Conversational Commerce Becomes The Preferred Customer Service Solution

By Brian Heikes, vice president of product, 3Cinteractive

The evolution of technology has reached the point where consumers are communicating digitally more than ever before. The web, mobile marketing, and smartphone applications have become the vessel of daily interactions and it is difficult to imagine what new innovation will surpass these well-established tools. One technology being positioned as the next big thing, looking to steal the technological spotlight, is chatbots

How Chatbots Works

Chatbots, or bots, are easily recognizable. Go onto any website and the small box that pops up and asks if you need assistance is a chatbot. Here’s how they work: Instead of having an actual human answering questions, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot is gathering data and providing relevant information from what the customer has offered.

These bots have become an essential commercial commerce tool. For a more genuine interaction, retailers can communicate with consumers via text/message platforms providing a more personalized, approachable method of customer service.

Why They Are Working

Consumers prefer interacting with retailers via messaging rather than in person, something understandable in today’s fast-paced society. Consumers simply need to do things as quickly and conveniently as possible, and brands are taking advantage of this by utilizing chatbots as a beneficial form of customer service.

For example, messaging bots at Google I/O and Facebook understand the importance of commercial messaging and the impact it has on their consumer base. Instant forms of messaging have become the norm for retail brands and consumers, which is why chatbot methods of instant “smart” responses create an impact in conversational commerce and lead in customer service strategies.

Performance Of Chatbots

How a chatbot performs is critical in the eye of brands, for the sake of consumers. Personalization and customization drives the interactions between consumers and the bots and the data collected aids in generating relevant and genuine information for the consumer.

Consumers like when they visit a site and don’t have to enter their personal information more than once. They also are given the opportunity to opt-in for text message updates on the latest products and services of their favorite brands.

However, text message bots have to be created to only send out automated messages if the consumer approve of it, according to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It can be overwhelming when consumers receive endless amounts of updates and brands can lose customers as a result. It is also vital to build up a chatbot and how it should work for customers on specific messaging platforms.

Customer Service Strategies Today

Chatbots storing consumer data successfully interact with consumers intelligently, giving brands that use them an upper hand compared to competitors that don't. Unique conversations create unique experiences which evolves commercial commerce into a great digital market of tools and services, expanding the limits of customer service.