natural language and perform actions using machine learning.
• Media chatbots: they do not need natural language understanding and primarily take into account keywords.

Advantages and disadvantages of implementing a chatbot for your business

All business innovations should be considered in terms of their long-term effectiveness and relevance to what you’re selling. The same is true for a business chatbot. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons.

The advantages of a chatbot

In general, a chatbot improves the quality of service through an intuitive tool available 24 hours a day. In this, it is an element of self-care in the same way as your FAQ. Your advisers no longer waste time answering basic questions and can concentrate on tasks with higher added value and on complex questions that customers ask themselves. These are also conducive to upselling or cross-selling. At the same time, the chatbot’s first filter gives teleconsultants the possibility of tracing the identity of the caller and the essence of their concerns, to offer them appropriate solutions.

To stay on the sales side, chatbots also allow you to place an order in a few requests, without having to search the site or call an advisor.

In the same vein, favoring simplicity: a chatbot is a tool of proximity and responsiveness to the user that can be integrated everywhere (website and smartphone, and even voice assistants under certain conditions ). Asking customer service for help becomes easier and faster. Thus, according to Botnation in 2021, 59% of consumers appreciate this facility.

Note that, according to an Adobe study in 2018: 28% of the most successful companies use artificial intelligence for their marketing and that this trend has been accelerating over the last 3 years.

Summary of the benefits of chatbots for your business:

• Improves the quality of service
• Is accessible at all times
• Reduces customer service costs
• Promotes sales
• Serves as a filter for questions
• Allows you to keep data

Disadvantages

The human always represents an added value that the chatbot cannot have. Thus, faced with a dissatisfied customer, the know-how and experience of the human being will necessarily remain superior to chatbots.

So much so that the main limitation of the chatbot is in its design: artificial intelligence has not yet evolved to the point of taking advantage of human intelligence and having the flexibility and analytical capacity of males. Generally speaking, customers prefer humans to chatbots to answer their queries, as 84% ​​of users hate having their questions misunderstood, which happens very regularly.

What is the price of a chatbot?

Buying a chatbot requires taking into account several factors in its price, such as:

• The product : prices vary between 250$/month to 2550$/month depending on the demand for the chatbot and its functionalities.
• The configuration of the solution upstream , before the implementation in the system of the company: 760$ to 7850$/day.
• Training: you have to be trained in the use of this tool, the support will of course be included in the monthly subscription. A 3-day training costs around 3000$ per person.

Introducing 5 chatbot tools

Here is a selection of tools available on the market, with their main features.

1. ZENDESK ChatBot

This very popular live chat tool is used by large companies: Uber, Airbnb, Slack, Shopify, etc. It offers several services:

• Communication: for the support or sales team, the chat makes it possible to follow customers and exchange with them at the right time.
• Organization: the chatbot filters questions immediately, so that customers receive help as soon as possible and agents are not overwhelmed.
• Customization: Every business can create a custom chat widget for end users to give visitors a unique and seamless experience.
• Analytics: Track chat volume, visitor experience, and agent performance data in real time.

2. YEXT Chatbot

Yext Answers is a revolutionary site search product that understands natural language and drives consumer conversion with accurate answers on a website. And this, directly in the search results. It is used for example by Burger King, Fitness Park, etc. Yext notably allows:

• Increase the conversion rate and offer direct answers and calls to action to customers at the key moment.
• Collect data from every query and response so you don’t miss any opportunities to interact with customers later and increase sales.
• Reduce customer service costs with a help desk that understands natural language and goes beyond a basic Q&A chatbot.

3. Chatbot DYDU (Do you dream up)

Dydu is a conversational software: chatbot, callbot, voice bot. It is used by large companies. Thus, Dydu allows companies to deploy a true automated conversational strategy, from customer service to all areas that may need it (legal responses, HR department, finance, IT, etc.). In this way, he:

• Promotes excellent customer/user interaction (98% qualification).
• Allows a 24/7 and immediate customer service.
• Optimizes processing costs .
• Drives a greater employee experience by answering complex questions.

4. IADVIZE Chatbot

This solution is also used by large companies. Its offer provides you with, among other things:

• An omnichannel and unified experience to give visitors a premium, rich and seamless messaging experience across their preferred channel. This avoids imposing on them a tool that they do not like or do not use frequently.
• Expertise and authenticity: the tool connects visitors to the best advisers thanks to perfect orchestration (product experts, connected salespersons in stores, after-sales service advisers or chatbots equipped with AI respond to customers at each stage of the journey).
• Scalability to follow the evolution of the company by taking advantage of the best of humans and AI.

5. INTERCOM Chatbot

Intercom is the partner of digital giants like Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft among 25,000 other companies. This tool is all about the power of the conversation with customers:

• This chatbot is a marketing tool to increase conversion rate and sales. For this, it personalizes the welcome messages for each client, automates the transfer of messages and makes appointments.
• It is also a customer engagement tool through personalized messages and product tours.
• It is omnichannel: this device also knows when it is necessary to send the question to the advisers.

Chatbots are ever-evolving tools for driving customer satisfaction while eliminating non-value-added questions. For your teams of advisors, this represents an aid and a filter, and certainly not a replacement of their role. On the contrary, it becomes more important on complex issues, which allows for increasing the skills of the teams. Chatbots are therefore a solution to consider now to improve your customer service!